Game Info

Developer : Netdol Ltd

Publisher : Fathammer

 

Bluetooth/GPRS: No / No

GPS: No

 
Game Brief / Options

Ping-pong or table tennis for the grownups up there! A strange sport to cover I'm sure you're agree, but those strange Koreans have found it fit to release a game on it.

Pick from 6 (2 initially) sexy birds as it states on the box, each with a special shot.

Game options include difficulty levels, number of win points, volume and brightness as standard. The main game options you can choose from are;

Arcade - the main game, compete against other opponents to see who becomes pocket ping-pong master (sadly it most likely won't be you!)

Practice / Return Fire / Non-stop Rally - all of which basically are practice modes getting slightly harder as you progress (well if you progress!)

  Screenshots

 
Graphics / Presentation

It's a real disappointed having a game with good graphics and sound only to have a non-existent game to run with!

As is the case here, the presentation is fairly good with a nice layout and menu system complete with wacky tunes, everything looks very pastel toned, which isn't a bad thing.

In-game visuals are pretty good and probably are the best feature of this appalling game, 3D models of the characters all looking pretty good and have some nice animation to them.

Backgrounds are nice and colourful with some smooth textures and sharp visuals, it's a sure bet that the graphics department got paid before they ran out of money.

The only time the visuals suffer any king of jerkiness is during a match, but that's more down to the game itself than the visuals.

  Video

(Click on footage to view via youtube)

 
Music / Sound Effects

The soundtrack is some weird Korean dance style music which surprisingly isn't to bad, bar the vocals!, which forms the music for the title screen and during the game itself.

Other music on the menu screens is a more strange Kylie esq tune with female on the vocals and is a very pop girly tune and probably will make yourself queasy at the sound after a prolonged period.

In-game sound effects are basic with the normal ball thumping sound you would expect in a game like this, other than the ball and bat sounds you get  some annoying girly speech after each and every shot which just winds up as you try and skip onto the next shot.

 

Availability

 

Release UK : 18th May 2005 / £9.99

Release North America: Never had a US release.

 

 
Playability / Controls

Oh dear is the first words that spring to mind, it's not as if I've just turned this game on for a couple of goes, to bring you a fair review of games, they are tested over and over until a fair number of levels of courses have been complete to enable a clear overview of what you are getting for your money.

Controlling your playing is in a first person mode i.e through the eyes of your player, which makes it incredibly hard to judge hitting the ball back especially hitting it back to the place you want it to go.

When this 'game' came along It was given the same treatment as every other game, practiced on, scrutinised and played until my thumbs bled, but unlike any other title there was no fun, there was no playability, repetitive ball returns maybe, samey matches against the same opponents sure, lack of different shots yep, there is no 'game' here to enjoy, its probably best described as a bikini sports illustrated game without the good looking girls and without a game...

Marks For:
  • Nice Graphics.
  • Funky Tunes.
Overall:

Unless you're a Gizmondo game collector or just a sad pervert that likes to look at a bunch of polygons in skimpy bikini's, then even at the budget price of £10 there is nothing and I mean nothing here for you to enjoy

The lack of any real controls or a game itself! might distract you from buying this game, it certainly should and I hope this review puts stop to complete tat like this from being released, sorry Gizmondo, but having a lack of games shouldn't stop you from having a quality control department.

Marks Against:
  • No Game Inside!
  • Lack of any controls.

Dedicated site for the Gizmondo Handheld, featuring all the Latest Gizmondo News along every Gizmondo game Previewed or Reviewed, or even discuss it all in the dedicated Gizmondo Forum, every new Gizmondo game announced here first. Dedicated site for the Gizmondo Handheld, featuring all the Latest Gizmondo News along every Gizmondo game Previewed or Reviewed, or even discuss it all in the dedicated Gizmondo Forum, every new Gizmondo game announced here. BIggest rival to Sony PSP and Nintendo DS. Gizmondo Central is an unofficial fan site and is not associated with Gizmondo Europe or Tiger Telematics. All original content is © GC Gizmondo Central 2004 - 2005. All reproduced and externally contributed content is © the original author. Gizmondo Central was designed to be viewed using the latest version of either Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer with a screen resolution of 800 * 600 pixels or higher.