Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 10, 2021

  I was conflicted about giving this game a thumbs down but I feel it's warranted. I have to uninstall it because it's just damn frustrating. I may not be an ace at rythm games but as a hobbyist DJ and casual rythm game player I think I have some feel for timing. The tutorial was the most frustrating part acutally. I was alternating inbetween getting 10 in a row and missing 10 in a row without recognizing a difference. Trying to watch the ball and the rectangles didn't work, trying to hit on a certain beat of the music didn't or well sometimes seemed to but then not again. Then the phone menu was somewhat confusing and the first time I went into the train I ended up back at the station because I hadn't looked at "Menu" yet. I feel like the game mixes UI elements and elements that are usually used to tell a story in a weird way. So, ok, first going for "Ostrich", I expected an actual ostrich character and was looking forward but it was the same guy from the tutorial again. I guess it's because they're going through some stuff, breakup or death of a loved one, some sort of loss because the achievements show the 5 stages of grief. Still a bit disappointing that only the table changes. The "Message" and few lines before and after the match didn't help either explaining what's going on or making me care or be intrigued. Surprisingly I did a lot better than in the tutorial and only failed on the last few hits a few times because I was concentrating too much on the almost full bar at the top. Wish I could deactivate it even though I was previously looking for some sort of progress/scoring. I eventually got through the song and in most parts the ball returns fit nicely on the music but I was already pretty annoyed since there also were some series of not getting the timing for the first return where I again didn't know what was the problem since my timing and the ball position seemed right. Then it was right on to the next song (I hoped I would get the Ostrich achieve and would have quit then anyway) and I had to stop or I would get too frustrated. Which is a shame for a chill Lo-Fi music game. I think one simple feature would help tremendously, on a miss (which is a game over and you have to start the song again) give an indication (probably just write the word out) if the player pressed early or late. That would help a lot to know what to adjust. It would even be nice to have some feedback (optional?) on every hit too if it was perfect or a bit early/late since I never knew if I really figured out the timing or was just barely making it. I would also like a "Chill" mode (disabling achieves I guess), with a very relaxed timing so I can just listen to the nice music and get through the story. For now, I'll uninstall again so I keep myself from trying again and just getting aggravated to chill music. I was firing it up again after review to see if I missed the "No Fail" mode since I asked for an easy mode to relax to. There was another "menu"/train to the left now which was still pretty weird to navigate but I could engage "No Fail" and pick a song. On to relaxation I though but nope. First of all, it was one of the later stages with the opponent returning three balls of which two were fake (indicated by them spinning) but that was really hard to make out in the short time and secondly, when you miss a ball, it makes the sound of a smartphone vibrating. Which is of course the opposite of relaxing. I also missed mentioning that I'm pretty sure that I played this on some other platform before and similarly uninstalled it in frustration too.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 3, 2022

  Lofi Ping Pong - beats to focus/be angry to. Can get you in sort of a trance, focusing on the beat and watching the damn pixel. Don't be scared of difficulty, it only spikes at 2nd level.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 9, 2022

  It's more stressful than relaxing. One easy miss and it's over. Putting Fail-safe on feels like cheating but saves so much nerves. There are many indicators when to hit the ball but it's still very precise.
• The Blue Jay

  Aug 9, 2023

  Overall frustrating. Lofi can simply mean pixelated graphics, but most people - I think - would take that to mean a calming or zen-like experience. In my view, a game like this should be either calming or fun to play, sadly it is neither. While the music is good lofi, the gameplay is not calming. Instead of being fun, I find the game frustrating, as missing the ball seems to be a tight window that you never really get the hang of. What would improve the game would be some indication whether your miss was early or late. At least such information would allow me to know for certain if the game is iffy, or if I just truly never got the hang of it. Either way, wasn’t looking for a souls-like “get gud” experience in a “rhythm-based ping pong” game. Being able to play to custom music, and with friends are cool features, sadly not enough to make this a positive review.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 29, 2020

  Imagine you are a metronome. Imagine that you are regularly told you are wrong. That is this game.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 27, 2020

