Taking inspiration from Pong—one of the first commercially successful videogames ever, released by Atari all the way back in 1972—Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis offers a simple but surprisingly engrossing experience that concentrates the studio’s state of the art game engine on the minutiae of professional ping pong. Considering the evident capacity of the proprietary framework (it’s been used on almost every Rockstar project since this one), it’s interesting to see it deployed to build what amounts to a very elaborate and fine-tuned mini-game, gussied up with stellar production values.

When set against expansive Rockstar titles like Grand Theft Auto IV or Red Dead Redemption, Table Tennis obviously sticks out like a sore thumb. Its low-stakes, party game simplicity and general dearth of extraneous content cannot compare with more sophisticated fare. But when you assess it alongside other games—most of them indies or budget titles—that take a simple concept and tease out all of its intricacies, it’s a fine little gem. It boils the experience down to its essence: just you, your opponent, your paddles, a table, and a ball. It’s pure gameplay. In focusing itself so deliberately, it beautifully exemplifies Bushnell’s Law, rewarding both pick-up-and-play and the patient practice required to conquer its harder difficulties. It also strikes a very pleasant balance between realism with its smooth animations and crisp sound design, and arcade stylization with its theatrical camera movements and slow motion.

I’m sure many gamers are eagerly awaiting the next entry in the GTA series, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel to Table Tennis, an elegant and unexpected delight from a studio that rarely releases a game that doesn’t allow the player to shoot someone in the face.