If you like playing table tennis also known as ping pong then you should checkout World Cup Table Tennis developed by Skyworks.
It makes great use of iPhone’s multi-touch interface to give you a good gaming experience.
The controls of the iPhone game are quite intuitive if you have played table tennis before but it will take time and practice to perfect the technique to win a tournament.
World Cup Table Tennis features four modes: Practice, Tournament, Head to Head and Arcade mode.
The Practice mode allows you to play the game against the CPU to get comfortable with the controls.
You can move the paddle or table tennis racquet by pressing and holding down anywhere on the lower half of the screen and sliding across the screen. To hit the ball, move the paddle to the ball. The direction and speed that the paddle is moving when it comes in contact with the ball determines the direction and speed of the ball.
You can also spin the ball by moving the paddle quickly in the direction of the desired spin when coming in contact with he ball.
Once you have perfected your technique in practice mode, you can play the Tournament mode where you are pitted against the CPU. The difficulty level of the opponents increases as you move to the next round.
The objective of the Arcade game is completely different. You have to hit the ball at circular targets that randomly pop up on the other side of the table.
The head to head mode allows you to play the game on the same iPhone. But the overhead view of the table unlike the other modes just doesn’t feel right. It would be amazing if Skyworks can introduce a multi-player or head to head feature, which allows you to play with your friends who have iPhone or iPod Touch.
You get to choose from three different paddles ranging in spin and power levels before starting a new game.
You can also choose from two different tracks that play in the background. But I would have preferred the option to choose songs from my iPhone’s music library.
You can compete with players around the world with the Global High Scores board though it doesn’t really make sense when you are collecting points by playing locally on your iPhone.
The in-game sound of the ball hitting the paddle or bouncing on the table is pretty realistic. It is always good to see the developers have also paid attention to some of the finer details.
You can checkout the demo of World Cup Table Tennis below:
Many users seem to have marked the game down due to the lack of online multi-player option, which I felt was a little harsh for a $0.99 game. But it is something that the developers should look at providing via in-app purchase.
Overall, World Cup Table Tennis is the best table tennis game I have played on the App Store and at $0.99, it is a steal. If you have come across a better ping pong game then please do let me know.
You can purchase the iPhone game using this iTunes link or try the lite version of the game before buying it using this iTunes link.
As always, please don’t forget to give us your feedback on the iPhone game in the comments section below.