  Many games claim to be chill and meditative, but this is one of the few times I've felt a true meditative experience in a videogame. When I get in the zone playing this I feel the exact same endless focus in my brain that I do when I'm actually meditating in real life. The game delivers on the rhythm part as well, with very tight and satisfying controls. I admit it takes me a few tries to understand the tempo everytime I start a new song, but once I get familiarised enough it all flows beautifully with the song and the beat. (A tip if you're struggling: the game tells you to look at the white squares but DO NOT DO THAT!! The only visual cue you should be paying attention to is the direction of the ball. To understand the timing just pay attention to the countdown in the beginning that gives you the bpm and try to mimic it, that's all you need) And while this is, at its core, a very simple game, there are still enough new mechanics introduced to add some variety to the gameplay. The presentation is also very pleasing and I liked the pixel art and the general vibe of the story. It's a short game (I finished in about an hour) but there's decent replayability since you can mix-and-match different mechanics with different songs, and most importantly you can add your own music. My only complaint is the lack of endless mode, but I side-stepped the issue somewhat by adding longer tracks of my own. Bottom line is, [i]Lofi Ping Pong[/i] delivers exactly what it promises to, and there's enough content to know the developer actually cared for this game and it's not some empty cash grab meant to waste your time. It's simple and sweet and I'm glad I spent some time with it.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 21, 2021

  Lo-Fi Ping Pong is a rythmic game, where you listening Lo-Fi music and beat your oppenent at the end of the song. What really good in Lo-Fi Ping Pong, is the controls. It's easy. You need 3 keys, which can be WAD, the arrow keys or using controller direction keys. Because of these choices, playing together in splitscreen is also easy, because you could play in one keyboard too. Simple and sweet! Another thing which surprising good, is the story. Now, if you play the game, you won't notice too much... except at the end, but the game has some more meaning symbols in the game, messages can tell also a lot about what is happening. It was quite a twist for me at the end, left me with a void for sure, even though it's not an indepth something, it was still quite an impact. Time to talk about the music in the game. The game has 25 tracks by default, which you play in the story mode, all of them are some kind of Lo-Fi music. This does not sound too many, but the you can add your own music to the game, if you set it up the BPM correctly. You need an ogg file and you are ready to go. Setting up a song wasn't that easy for me first, but thankfully the developer made a tutorial on YouTube, but you can access that vide from the game only. It's quite good in general. Sound effects also really good, not really feels overused around the end of the game. Nice one! About the gameplay, it's really simple. As I said, you listening a song, and you need to deflect the balls from the opponent, and when you reach the end of the song, you win. You can collect points, based on the BPM of the song, how accurate you are and what game mode you playing. About the game modes, in the story you will get 5 different one. There are single ball, double ball, wind, darkening and hidden. Single ball is the normal mode, double ball is what it stands for, really making the timings tight, wind is changing the ball directions after a bell sound, in darkening you can't see your opponents part of the table, making it less time to react to the ball, and hidden where sometimes you are not able to see the square on the ground. About the squares, those are the zone, where you can hit back the ball. For the maximum point, try hit back the ball, when it's in the middle of the square. Also these square's outline light up when the ball reach it, so you could know where the ball comes, if you watch those only. So the base gameplay is really good, however it is quite hard, you will need some practice for this one. The timings are also really tight, so in general the game is not easy, but the rules are simple. Other gamemodes quite challenging too, however there is a sixth gamemode called Triple, when randomly the opponent sends 3 balls back to you at the same time, but only one of them is really. You can easily find out which one is the real, but timing is really tight still. I liked the gameplay, even though at the beginning I almost gave up on the game, because I didn't understand how it works. This game is indeed based on rythm too, not just on blind luck like lot of people saying. However, if you don't have the "rythm" in yourself, don't worry, the squares will help you out... until the end of the game, but you will get through that one too in time. Cool gameplay, also really fun, you can play with splitscreen and there is even a no fail mode too, not even mentioning the leaderboards for the game for the most points in total. Lastly, the graphics. In general it looks like a pixelated style of graphics, which I didn't quite like it. In general, there is no problem with it, not even buggy at all, but for me it was just not my jam. The problem is with me for sure, but I just didn't liked it. Lo-Fi Ping Pong is not an easy game, and I don't think it's a relaxing game either. It's a rythmic game, where you can go into a really focused state, where you paying so much attention and you are going to be satisfied with your win. The game's story mode is short, but with the custom songs, this game can be timeless too. The contstant fight for the most points on the leaderboard can make this game a non-stop one to play. I can definetly recommend to get this one, not just because it's almost timeless, but if you want to get not an ordinary story too. For 4€, I think this game worth it!
• gamedeal user

