Looking for a new iPad gaming app? Two of our writers weighed in with their top choice.
Air Hockey
Gameplay is a simple as that title. Like vertical pong, each side of the ice in position of a red bumper. This bumper is used to bat the puck around the surface of the rink, the intention being to put the disk behind your opponent’s guard and score a goal. The winner is whichever player manages to accumulate more goals.
I don’t know why I bothered to explain the rules of Air Hockey, as I don’t know a living soul whose never played it. It is an institution, locatable in arcades, and movie theaters, Chucky Cheeses, and the occasional gas station. It is the primordialization of the American competitive arcade game: a Mano e Mano battle, in which eye contact not only occurs, but is encouraged! There you stand, furiously poised to unleash plastic fury on your opponent, when suddenly you gaze across the table to find them equally hardened. It’s enough to bring goosebumps to one’s arms, this furious competition.
Of course, the app version of air hockey loses some of this luster. It reduces the game to its essential aspects, its bones, its very essence. No longer is one playing just for the experience, for the jovial environs and surroundings, the laughter of children and the burnt pizza smell. Now, you are playing for glory, for victory, the capitalist ideal of competition writ large on virtual corrugated ice. It is glorious, and it is American!
The app is Air Hockey. It’s a free download from the App Store, and it comes highly recommended.
Super Stickman Golf
Super Stickman Golf is an app that is over a year old, but it has just recently gained popularity among students at Prep. The object of the game is simple: just get the ball in the hole. But with tons of obstacles, it’s not so easy. The character golfing must travel the world. Fom the desert to the forest to space to secret laboratories to the ocean to the city, you’re in for quite an adventure. Your golfer defies physics, with power ups such as air brakes, and turning water into sand. You can also gain special powers through buying hats at the hat raffle.
In multiplayer mode, you can race to the finish with up to 10 friends in the intense race mode setting. Some courses are easy, and some courses are hard. But when you’re playing super Stickman gold, you know you’re in for a good time. The app is available for $2.99 in the App Store.