Air Hockey

Tips for Air Hockey

In Air Hockey the speed of your striker at the moment of contact goes into the shot, so move through the puck rather than just touching it. A gentle nudge lets it drift, which is easy for the other side to read, while a fast flick sends it hard off the far rail. The puck barely slows on its cushion of air and the rails give clean bounces, so a shot off the side wall arrives from an angle that is harder to cover. Neither striker can cross the centre line, so angles and timing matter more than chasing.

In defence, stay between the puck and your goal, which is only as wide as your striker. A shot that clips the rounded lips of the goal mouth can bounce straight back into play, so do not relax on a near-miss. Against the computer, start on Easy, which is late to the rebound, move up to Normal, which reads one bounce ahead, and save Sharp for later, since it works out where the puck will cross its goal line and waits there.

How to play Air Hockey

In Air Hockey two strikers face each other across a table, and the aim is to knock the puck into the other side's goal while guarding your own. Before a match you choose a table, your opponent and the match length: first to five, seven or eleven goals. A three-two-one countdown runs before each face-off, and the player who conceded the last goal takes the next one.

You can move your striker anywhere on your own half, but never across the centre line. The puck rides on a cushion of air, so it hardly slows down, and the speed of your striker when it meets the puck goes into the shot. A gentle touch lets it drift, while a fast flick sends it hard off the far rail. The rails give clean bounces, and the goal mouths have rounded lips that can send a near-miss back into play. Your goal is only as wide as your striker, so defending is about position as much as speed. The first player to reach the chosen number of goals wins, and R starts a rematch.

On a laptop the table lies flat: player one plays on the left with the mouse or W A S D, and player two on the right with the arrow keys. On a phone or tablet each player drags a striker with a finger on their own half, and both fingers are tracked at once. P pauses and M mutes.

About Air Hockey

Air hockey is a table game known from arcades and games rooms: a smooth table with air blowing up through tiny holes, a light puck and two hand-held strikers. Kiloo's Air Hockey brings that table to the browser, with the low friction, clean rails and flick shots that make the real thing so quick.

It is built first of all for two people sharing one device. Stand a phone or tablet on the table between you and the playfield turns upright, with the top scoreboard flipped to face the other player, so Air Hockey works well for friends, brothers and sisters, or a parent and child. On your own, the computer comes in three levels: Easy chases the puck, Normal reads one bounce ahead and Sharp works out where the puck will cross its goal line and waits there. Three tables change the look, a neon arcade slab with under-lit edges, a classic wood-and-cream table and a sheet of ice with red and blue markings, and a match to five goals is short enough for a quick game.

Frequently asked questions