Review: Rockstar presents Table Tennis (Wii)
October 24th, 2007 Posted in Wii, Review
About a year and a half ago, a crazy little game dropped for the Xbox 360. Rockstar, known for their wonderfully brilliant but brutal games (such as the Grand Theft Auto series, and Manhunt), was now giving us Table Tennis? “This has to be a joke,†the gaming audience collectively said. But no, it was not. Rockstar decided to show that they could make a great next-gen title that didn’t rely on violence and sex at all… just little white balls.
Generally well received by the press, Rockstar presents Table Tennis on the Xbox 360 brought a very real feeling, gritty adaptation of ping pong to the virtual world. The graphics were stunning for such a seemingly simple game, and the controls (while they had their flaws) were pretty sharp. The only real complaint was that it lacked much substance. The game was thin, with only some short tournament modes, exhibition and an Xbox Live multiplayer mode.
Earlier this year when it was announced that we’d get to relive the experience again on the Wii, people were both excited and cautious. While ping pong was surely a natural fit for the Wii, other ports to the system so far were usually, well, abysmal.
Now, with the game firmly inserted into our respective Wii’s we’re getting the full experience, and well, it’s not great, but it’s not bad.
Rockstar arguably had quite a task to accomplish with the control scheme for the Wii. They ended up going with 3 distinct control methods, that when it comes down to it, only 2 are really useful. The first is an all Wii-Remote method that focuses on you swinging the remote around while hitting the different buttons to achieve spin and drop shots, as the computer controls your movement. The other methods utilize the nunchuk attachment to either enable you to control your own movement (control freak), or have greater precision in aiming (sharp shooter). Now, the computer does a very good job of moving you around the table during the match, so as I alluded to, moving yourself becomes redundant and consequently, so does the control freak option.
In trying to develop the perfect control schemes for the system, Rockstar had to make compromises with it, and elsewhere in the game. Firstly, there is a very large disconnect between your movements, and those onscreen. You can basically swing your remote anytime the ball is coming towards you and the player onscreen will swing at just the right moment. Not exactly immersive.
Next, as the Wii is not as graphically endowed as the 360, the graphics had to be scaled back, and while not drastic, the reduction in the small little lighting nuances, and textures really change the presentation of the game, changing it from a gritty environment to a much more sterile experience.
Lastly, the much maligned multiplayer experience for the Wii continues with the absence of online play. Hopefully Nintendo will get its act together soon, and realize that 3rd party developers are people too, and allow them all the advantages as their first party endeavors. We’ll see.
Over all, Rockstar presents Table Tennis on the Wii is a lesser version of what it was on the 360, and that’s mostly due to the compromises that had to be made. The concept was there, and but the implementation fell short. Here’s hoping that other no-brainer series like Top Spin fair better when they make their debuts.
Game Details:
Available: October 15, 2007
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar San Diego
Genre: Sports Simulation
ESRB: Everyone
VGM Rating: 3/5
