In between there's an array of opponents including a lounge lizard (yes literally) with a taste for blue champagne, and Princess Be|in who has a neat mental approach to the game - she doesn't hit the puck when she serves, she waves her hand over it. At one end there's the bespectacled wimp Skip Feeney who bears more than a passing resemblance to Woody Allen and is a total pushover, and at the other there's Biff Raunch, a hell's angel with a vile temper. Each has a particular character and skill level. The set up over, you can start to take on some of the weirdos. To add extra interest to the game you can also select a blocker which allows you to insert an obstacle between you and the opponent.
This involves giving you more bounce from the puck or power in striking. Once into a match you can select attacking or defensive modes for the paddles. The game loads with an animated still of the locals and you can get into a match by clicking on one of the various pug-ugly faces. Wandering into this dive in search of a telephone you find yourself locked in a tournament with eight of the shufflepuck crazies that frequent the bar. The regulars are a pretty mixed bunch, united only by their love of shufflepuck. Played in a cafe somewhere on the furthest reaches of the galaxy, it's a cross between the sleazy bar in Star Wars and Milliways, the restaurant at the end of the universe in Hitchhiker's Guide. The simplicity of the game is spiced up with a neat scenario which transports it into a sci-fi setting. Should he or she miss the puck the glass is shattered and a point is lost.
Instead each player has a glass plate between him and the table to defend.
The game is Shufflepuck, which is basically air hockey played without goals. Broderbund's latest offers a sports simulation of sorts, a bizarre set of opponents, good sound, excellent graphics and plenty of variable options yet manages to be less than the sum total of its parts. There are some games that promise much more than they actually deliver.
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