Price: $39.99 Players: 1-2, tournaments online for up to 8 Web site: www.rockstargames.com/tabletennis Format: Xbox 360 Category: Sports Rating: E (Everyone) Three stars (out of four)

My dad taught me how to play Ping Pong, coaching me on a serve that stymied my friends. They’d swing and miss or the little celluloid ball would whap them in the chest. When executed properly that serve was wicked, thanks to heavy top spin.

English has always been the key to Ping Pong. But can a video game realistically reproduce the way a ball whirls and twirls?

“Table Tennis,” a new game exclusively on the Xbox 360, does a pretty darned good job.

Thanks to an excellent physics engine and next-generation graphics, “Table Tennis” provides mind-bending action. The little ball swerves and dances, and you can actually control it.

In many ways, “Table Tennis” is an anomaly. Could there be a more boring title? And also, what the heck is Rockstar Games doing making a sports game? These are the guys who conceived such anti-social, anti-establishment titles as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Manhunt.” You’d think sports would be beneath their thumbing noses.

Yet the creative energy that made “GTA” a groundbreaking title seems to show up in this game. Simply put, “Table Tennis” doesn’t have to have a snazzy name if Rockstar made it. People already sense that it could be special.

And so it is. I won’t give it four stars for one reason: To read the spin on your opponent’s shot and respond, you watch the tail of the ball as it flies toward your end. Different colors indicate various types of spin. Well, doggone it, I can’t easily see the tiny tails. That’s a problem, but not a fatal one.

You can still rally like a madman, hopping around your side of the table, delivering smashes and soft shots, and putting your own spins on the ball.

You charge up your shot by pressing and holding one of your colored buttons after your opponent hits a shot. Aim returns with the left stick, adjust the English on it with the right stick. This sounds like a lot, but much of your player’s action is automated, so if you get into a good rhythm your play becomes almost hypnotic. Techno music kicks in on rallies that last longer than about 12 shots.

There are 11 characters that you can play, some that you’ll have to unlock while playing in the offline tournament mode. You can move through several championships at various skill levels. Outfits can also be earned with victories and certain skill achievements.

The 360’s graphical capabilities are pushed hard here. The ball’s bounce always looks true, even when it nicks off the table. After particularly good points, replays show off the physics with close-ups of the ball spinning and bouncing.

Online, you can play head-to-head with another player, or in a round-robin tournament for eight.

I’ll be there, trying to replicate my dad’s serve.

– Jim Schaefer, Detroit Free Press