Kinect Sports First Look Exclusive – Table Tennis

As the air gets chilly it means winter is on it’s way; it also means the same for Kinect Sports, which is due for release in early November of this year. Luckily there’s still lots of time to check out the Kinect sports showcase in Toronto, along with the other launch titles that have been made readily available to the public until December 1st.
While solo play is fun to best the computer player, the game really takes a real competitive edge when you’re pitted against a friend. Donning my newly-acquired Rare merch, I went toe to toe with a friend in Table Tennis which can be seen below.

There’s no need to use a tart analogy here, Table Tennis is fierce and requires you to be on your toes if you want to come out on top. Even with the fast paced gameplay the control is still fluid easy to pick up, requiring you to use your hand to control your respective ‘paddle’ and then swinging it at the right time to gauge the speed and direction to return the serve.
While this sounds quite simple in theory, the action of the game can get very heated very quickly, so you’ll need to be on top of your game and keep your eye on the ball.
But you shouldn’t take advice from me; I was absolutely pummeled after a session left the score at 3-11, when my friend lead with eight unanswered points. So long as you’re reflexes are agile you can keep a volley going for quite some time, our personal best being twenty-two returned hits before the ball escaped from under my left elbow.
There are a few interesting entries that have been added in as well, such as the ability to light the ball aflame if you hit it hard enough, which is quite difficult to return if you’re on the receiving end of the ping pong projectile as seen at 0:50.
Overall, Table Tennis is really immersible, and you’ll find yourself taking leaps and bounds to save the serve and send it right back at your opponent.
Now with that over I think I’ll go cry in the corner after being beaten by a girl at a video game for the first time, even if it was over who could slap the hardest…