How Rockstar Games Made Ping Pong Cool

Back in March 2006, Rockstar Games revealed its first project for next-gen consoles. There had been much speculation about what this would be. A new Grand Theft Auto game? A follow-up to the (pre-Redemption) Red Dead Revolver? A sequel to Manhunt, the game with such nihilistic themes and graphic violence it was blamed for an actual murder? Nope. Rockstar was doing a game about ping pong.

The news came as a bit of a shock. It was like Christopher Walken announcing himself as the next host of Countdown, with Dictionary Corner to be occupied by Danny Dyer. But actually, it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise, as Rockstar had a history of indulging in one-off vanity projects. In 2005 they'd released The Warriors, a satisfying brawler based on the cult film of the same name. But even then, the emphasis was on battering rival gang members with broken bottles, rather than playing an indoor sport popular mainly in youth hostels.

The thinking behind Rockstar Presents Table Tennis was explained in a wordy press release, complete with quotes from company co-founder Sam Houser. "We wanted to use the power of the new hardware and the resolution of the new televisions to give the game an immediacy, an intensity and a sense of physicality and reality," he said, "resulting in a pure, more visceral experience that simply was not possible previously." In other words, they planned to move things on a bit from Pong.

For starters, Table Tennis let you put different directional spins on the ball using the four face buttons. Player movement and aim were both controlled by the left stick. It was possible to charge up a shot by holding your selected button down, which would cause the controller to vibrate – gently if the shot was likely to be in, or more vigorously as a warning you needed to pull it back. It was the most inventive use of the rumble function since Hideo Kojima made us put the controller on the floor.

A basic understanding of these systems was all it took to pick up and play Table Tennis, and have a bloody good time. But after a while, the subtler elements of the gameplay became apparent – the coloured tinge around the ball, indicating the direction of spin; the clever design of the service meter, which enabled the practised player to pull off impressive smashes; the way you could repeatedly charge shots to fill the Focus meter, eventually entering Full Focus. In this state, your shots got faster and more accurate, causing the pace of the game to ramp up. A match where two players hit Full Focus simultaneously was incredibly intense to play, and thrilling to watch.

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This was another way in which Table Tennis marked a departure for Rockstar – rather than being a grandiose solo adventure, it was a simple game designed to work in a social environment. And it worked brilliantly. Because it was based on a sport everyone has played, and built around accessible controls, the game appealed to those who didn't necessarily class themselves as gamers.

It was the perfect party game – easy to learn, tricky to master, and playable while drunk. The rate of player turnover was quick, and there was huge potential for tense face-offs, bitter rivalries, shocking underdog victories, and hilarious blunders. Most of all, it was just bloody good fun.

The other noteworthy difference was the minimalist nature of the game's content and visuals. The venues were sparsely designed, but beautifully lit. The character models were drawn in superb detail, with fluid animations, but there were fewer than a dozen to choose from. Each had a different playing style and a unique look. The most memorable included solid all-rounder Liu Ping, the lightning-fast Kumi, and Swedish powerhouse Jesper. (Imagine a young Stellan Skarsgard in tiny shorts.)

All this was in stark contrast to Rockstar's traditional action adventure games, with their sprawling open-world environments, epic storylines and endless mini-games. Table Tennis was notable for what was left out. There was no customisation mode, with Rockstar realising grown-ups would rather just choose from a strong roster than waste time selecting the colour of their character's goatee. The same system works perfectly in other classic party titles like Super Mario Kart and Street Fighter II. And as in those games, the difficulty curve in Table Tennis was set at just the right incline, providing the correct balance of instant accessibility and long-term reward.

Rockstar also resisted the temptation to bung in any daft mini-games or extra modes. There was an online mode, which worked without any slowdown in the gameplay – a remarkable technical achievement, considering the limitations of the technology available at the time. Online matches could easily escalate to a blisteringly fast pace.

In a nod to the pared-down nature of the game's offering, it went on sale with an RRP of £29.99 in the UK – around 20 quid less than the cost of most new releases. This seemed like a bargain price for a game so polished, so playable, and so effortlessly cool.

Nowadays, of course, you can pick up a copy for less than the price of the couple of pints (of beer of course, not milk, nor wine) on Amazon, and have it delivered the same day. And it's worth it, whether you're in the mood for a bit of nostalgia or missed out on Table Tennis the first time around. The animations may look less realistic by modern gaming standards, the visuals less sharp; but the core mechanics are just as solid, and the game is still great to play. Which is surely a sign of quality, regardless of any dated aesthetics.

As for Rockstar, the company did, of course, go on to produce more GTA, Red Dead and Manhunt games. There's also been L.A. Noire, and another venture into a new genre with music mixer Beaterator. But ten years on, the studio has yet to release a game out of leftfield in quite the same way, or of the same quality. Here's hoping there's another secret vanity project we've never heard of in development right now, preparing to surprise and delight just like Table Tennis did.

@EllieGibson

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