Don't you love it when a company pulls one out of left field and gets away with creating a fantastic new experience? I mean, here we have Rockstar Games, the creators of the immensely popular (and controversial) Grand Theft Auto games. They're about to have hairs standing up on end yet again with this year's forthcoming Bully, and the company makes their Xbox 360 debut in a manner that isn't really like them. They have produced a table tennis (or ping pong) game that might seem laughable at first because no one really saw it coming on the market (it was literally announced just months ago), but they have the last laugh, as it's one of the better sports games for the system.

Rockstar Games Table Tennis thrusts you right into the action, letting you choose between a quick Exhibition match, a Tournament mode that can be spanned either offline or through Xbox Live, or training drills that introduce you to the general gameplay that the title offers. The training drills are the way to go, as you'll begin to get a hang of the game's techniques through these. See, as you play, the ball comes at you rather quickly, but you'll notice a slight color tint on the ball, either red, blue, yellow, or green. The counteractive system requires you to hit the corresponding button on your Xbox pad in order to deliver the most precise shot back. But it's ping pong, so even if you do a basic return, you're still able to have a solid match and engage in a "rally" that could very well go into 40-50 hits or higher depending on the efficiency of your players. Yeah, complication like that hits a ping pong game, and it makes the gameplay very good, even if you think you're just swatting away at the ball.

The control over your player is similar to that of Virtua Tennis, but condensed for the ping pong court. You control the movement of your player and can begin tapping buttons to prep your swing, all while moving around your analog stick to try and put the ball in a specific location. You have your smash shots, your lobs, and your general spin shots that could drift off the table if they go in the right area. There's also some fantastic focus shots that you can earn, where everything slows down and you see yourself setting up for what could be a potential smash. In fact, the game sees lots of moments like this, where the action stops very briefly to show you a ball barely making it on the edge of a table or a dramatic return that gathers the awe of the audience at hand watching the match.

The game looks excellent, with player models that are nicely detailed. Granted, some of the details aren't perfect (a couple of the female players in the game needed touching up), but they animate very well and just like players would in real life. If a player is on a roll, you'll see them rejuvenated with energy. If they've lost by a few shots, you see kind of a desperation in their eyes to win. The camera view is very helpful, over your shoulder so you always get a good view of the table and don't blame lost shots on a bad angle. There's a number of locales where you can play at, some of which can be unlocked as you move further along in the game. All of them look about the same, but they never lose a beat in terms of frame rate. The game looks blazingly good for being just a ping-pong simulator.

The replay system is also worthy of a mention. At anytime following a score, you can opt to take a look at the replay and watch your player at work. Usually, such an option kicks in automatically if you've had a high rally count, showing you a number of angles of the match and even giving you the option to slow things down for humiliation purposes. ("How the hell did you miss that smash, bud?") If you wish to skip past it, you can, but watching the results from a heated match can be lots of fun.