14 DAY TRIAL // 
Air hockey games haven't exactly taken the market by storm despite the fact that there are quite a few Flash-based simulators of the popular real-life game.
Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe wants to change that and offers a great take on the simple game, while reminiscing in name to the 1989 Shufflepuck Cafe, and in style to sci-fi sagas like Star Wars.
With the promise of colorful opponents, all sorts of crazy powers, and plenty of challenges to delight those looking to try out their air hockey skills, Shufflepuck Cantina looks to be a winner.
Does it score the winning goal or should it be shuffled away? Let's find out.
Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe puts players in the space suit of an astronaut who lands on a mysterious alien world. He's taken to a local bar by a few friendly aliens and the only way to go back home is to build a brand new ship. Components for that ship, however, are owned by various bar patrons, and the only way they'll give them up is over a game of air hockey.
As such, you'll have to explore the bar's different levels, learn more about your potential opponents, and then challenge them to multiple games of air hockey until they give up their ship components.
This procedure, as you can tell, involves a lot of repetition, as each character has a multiple-part biography that shares all sorts of different details about them, their playing styles, their various abilities, but also their weaknesses.
They also offer some pretty funny dialog, in some cases, as well as quite a few hit and miss puns relating to air hockey.
In terms of actual hockey gameplay, Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe is a pretty enjoyable and varied experience. You face off against foes on a medium-sized table and quite often special power ups will appear. If you hit them with the puck, you can gain a variety of different abilities that improve your performance, such as an invisible shield or a bigger mallet, but also ones that help your foes, such as a shield for them or a smaller mallet for you.
Unfortunately, controlling the mallet with the mouse isn't exactly the most responsive experience. You can fiddle with the sensitivity in the game's menu, but it takes a lot of time before finding the perfect settings for your own mouse and preferences.
Each enemy has a different ability that can cause the puck to move in a variety of crazy ways. From turning around using 90-degree angles, to swerving or having a curved trajectory. Enemies are highlighted when their ability is ready for deployment, so that you can expect it, but as you progress through the cantina's floors, they begin to use their powers almost all the time.
Collision detection between the mallet and puck is also quite iffy, especially when it comes to the curved corners, as they don't send the puck in the direction you were hoping for. The speed of a puck is also sometimes reduced or increased without any plausible reason, so expect to get annoyed rather fast.
The game also has several different currencies, which get a bit annoying, as you don't always know what you need to do in order to collect more. The design of the in-game mission system is also confusing, so you don't always figure out what you need to do in order to unlock rewards.
The enemies, while quite varied in terms of appearance, style, abilities, or backgrounds, become rather annoying due to the constant repetition of their audio effects and animations. The game by design forces repetition in terms of matches and enemies, so you'll soon be forced to mute the whole thing.
As far as visual style is concerned, the title looks quite good, with an overall design reminiscent of sci-fi sagas like Star Wars or Firefly, and humor that draws inspiration from the likes of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There are some slowdowns when investigating the different floors of the cantina, however.
Conclusion
Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe is a relatively fun game but it takes some getting used to, especially when it comes to the mouse sensitivity. For those who want to try out their skills in some grueling air hockey matches, though, it's right up your alley.
