Review: Glow Air Hockey

Score:
48%

Author: Hyperkani

Version Reviewed: 1.01(0)

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First up, the basic elements of Air Hockey are all here - you have one paddle on screen, which you can move around your half of the board with your finger, and a puck that can move at a very slow speed, or have a huge amount of momentum imparted on it with a quick flick of said finger. There's no slow-down or stuttering that I can see in the graphics, and given the speed you make the puck move, that's impressive. The puck keeps pace with your finger, there's no ghosting or jumping on the screen, and the neon-like glow in the title is very effective.

Praise out the way, there are a lot of niggles here that start to add up, and at least one massive "why isn't that there?" which stops Glow Air Hockey getting a thumbs up from me.

Let's start with how the app is financed. It uses in-app advertising, which pops up between levels. Naturally these require an internet connection, and Glow Air Hockey checks this when you start the app. Unfortunately if it can't get that connection, you don't get to play, and the application exits. Can I understand the rationale behind this? Yes, but I think it's a silly design choice to make. There are lots of times you won't have coverage and want to play a mobile game, especially if you commute. Forget about Glow Air Hockey in that situation.

There's also the complete lack of two-player gaming. What I was really expecting was to be able to put this in the middle of a table, and have an energetic and vicious two-player battle with my friends. It's simply not there. Did this not occur to the developers? Or were they only given an incredibly small timescale to code something around Air Hockey by their line manager?

 

The computer AI opponent does have an increasing skill level that will allow you to find the right personal level of challenge, but the increase is at such a dramatic pace that you'll find you go from "too easy" to "too hard" in the space of two levels, with little granularity to find the sweet spot that makes you want to keep on playing. And each time you advance through the levels, you are shown an advert that has a fixed time before you can dismiss it, killing any rhythm or feel you might be building up.

The physics is right in Glow Air Hockey, and the puck reacts as I would expect it to - it's just that a nice physics demo with some ads on top is not a gaming experience. It's not fun, it doesn't keep you involved in the game, and frankly I'm surprised that the decision was made to let this go out to the public.

Ultimately, I'm not sure that Glow Air Hockey can be saved without a significant re-code, and even then you are going to be left with the elephant in the room of the screen size and your finger. On the four inch E7, Glow Air Hockey is a touch cramped, and that's before you put your finger on the paddle and obscure half your screen. On the smaller screened Symbian devices it's more an exercise in guesswork than planning and observation.

Technically, this works. But as an application, it's not making the grade at all.

-- Ewan Spence, Oct 2011.

Reviewed by Ewan Spence at 9:55 UTC, October 3rd 2011