Back in May of 2006 I wrote a review of Rockstar’s Table Tennis. The game came out just as the Wii hype was taking place, and people immediately said - “Why isn’t this coming out on the Wii?” Fast forward to today when the game finally makes an appearance on Nintendo little white console. But is it the game people hoped it would be? Not quite.
For the most part the game remains completely unchanged in terms of content. There’s still the same characters, courts and outfits to unlock. In fact the entire single player campaign is identical to the Xbox 360 counterpart. Where the game differs is the online multi player component, namely there isn’t one on the Wii. This is pretty disappointing as this is what I had to say originally about the multi player.
…online play … in my opinion (is) the meat of this game. While you’ll need to play some of the single player to unlock the characters and courts, the online play is where you’ll have the most fun. Rockstar did an amazing job making online play smooth and lag free. I even played a friend from Japan and there was hardly any noticeable lag.
Graphically the game is noticeably worse than the Xbox 360 counterpart with a lower resolution, weaker player models and softer textures. That’s not to say the game looks bad, it’s just doesn’t match up when directly comparing the two. The game does stand well on it’s own on the Wii, being one of the better looking titles for the system.
So it all comes down to the controls, I mean, that’s what the Wii is all about. And while none of the 3 control methods provide a 1 to 1 mapping of paddle to Wii-mote, they all do work fairly well. The standard mode is a bit like Wii-Tennis with control of your character taken over by the computer. This lets you solely concentrate on spins and swinging the paddle. Spin is controlled by the d-pad, simply hold in the direction and swing the Wii-mote to hit the ball. The other two control methods provide both player movement and paddle control with the nun-chuck attachment, with the final method allowing you to aim your shots more precisely.
All 3 methods work well, but it’s really a shame there isn’t a one to one correlation when playing. It would even have been nice to see spin controlled by rotating the Wii-mote, but alas we are left without it. Even though the lack of one to one control is disappointing, I’m not sure it could even work with such a fast paced game.
If you missed the original on the 360 and are looking for another great party game for the Wii, Table Tennis will make a great addition to your library. Despite it’s flaws when comparing it to the 360 Version, the game stands well on it’s own for the Wii platform.
Score: 3.5 out of 5
Buy @ Amazon: $39.99
