Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis

Wii Sports tennis lost its appeal for me very, very quickly. The inability to move my Mii distanced me from him irreparably, even though we shared the same know-it-all smirk and hippie goatee. The living room rallies that were filled with the kinetic enchantment borne from swinging my controller ultimately became lifeless and predictable.

Now, in light of Wii Sports tennis' shortcomings, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. The same company behind Grand Theft Auto has produced what is essentially Wii Sports tennis for the sports enthusiast.

You might be thinking, "What kind of sports enthusiast legitimately compares the gentleman's game played by Ashe and Agassi to ping pong?" For starters, one with a Wii Remote in hand. Although table tennis is a faster, more confined, and more - for lack of a better word - twitchy than its full-courted sister sport, the object for gamers in either arena is to hit the ball where your opponent can't hit it back.

It has never been more fun to do than in Table Tennis on Wii.

Aim the ball by aiming at an area on the court.

Table Tennis presents players with three separate control schemes. The "Standard" scheme uses the Wii Remote exclusively. Players hold down a direction on the d-pad to charge their shot and add spin based on whichever direction is pressed. Once a shot is charged, players swing the Wii Remote to hit the ball at their opponent.

The swings in Table Tennis aren't made in a 1:1 fashion - in other words, the movements that the player's arm makes won't always mimic the movements made by the character. Instead, players will make six different gestures that correspond to six different swings. The number may appear small in contrast to the amount of successful gestures incorporated into titles like Trauma Center, Madden, The Godfather, and WarioWare, but with its six simple movements Rockstar has devised an approach to gesture-based controls that approximates 1:1 movement while allowing for a level of precision that is beyond all current sports titles on Wii.

The swing gestures do not correspond exactly to the player's desired movement, but rather to where the player wants the ball to end up on the court. If you want to hit a ball to the far right corner of the court, swing up and to the right. If you want to hit a ball to the near left corner, swing low and to the left. If you want to return the ball to the back-center of the court, swing up and toward the center. A simple low swing returns the ball straight, with the ball bouncing appropriately in the near court.

The ball physics feel spot-on.

Even though the gestures are simple, I found the game's initial learning curve steep because it took me a while to register that the game wanted me just to control where the ball ends up, and not worry about my arm's natural swinging motion. After a year of playing Wii Sports tennis, it was strange not to see my on-screen avatar (regrettably, not a Mii) swing forehand or backhand based on what I, the player, was doing. After twisting the Wii Remote pointer on its Z axis to open doors in Elebits and tighten screws in Trauma Center, it was strange not to see my character add topspin or backspin based on how I was holding the Wii Remote.

All that is needed for basic play are those six gestures. The precision arises in the way the game uses old-fashioned digital control to charge each shot with different types of spin. Pressing up on the d-pad adds topspin, pressing down adds backspin, and pressing left or right adds a slice in either of those directions.

Want to hit a shot to the far left corner with backspin to the right so that the ball bounces away from your opponent when it lands? Hold down and left on the d-pad to charge your shot, and when the ball comes your way swing up and to the left. The degree of spin added to each shot depends on how long each shot is charged for, so it is possible to intentionally hit a ball to every millimeter on the court.

Add "killer spin" using the d-pad. Ha!

The ability to properly place shots will be affected by two other major factors: the type of shot your opponent has hit at you, and your character's position on the court. Using the Wii Remote-only control scheme, your character's positioning on the court is handled by the game's artificial intelligence.

That fact is less offensive here than in Wii Sports tennis for two main reasons. First, Table Tennis is a fast game played on a small court, so the amount of time that the player feels "out of control" of his character is much less here than in Wii Sports tennis, where you could be stuck watching their Miis run into position for a full couple of seconds. Secondly, Rockstar has given players an option to plug in the Nunchuk and position the characters themselves.

Using the "Control Freak" scheme, players still use gestures and d-pad input to control their character's upper body with the Wii Remote, while the Nunchuk's analog stick is used to control the lower body. The third control scheme, "Sharp Shooter," uses the Nunchuk's analog stick not to move your character, but to use analog control to help determine exactly where the ball is hit. This mode of control feels as precise as any modern, dual-analog 3D tennis game, only that player positioning is once again delegated to the AI.

There are three different control schemes.

Which control scheme is right for you? "Standard" allows for the most active, unencumbered experience - people can get up and swing the Wii Remotes without worrying about cords - and do so while keeping a free hand. "Control Freak" lets players take court positioning into their own hands, and "Sharp Shooter" makes the game feel like a hyped-up version of Top Spin or Virtua Tennis. Though the differences between the control schemes are relatively small - all still rely on the gesture-based swings of the Wii Remote - all three offer immediately distinct experiences.

The gameplay is initially superb; it's frantic, fun, and precise. It is easy to grasp once the gestures are memorized, but the game is deceptively nuanced. Its physics feel spot on.

The gameplay is so comepelling that the presentation suffers. It's not bad by any means, it's just hard to notice when one is so focused on the match at hand. The game's 11 different character-models are nicely detailed, though not particularly remarkable. This is mostly because they are rarely seen, except for on serves and on occasion where one or more characters move away from the table. Animation is minimal - just the hitting of a ball back and forth, where physics take precedence. The music and ambient effects are forgettable, and commentary is nonexistent. The camera has ably framed every second of the action so far, and never once left me cursing it.

Stay tuned for Stage 2, where we'll discuss the game's modes of play and its lasting appeal - something that might be greatly reduced by the lack of online play.