Have you ever played one of those games that everyone raves about, but it doesn’t click with you? It looks really fun and should be right up your alley, but for some reason you can’t crack it. “What’s wrong with me?” you might wonder. “Am I doing something dumb?” Well, if you couldn’t guess, that was my first experience with Chillingo’s Power Ping Pong ($4.99). After playing for about a week now, I think I’m finally figuring out what was wrong. We’ll get to all that soon enough, but first: what is it?

Power Ping Pong is a table tennis game designed specifically for touch screens. It’s a lot more arcade-y and silly than the great Table Tennis Touch (Free), but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The action is fast and furious, with colorful characters and flying balls zipping across the screen as you try to get to 11 points before you opponent does. There are also a slew of power-ups to change up the gameplay briefly and give you (or your adversary) an edge.

The game is controlled entirely with swipes, similar to Fruit Ninja (Free) (there’s even a familiar “slash" effect drawn on the screen after each swipe). Generally, you’ll be dragging your finger up from the bottom of the screen to serve or return the ball, with the precise angle determining where it goes. And, as you’d expect, a faster swipe sends the ball further, and a slower one keeps it close to the net. Finally, you can swipe horizontally to impart spin onto the ball, if you’re feeling fancy.

All of that sounds great on paper, but unfortunately my experience with the controls were (literally) hit and miss. On my iPad Air the tiny little ping pong ball on screen seemed to require an insane amount of precision to hit with any accuracy. I felt like I couldn’t be more than a pixel off or I’d miss, which seemed weirdly rigid for a fun little arcade game. Furthermore, it seemed like no matter how hard or fast I swiped, the ball would always land around the middle of the table. I even re-played the tutorial to see what I was missing, to no avail. And don’t even get me started on trying to make the stupid ball spin.

I felt completely at a loss for my first hour or so of the game. What was even worse was that the very first “boss" in the career mode seemed to be about 40 times more difficult than the three warm up opponents that came before. I was completely stuck. Baffled, I turned to our forums to see if I was missing something. A few people seemed to be having the same problem as me, but for the most part everyone else was having a blast. What the hell was I missing?

I wasn’t about to abandon such a sweet looking game, so I pressed on. I messed with the sensitivity settings, I tried the game on my iPhone 6, I did the tutorial a third time, and I experimented a ton with my swipes. Here’s what I found: First and foremost, the game does seem to require very accurate swipes. Make sure you’re striking right through the middle of the ball (this game isn’t, in fact, Fruit Ninja). To make the ball go farther, it doesn’t seem to matter how fast your swipe is like the tutorial says; rather, you need to swipe sooner. Swipe right after the ball hits your side of the table to send it flying to the opposite edge. For spins, make sure the swipe is long, quick, and as flat as possible. I’ve also found that I get better spins if I swipe slightly above the ball rather than through the middle. And finally, if you really want to do well, ditch the iPad. It’s an order of magnitude easier to return the ball from anywhere on screen when your screen is nice and small.

It took a lot of re-adjustment, experimentation, and practice, but I finally feel like I’ve got Power Ping Pong cracked. And you know what? It was well worth it. When everything clicked into place I could finally see why everyone was raving about it. It’s now more than just a pretty face (though it is very, very pretty), and when everything comes together the game really sings. I wish the tutorial were a little clearer for idiots like me, and I’m hopeful than an update can relax the accuracy required on the iPad. The difficulty could be smoothed out a bit as well, since the bosses seem to be significantly more challenging than regular opponents (and the AI rarely falls for any of the power-ups, rendering them almost useless). Even if you don’t play the career mode, though, you’ve still got the excellent endless Survival mode and some fairly decent online multiplayer. In all, it’s an incredibly impressive package that’s well worth your five dollars–so long as you’re prepared to put in a little effort on the (apparently small) chance you have any of the control issues I did.