Rockstar Table Tennis Revisited

Rockstar Table Tennis was one bold and epic sporting simulation that few groups would even try to attempt. It was a thrilling release that captured all of the detail and intensity of ping pong, as well as some of the biggest names in the sport. This was certainly one type of game you would have never anticipated from a group that brought classics such as Mr. Bones or Midtown Madness 2 with some alright recent releases of Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto V. It's a weird twist of fate ending up releasing those latter two games after the crown jewel that is this Table Tennis release.

Rockstar Table Tennis released in May 2006 for Xbox 360 with a Wii release following in the fall of that year. The game was later made available on Xbox One through Xbox Backwards Compatibility. The title was developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games with this being a true representation of their Rage engine on that platform. It was primarily focused on intense competitive matches, though some casual matches could be played. There were single player tournaments, options for mixing it up and multiplayer battles as well.

I honestly thought this was one of the most ridiculous concepts for a game back at the time. I played it at a friend's house and was interested as it's actually well developed. It has layers of complexity in how you can smack that ball across the table yet simplicity in how it's setup. This is the type of game you could easily replay multiple times without getting bored of it. It completely captures the essence of the sport while getting into the gritty details of what it's like to compete in tiring one on one matches. The graphics were very impressive at the time too, sporting games always used to be.

There was a full option for multiplayer matches as well as spectating which was neat at the time. It felt like it was a learning experience development side for the new generation and it came across as a really well done complete package. I'm also sure that anyone that played it will remember the legendary Liu Ping as it's hard to forget. While time hasn't been too kind to Rockstar Table Tennis it still looks rather good presenting a lot of detail. Ping Pong isn't the hardest of sports to simulate, but it really hasn't been touched upon so this stands out as being distinctly the best. It still plays well and those matches sure can feel epic with so many tense moments.

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