Table Tennis 3D Review

Table Tennis, known as Ping Pong in Indiana, has become a mainstream hobby and for some, a sport. I personally play the game in real life, with friends and relatives. For me, it’s a blast. I’ve always been crazy for games that take strategy, fast thinking, and reflexes. Over the Christmas holiday, I managed to pick up a Ping Pong table of my own, so for me, it’s not much of a chore to get a game in every now and then.

Table Tennis 3D is a PDA adaptation of this real-life sport. If you’re new to Ping Pong, just think of it as an indoor version of tennis, without having to serve the ball into any given square. The game is quite simple, in fact. Hit the ball back and forth on the table, while not letting it bounce twice on your side. If the ball is missed by player a, then player b is awarded with one point. This continues until someone reaches eleven points, in which that player wins the match.

The game modes in Table Tennis 3D include: 2 players (via bluetooth), exhibition, and championship. I didn’t have the ability to try 2 players, so I will give it replay credit and nothing more. Exhibition allows you to select from the unlocked table tennis players. Each player has their own avatar and skills. There are a total of 8 computer opponents to choose from.

Championship mode is your key to unlocking characters for exhibition mode. You start off with one in both modes and as you progress through the championship mode, you unlock new characters. In this mode, you will have a slow ascension of more difficult players. The final three computer opponents were quite a task and will take several plays to defeat.

Now it’s time to discuss the game’s graphics and game mechanics. The background is black and the table is of course green, with a net in the middle. The playing field takes up about two thirds of the screen, while a score pad on the right takes the other third. Like the billiards title, Pool Paradise for the GCN, nothing but the hands and playing utensils are shown, except in this, there are no hands, but instead just the pads that hit the ping pong balls. The stylus is used to hit the ball. Simply stroke the screen in the direction that you want to hit it. This will take as many as ten games to get a hold of.

Table Tennis 3D won’t go down in history as being the best Palm title ever made. It does however succeed in giving small bursts of fun in small doses. Using the handy sleep mode on the Zodiac, you can easily turn off the system while doing another task, then come back to Table Tennis 3D later, without a hassle. Viex Games has provided us with a great lobby title that can fit in our pockets.