I’ll admit that I was a little perplexed to see this series pop up on Switch. The first couple Ping Pong Trick Shot games were Nintendo 3DS titles, the first of which I actually purchased myself. From my experience with the initial game, I thought it was an okay experience marred by an underwhelming framerate (considering the minimal amount of objects onscreen) and slightly uncomfortable controls. Does Super Ping Pong Trick Shot fix some of the errors of the handheld entries and build upon the establishments to create an impact as a sequel? Eh, maybe that’s stretching it. Fortunately, I did enjoy what the game had to offer.
Graphics
As you can see, Super Ping Pong Trick Shot is not going to win any “Most Visually Astounding” awards anytime soon. Every level in the game is made up of a group of floating platforms and hardly anything else. The presentation might be mostly static, but it is still amusing to watch the ball fly across the stage to get into the cup at the end. The best aspect of the graphics is that the framerate has indeed been improved and smoothed out, giving an overall snappier pace than Super‘s predecessors.
Audio
This is one of those games where there is only one piece of background music that plays in-game – not counting things like menus, of course. The song itself isn’t bad per se, but if you don’t get accustomed to it playing, you are likely to end up annoyed instead. Still, like with the graphics, the ball the player flings adds satisfaction to the category. In this case, it’s by making those ping pong bouncing sounds and a “Ding!” when landing in the cup.
Gameplay
Toss the ball into the cup. That’s it, and there’s 80 levels based on this little premise. How you decide to toss the ball is up to you, as long as it makes it in. Sometimes, there will be obstacles like fans that blow the ball to an opposing direction, but the gameplay is most reliant on the trajectory you set and the physics should the ball be made to bounce. Messing up is a slap on the wrist; you have 15 balls to throw, and the game keeps track of your previous ball’s power so you can see how you would want to adjust the power of your next throw. One feature I found kind of pointless is the ability to turn the camera; not only are most levels purely two-dimensional, but it’s only ever used to catch any spots that deceive when viewed in 2D.
Other modes include a 2-player Vs. mode and a score attack to see how many points you can score in a period of time. There is also an incentive to replay each level in the form of the mobile game-like three-star system, where stars are awarded depending on the sub-objectives you accomplish. Super Ping Pong Trick Shot doesn’t seem to have an ending, though. After beating the 80th level, you just loop back to the first. Since losing doesn’t set you back much (if at all), the challenge can be low when compared to other arcade-style games. The levels don’t get harder, either; they just provide different layouts.
Verdict
If you can look past some of those things, however, your five bucks could be well-spent enough here. There are a good amount of positive qualities in Super Ping Pong Trick Shot to be worth the price of admission, and it is superior to the 3DS games before it. I just think there could have been a lot more to spruce the game up with to keep it from feeling shallow.
