I'm a huge table tennis fan, but there are some days when I can't get to a table or all my friends are busy. It's these occasions where 3D PingPong comes in handy.
3D PingPong is an enjoyable, if rather crude table tennis sim for your mobile phone. The object of the game is to become World champion, although it's advisable to start by playing the training mode because it takes a while to get the hang of. It's not that the controls are difficult, but rather the speed of the game that makes it so hard.
Once you've got your confidence level up you can enter the 3D PingPong tournament, whereby you square up against 16 other players from around the World in a knock-out competition. 3D PingPong is highly customizable: you can pick from a range of countries which you want your character to be from, choose from three different table colors, and select the gender of your player. There's even an online mode where you can join up with other 3D PingPong players from around the World. Be careful with this if you don't have a data plan, because the game can get mighty addictive!
One of the main downers about 3D PingPong is its appearance, which is pretty awful. The characters are poorly drawn, animation is jerky and unrealistic and the picture of the umpire, who sometimes flashes up when you get a point, is grotesque. Sound effects and music are few and far between, which is a shame, because with the right audio and visuals this could have been a really top class game.
As it is, 3D PingPong provides an enjoyable and captivating challenge with an interesting online element.