  Apr 29, 2021

  [b]Time to get my pong on[/b] Ah ping pong. While I’m not able to play it anymore, at least in real life, I enjoyed it. I was a kid that was in an after school program before a big move, and in middle school we were all in this huge room (and I’m not talking about the cafeteria, that’s elementary school). It had some consoles on one wall, with everywhere else empty for anything you wanted to do and a ping pong table that we could unfold if there were people willing to play. And well, that was mostly every day. Not to brag, but I got pretty good. After all, who wants to chase after the ball after missing it? And since I enjoy ping pong and rhythm games, it’s only natural I wanted to pick up Lofi Ping Pong. I was actually going to get it on Switch, after finding it in upcoming during the Holiday sale, but I found out it was released on Steam and I just didn’t want to wait. So here we are. Lofi Ping Pong is pretty simple to play. All you need to do is hit the ball back to who you’re playing against. This is a three button rhythm game using the left, right, and up arrow keys, which correspond with their respective side on the ping pong table. When the song starts, your opponent will start the rally. One the ball gets to the box below the table, it’s time to click the arrow button that corresponds with it. Unlock other rhythm games, the ball is set to decide where it’s going to go randomly rather it being set, along with where the ball will be launched when you hit it (though, that’s not that important). Keeping up a rally really feels nice and rewarding, and surprisingly goes well with the Lofi music that’s being highlighted here. However, if you miss one, it is an automatic failure. Though, there isn’t much downtime giving you only 3 seconds to compose yourself before the song starts over again as the rally starts over. Considering that you’ll most likely miss a lot of hits, this was needed and helps in installing that “just one more try” mentality. While just doing regular ping pong may seem like it’ll get boring after a while, there is some shake ups. There are 5 chapters, featuring 3 songs each. Once you get out of the first song, the other chapters will add different gimmicks that you’ll have to pay attention to. From having a double ball rally, having the ball change direction as it crosses to your side (called wind, and you do get a heads up), darkening your opponents side so you can’t see the ball until it crosses to your side again, and hiding the boxes that help with timing. There is a story here as well. Your character is going through something and at the beginning of each chapter, you get a text, which a strange animal head will repeat. And as you’re going between songs in the level, you’ll get a little snippet of text. This all gives you enough information to decipher what might be going on, with the ending bringing in a twist that I personally did not expect. Once you finish all chapters, which doesn’t take that long, you can go to free play mode with features 25 songs, the option to play split screen with a friend, and pick what modification you want. This does have an extra choice with three balls, where every so often, you’re opponent will hit two extra decoy balls. You can even add in your own songs (it only accepts .ogg files) if you so wish. I would say my one complaint is that you have an instant failure if you miss one ball, but I did learn that after the first chapter, you can enable No Fail Mode by going left in the train station menu. Though, I do recommend trying out the level before doing this. This way, you can get the challenge this game is supposed to present and maybe find yourself persevering. If you just can’t get past it, for me it was all Chapter 4 levels, enable it. Lofi Ping Pong is also available on Switch and mobile devices, which this feels like it will be at home at. Not only will you be listening to some Lofi songs, but doing sme rhythm ping pong action as you wait. [h1]Verdict[/h1] Despite some frustration I had at constantly failing before finding out there was a No Fail Mode I could activate, Lofi Ping Pong is an enjoyable rhythm game that also presents you with a good challenge. For anyone that’s a fan of rhythm games, I recommend checking this out if you haven’t already picked it up. [code]💜 Check out my other reviews at [url=https://witchsreviewcorner.com]Witch’s Review Corner[/url] or visit my Curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/28714255/] The Witch’s Corner![/url] 💜 [/code]
• gamedeal user

  May 17, 2021

  How can a game be relaxing and frustrating at the same time
• gamedeal user

  May 30, 2021

  Damn, i just wanted to play ping pong and chill and now i'm crying