I really do yearn for the days of video rental stores, especially if they had a kick-ass video game store hooked onto them the way my local Hollywood Video stores all had GameCrazy. That's the place where I bought my beloved Nintendo 64. It's the same place where I developed my love of bargain-hunting. It was Chris Pranger's first job that he could stomach. And thanks to demo console kiosks, I discovered some true gems of the video game industry that would have flown neatly under my radar otherwise. The very first game that I experienced on the Xbox 360--which, at the time I derisively referred to as the "Crazy White Circle Box"--was a game arguably designed to be a demo, but so undeniably polished to warrant a full-scale release.

Rockstar Presents Table Tennis is such a weird game, but not for any aesthetic or mechanical reason. Just because Rockstar made it. As impressive as Rockstar eventually became with their cinematic plot progression and living, breathing …