PAX 07: Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis Wii Impressions

I stopped by Rockstar's booth at PAX to take a swing at the Wii version of Rockstar presents Table Tennis, developed by Rockstar Leeds. A port of the Rockstar San Diego Xbox 360 version, which I've played extensively and enjoyed for its trance-inducing intensity, especially during online matches, I was intrigued by what seemed like a pretty logical decision in bringing the game to Wii. A Rockstar rep said everything in the Xbox 360 version would be in the Wii version, minus support for online play. That's a pretty huge minus, since I had a lot of fun playing online on the 360. Despite this, Rockstar implemented a far greater shift in the gameplay dynamic that wasn't necessarily purposeful but has a marked effect on the experience. The biggest change Rockstar meaningfully included in the game, of course, concerns the Wii-specific controls. The default control scheme, labeled "Standard," can be played with only the Wii remote, though you can use the nunchuk if you choose to position your character before serves. Like in Wii Sports' tennis game, your character moves automatically in this mode, with the ball's trajectory corresponding with the direction you swing the remote. I played a few matches in this mode, but it felt imprecise the whole way through, with some of my shots traveling opposite to my intended direction. I largely preferred the second of three control methods, dubbed "Sharp Shooter." This scheme uses the nunchuk attachment for aiming shots, rendering the inaccurate detection of swing direction inconsequential. A third control scheme, "Control Freak," added a layer of complicatedness I wasn't ready to undertake during my time with the game. The nunchuk controls character movement in this mode, in addition to shot placement. You can give shots topspin, backspin, and sidespin by holding the D-pad in the corresponding direction during your swing, with separate buttons used for the powered focus shots and soft shots. Taken as a whole, this led to a daunting level of complexity in the gameplay. In "Control Freak," you have to move your character to where the ball is heading with the nunchuk's analog, hold the appropriate D-pad direction to charge your spin, physically swing the Wii remote, and then use the analog again to position your shot on the table. And that's just to return a single shot. In addition to the combination of inaccurate and cumbersome controls eliminating the precision of the 360 version, the rest of the game's features contributed to an overall dearth of any tangible intensity. Though the visuals on the Wii version look much better than I had anticipated, it doesn't come close to matching the realism of the 360 version. The loose, realistically hanging clothing, drops of sweat, and convincingly natural character movements are gone. But these touches didn't matter to me as much as the absence of the 360 version's dynamic camera angles during smash shots. For the most part, the Wii version keeps a fairly static top-down view during the entirety of matches, making them feel much less real. And the crazy crowd interaction from the original game--hearing isolated cheers grow to a thunderous tumult during a string of quick volleys--doesn't seem to have made the trip to Wii-town. My concerns may paint a largely negative impression of the game, but its not so much a bad game as it is a different one. It's not a tight, precise, dynamic, and intense twitch-fest where blinking means you've lost the match. It's more deliberate, and certainly error-prone, which partly depends on the player. And it's not as intuitive as you'd expect from a Wii title, though with practice, this could be overcome. Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis retails for the Wii on October 23.