Ping Pong Video Games: New And Improved

How many of you remember Pong? I, for one, will never forget those slow, white blips traveling across a gray screen. It might seem boring now, but it was state of the art back then. I was the only kid on my block to have one.

But times have changed, and if you’re looking for ping pong video games now, the last thing you’ll be is bored. Several free play websites offer you a chance to test your skills against the computer, the world’s greatest players, or your buddies.

Here are a few of my favorite versions of ping pong video games. I’m sure you’ll quickly find your own.

Ping Pong 3D
Available at: www.freeonlinegames.com

Choose three levels of play, practice your hand-eye coordination, and you’re well on your way to beating this fairly standard ping pong video game entry. It’s fun and certainly not a bad way to use up five minutes if you feel like you’d rather scream than look at one more report, but there are more interesting variations.

ShockPlay Table Tennis
Available at: www.megaspin.net

Choose to play against one of two unbeaten opponents, Matthew Syed or Werner Schlager and try to be the first to make their records fall. This graphics are cute but not spectacular—you never actually get to see your opponent, other than a little red ping pong paddle hovering in the air, and it took me a while to figure out the controls, but if you like the challenge of playing the best, this is the version for you.

Wrigley’s Candy Stand Ping Pong
Available at: www.candystand.com

Choose your opponent from one of seven computer players with differing skills, your style of play and one of two tables (both advertising Wrigley’s gum products). Then it’s off to the races. Or the ping pong table.

Frat Boy Beer Pong
Available at: www.addictinggames.com

This isn’t exactly a ping pong video game. Despite—or perhaps, because of—the strong association between frat brothers and paddles, neither player in this game uses anything but his hand. The idea is that you and your opponent each have seven cups of beer in front of you. You try to throw the ping pong ball across the table into his beer, and he tries to do the same to yours. If his ball lands in your beer, you chug the cup, if your ball lands in his cup, he does the same. Perceptions and accuracy change as the characters become drunker. This one is funny, but it’s not for kids, and it’s certainly not for people who can’t distinguish between fiction and reality. Drunk frat boys in a game are cute. Drunk frat boys in real life are generally just obnoxious.

3-D Pong Game
Available at: www.freegames.ws/games/free_online_games

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? This 3-D version of classic Pong is bound to give you a headache after awhile, but it’s certainly fun while it lasts. And it’s a great way to pass the time while you’re waiting on hold.

Now that technology has moved on, it’s easy to make fun of pong with its boring colors and slow response time, but ping pong video games are still fun to play, and in they’re new incarnations, no one could possibly accuse them of being dull.