Some people love table tennis. They live for the game and put their blood, sweat, and tears into it. Others think table tennis is incredibly boring, much like soccer. Or tennis. Or watching paint dry. I am neither of them. I am a gamer. So when I started playing Table Tennis Pro from developer and publisher GrassGames, I looked at it from a gamer’s perspective and broke down what this game is all about.

First off, Table Tennis Pro can be overwhelming at the start, but the game eases you in with beginner movements that gradually help you get used to the fundamentals of the game. It then slowly steps you through the more advanced moves that can be unlocked once you show you are capable of the basics, such as using angles and power moves to throw off your opponents during matches, or best placements and angles of the batten. You’ll quickly learn that placement is more important than power, just as a little tip for you out there.

This leads us to how the game controls, and while you can play with a mouse and keyboard, I feel that using a controller would be the best way to wrap your head around the more advanced moves. Unfortunately, my controller was not being picked up by the game’s setting, so I was left using the mouse and keyboard, but it’s possible that function may not have been implemented yet.

That’s not to say you don’t have a range of capabilities with what you have, but control-wise, I think the choice of a wider range of controls would have been nice, especially with a controller. Even so, the tutorials are a helpful way to learn unique moves over time, such as drop shots or backspin long shots. They’ll just come with time and practice.

Table Tennis Pro offers a variety of game modes and online options, so single-player can help you get started but the choice to drop in a 2 player game with a friend via LAN/online, increases your replayability. You also have up to 31 A.I. players to take on and hone your skills, all of them having different play styles and difficulty levels.

Another interesting mode was the ability to create a tournament with all the AI players, as well as being able to include online friends, but I only got as far as creating one with the available AI as I was not fortunate to have any friends that had a copy of the game as well. The online multiplayer aspect fell short of expectation, but the ability to play two-player split-screen was interesting, but still, with only being able to use mouse and keyboard, I was sadly restricted.

The game does offer many arenas to choose from, such as your classic gym room to a more unique setting such as a battle cave of sorts, but overall the 3D graphics may not be the most compelling. The main focus is on the gameplay with its simple premise and is what you would expect with such a classic game made into digital form. As for the game’s sounds and music, let’s just say it is what it is, and aside from the high pitched voice that squeaks every time your ball is out of bounds, or the sound the ping pong makes on the table, I doubt its a real focus on the games overall feel.

It isn’t noteworthy to put much emphasis on. A nice touch though is the ability to customize your racket or the table tennis court, and I don’t just mean different colours to the front of the handle. The best aspect is that you can use custom images saved on your computer. Let me tell you, it takes no time to make the most amazing bat you could ever imagine!

Overall Table Tennis Pro is definitely for fans of table tennis and gamers alike, with many details in what it takes to be a table tennis pro yourself! Considering most table tennis games these days are mainly VR, the market for a solid game that you can play on a PC that does not require a VR set-up is kind of slim, so it is nice to see this adding variety to the market that not many developers fill. Considering the developer’s previous game was Solitaire 3D, they have come a long way with what is jam-packed into the game’s function and detail on what the developers can achieve, and I do look forward to what they make in the future.

Written by: Simon Hayward