Rockstar serves up a pure videogaming treat with Table Tennis. Indeed, our thumbs hurt so much from playing this game that it’s actually painful for us to type these few laudatory words to tell you why you should buy and play this game with your friends as soon as you possibly can.

In fact, we’ll go one step further. We’ll even say that should you have withheld buying an Xbox 360 up to this point - for whatever reason - be you a Microsoft-hater or just plain skint: this game is the reaso ... more >>

Rockstar serves up a pure videogaming treat with Table Tennis. Indeed, our thumbs hurt so much from playing this game that it’s actually painful for us to type these few laudatory words to tell you why you should buy and play this game with your friends as soon as you possibly can.

In fact, we’ll go one step further. We’ll even say that should you have withheld buying an Xbox 360 up to this point - for whatever reason - be you a Microsoft-hater or just plain skint: this game is the reason for you to go out and buy, beg or steal one.

It really is that good. It’s like videogames used to be. It’s the kind of game that you and your friends will tan the ar*e off for months to come. This game will be spoken about in ten years time, just as men in their thirties now who should really know better, speak about Kick Off 2 or Sensible Soccer or Speedball 2. It is pure multiplayer videogaming joy.

And unlike the aforementioned games, it also has the extra added bonus of being a truly beautiful-looking game. The numerous characters and their little dances of glory, the beautifully rendered stadia and the many other attention to graphical detail touches in the game are a joy to look at (which you never really could say for Sensi or Kick Off 2!). And the many extra little touches in the game, such as the perfectly executed music and oh-so-subtle audio touches (such as when the ball just tickles the net) really top off the overall experience.

Really, after playing this game for a good few days in single player mode, or against the odd friend who wandered into our lair, we thought we had almost experienced the full amount of ping pong joy that the Rockstar San Diego guys had engineered for us. Then we played it online, and a whole new world of joy arrived courtesy of Xbox Live.

Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis is perhaps one of the greatest online videogame experiences yet devised by man. If you are not, or have never been, particularly interested in online role-playing games, first person shooters or beat-em-ups, then this is the game to entice you into the online future.

Why is the game so fiendishly addictive? It is because the controls are very simple to pick up yet deviously difficult to master. Anyone can play the game. Few can reach ping pong ninja status. But as you try to better your game, you really get involved in the flow of the play, just like you do in real ping pong. You might even be totally talentless, but even so, now and then you will show a flash of brilliance, which keeps you interested in the game.

There are perhaps a few minor gripes about the game, which seems almost criminal to even mention. The movement of the actual characters is sluggish, but then, it’s not about the character movement (this is not Virtua Tennis, nor is it trying to be): it’s all about the movement and flow of the ball, and of the arm, and the spin off the bat.

Totally immersive, hugely enjoyable Zen-like videogaming bliss. Buy it. Play it. Smile. << less