As a kid, one of my absolute things to play at the arcade with my Dad was the hockey table machines. If hockey tables (or arcades for that matter) were before your time, a hockey table is similar to a foosball table with players on opposite ends controlling a team of miniature hockey players that are controlled with handles that can be pulled in or out to move the player in their track and spun to make them move their stick around. Much like foosball you could either play this with extremely calculated moves, or, my technique of choice, wildly flail the handles about, spinning your players like crazy and knocking the puck all over the place.
Stinger Table Hockey effectively duplicates the same insanity of a real hockey table, and while the controls are still in the process of being tweaked, I thought they worked pretty well. Basically, dragging up and down on a track moves that player back and forth, and swiping right or left on the same track causes the player to spin around. It’s pretty intuitive, and works well enough to be fun.
There is a single player mode that allow you to play against an AI opponent which is a little on the lame side since the fun part of hockey tables were always playing with another person. Thankfully, Stinger Table Hockey has both bluetooth and wifi multiplayer that I can’t wait to try out. There are also tournament modes, and skill tests that feature shootouts and other challenges.
If all goes as planned the guys at Stinger Games are going to finish tightening up the controls and physics and should have Stinger Table Hockey on the App Store sometime next week.
