Air Hockey Roguelike

In a world where triple-A developers are playing it safe with proven formulas, remasters of big hits and games based on already popular brands, you can sometimes forget the old adage – the customer doesn’t know what they want until they see it. That’s certainly true for the brand-new game Air Hockey Roguelike, a clever mash-up that turns the tabletop sport on its head with power-ups and boss battles. It really is the kind of game I had no idea I wanted until I started playing it. But is a clever concept enough to carry the game? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review Air Hockey Roguelike by Taxi 95.

With a name like Air Hockey Roguelike, you know exactly what you’re getting. It takes the classic arcade game and adds an adventure component, complete with stats to upgrade and special items to buy. The whole thing is wrapped in an old school monochromatic aesthetic that makes it look like a long-lost Game Boy release.

The game is pretty straight-forward, with the player taking on a series of computer opponents in short rounds of air hockey. You can win by either being the first player to reach seven points or having the most points at the end of two minutes. If time runs out and you’re tied, then the screen will start to violently shake until somebody scores. Once you’ve beaten the computer, you can choose between jumping into another one-on-one battle or taking on one of the mini-games to earn a few extra coins. But don’t forget, this is a roguelike, so if you lose a match at any point, you’re stripped of all your items and sent right back to the beginning of the game.

From a gameplay perspective, this is pretty simple. You move the air hockey mallet around your half of the table with either the keyboard or an analog stick, all while using a carefully-timed dash to either defend your goal or smash the puck towards the opponent’s side. When you win one of these matches, you’ll have the choice between upgrading your strength, velocity and even the cooldown on your dash move.

While this is a good incentive to get into more one-on-one battles, you will often have the choice to play one of the mini-games. These are pretty simple puzzles where the player has to hit the puck into the goal, usually by bouncing it off of different walls. You start with a bunch of coins, but one disappears every time you hit the puck. Assuming you’re able to beat the stage, you’ll take the extra coins to the shop and buy one of several useful items. Some of them are passive, while others will need to be triggered by the player. I found it helpful to buy the +1 item, which gives you 1 point before the match even begins. Other useful items include an extra life, a power-up that makes our mallet bigger and one that temporarily increases the size of the opponent’s goal. This is where the game really starts to break free of its air hockey roots and feel like something unique.

As the progression goes, you’ll either get into an air hockey match, play a mini-game or go shopping through six stages before coming face-to-face with one of several bosses. These are more challenging battles that let the computer use some sort of special move to gain the upper-hand. For example, the first boss will turn the lights out on your side of the table, making it impossible to see what’s going on. A later stage will see you going up against an enemy that can split itself into two. This is Air Hockey Roguelike at its most creative.

The truth is, it would have been nice to see more creative flourishes like that. The standard opponents are pretty boring and easy to beat. They all act exactly the same, which makes their moves predictable. Give the standard opponents some of these extra powers or expendable items and you’re suddenly playing a much more exciting round of air hockey. The same is true of the table. The game waits until the very end to introduce a variation on the table, introducing a second goal on each side, but all that does is make winning the match even easier. This is the kind of game where players expect things to be over-the-top, so it’s disappointing to see Air Hockey Roguelike feel so constrained.

Unfortunately, this is just the start of the problems plaguing what is a genuinely good idea for a game. Some of the issues are small, like how some of the game is in Spanish, even if you select the English option, while other problems are more fundamental to the core experience. For example, it’s extremely easy to cheat the computer by sidelining the puck on your side of the table until time runs out. As long as you’re ahead by one point, you’ll win every time. This is cheating and it feels like the kind of exploit that would have been resolved early in development. But no, you can win pretty much every match-up by just waiting out the clock.

Another problem is that the game will lock up at weird times. This first happened to me when I tried to restart the game after a crushing loss. It tells me to add a coin, but it wouldn’t let me do anything. It didn’t freeze, per se, because clicking the shoulder buttons still showed the animation on screen, but I still had to stop the game through Steam in order to it again. I also had this happen to me after beating the game. At first it looks like you’ll be able to go through the extremely short game a second time, this time with all the items and upgrades, but then the game freezes up and you are, yet again, stuck. Lame.

There are other problems, like how easy the computer opponents are and how the physics aren’t quite up for the job, but those aren’t a dealbreaker. In fact, outside of the constant glitching and exploits, I was having a lot of fun with Air Hockey Roguelike. This really is an excellent idea, and at only three dollars, you’re guaranteed to get your money’s worth, no matter how many times it freezes up on you. It’s a good game, but this is one of those times where the game concept is a lot better than the execution.