VR Ping Pong Pro is developer One-O-One Games follow up to 2017’s VR Ping Pong. It comes promising a host of improvements from original including more realistic graphics, better physics, a host of different locations, more modes and the option to play online.
Even from a single screenshot of the newly released Pro you can notice a massive graphical upgrade. Gone are the blocky cartoon graphics from the original game in favour of a much more realistic art style. While you simply play against a floating paddle, the environments, table, ball, bat and everything else has been overhauled.
The first pleasant surprise was the main menu. Instead of just some bland text options to choose your mode, we are treated to a more interactive menu with 3D illustrations of what you are choosing. It’s a minor thing, but I appreciated the attention to detail here. It shows a pride in the work that has went in.
The pick of the enhancements is definitely the arenas. There are eight locations in total including a professional table tennis arena, a Japanese garden, an arcade and a basement. Each one looks great and really helps create an immersive experience without distracting you from the table and the action going on in front of you. Arcade offers fun little mini games that help both refine the skills you will need in real matches and provide some of the most fun and challenge in the game.
Speaking of a challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to see five different difficulty options. Simply choose between one and five stars depending on your skill level. The options don’t end there either as you can alter your perceived height, paddle tilt and more. These are welcome options and definitely helped me set a stance that felt natural.
While the game looks great, it all boils down to how well it actually plays. This unfortunately, is where VR Ping Pong Pro loses it’s way. The ball physics are very floaty and the difference in motion required to produce light and heavy shots is minimal. That’s not to say you can’t have a half decent back and fourth game, but you have to do so in a way that doesn’t mimic the sport it is intending to emulate.
In all likelihood you will adapt to the physics, timing and weight of the shots quicker the less you have actually played in real life. This is a problem, as a ping pong game is targeting a pretty niche market. It really is a shame that One-O-One Games hasn’t managed to produce a similar level of gameplay experience to what we saw in the rather bare bones Racket Fury last year.
One of the key features is the inclusion of both online matches and tournaments. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a single match online during three different attempts, which is no fault of the developers, but doesn’t bode well for the future. This leaves a question mark over how smoothly the game performs against another human opponent.
Trophies at first glance look easy. Eleven golds and a platinum is generally a sure fired sign of an easy platinum and while that does look the case here given you can complete all the objectives on the easiest difficulty there are two problems. One trophy requires you to win at all locations and three of those are only available in online modes, so you will almost certainly need a friend with the game in order to find another player.
The second difficult (or rather frustrating) trophy is to win a game, which is two sets with points set to 11, without losing a point. Now this shouldn’t be an issue given you can do it on the lowest difficulty, but while the AI will put up little resistance the wonky physics make it extremely difficult to not mess up once during the twenty two points needed. Despite getting used to the game over a number of hours I don’t even think I have managed 5 successful serves in a row.
Overall VR Ping Pong Pro is a missed opportunity in it’s current state. I hear patches are incoming and that could change things, but as of now the game looks great but can’t match those highs where it really matters, on the table. This can be partially blamed on the ever ageing move controllers which are crying out to be laid to rest, but Racket Fury proved that the capabilities are much higher than what is on offer here.
-John
Reviewed on PS4. A review code was provided by the publisher.
