Still not living in a place where having a table tennis is an option, we have turned to our faithful iPod for our table tennis fix. There are a few table tennis games for iPod, but our favorite is World Ping-Pong Champion by Skyworks. Despite the name, it provides a pretty fun and “as-realistic-as-can-be-expected” table tennis experience.
You can play in several modes including tournament, arcade, practice, or tournament mode against 8 different opponents. One very interesting mode however is head to head mode which allows you to compete against another live person on the same iPhone or iPod Touch! It is surpisingly easy to do, even with the limited screen space. It’s also a lot of fun, and feels somewhat real.
You hit the ball sliding your finger (the racket) along the screen. It allows you to put spin on the ball, smash, and do a lot the things you’d normally do when playing. You can even choose among three different tennis rackets allowing different styles of play.
When you play, you can choose between two different background tracks, and even choose which country you want to represent! The USA, the UK, Finland, Sweden, Canada, China, Germany, and Russia are all represented. Needless to say, we wish Japan were in there, but let’s hope an update introduces some more countries.
We really enjoy it. It will never replace an actual game on an actual table tennis table with a real opponent, but if you need a quick fix, it suffices. The full version is $.99, but there is a lite version as well which is free and will give you a taste of the game. It may even be enough for people who just want to break out the iPod Touch or iPhone and play a few rounds of video table tennis.
Personally, I enjoyed it enough to buy the full version, and it was worth it just for the head-to-head feature which is fun and simple enough that even kids can play.