At Air Hockey Nerds, we have a massive bias towards real-life interactive play rather than games in the digital world. But what happens when playing air hockey simply isn't conceivable? I mean, getting a real life table set up in a car or on a jet plane (unless you're super rich) is going to be impossible. For these times, we decided to make an exception to our in-person mantra and try out three of the top rated air hockey apps.
If you're in a hurry, our favorite app from the apple store was Air Hockey Gold and our favorite one from the Google Play Store is Glow Hockey 2.
Here's a more detailed review of each of the apps.
Air Hockey Gold by Acceleroto
Overall Feel
The sounds and the feel of the game were quite immersive. The pucks and the mallets clicked and clacked as if it were real life. We think a bigger board or smaller pieces would have been nice, but it's not at all a deal breaker. Overall, this app was really solid and wouldn't mind having it handy to kill some time.
Our one gripe with this app was how intrusive the ads were. It seemed like every time that we'd change a setting there was a full screen interactive ad that had to be played with and then closed out.
How Much Does It Cost
There's two versions: Air Hockey Gold is the non-paid app with ads while regular Air Hockey is $0.99, but has no ads on it.
Given how annoying the ads were on this app, it's worth the $0.99.
Supports Two Players?
Air Hockey Gold does support two players. You can play with another person either over wifi or by each having a hand on the same device. The wireless version seems to only be able to be paired with a similar device meaning that you can't pair a phone with a tablet. Because we don't actually have a tablet, this couldn't be tested, but the app specifically says that it's searching for similarly sized devices once activate the pairing.
Download the App
Unfortunately, this app was only available for Apple devices. Despite looking high and low, we couldn't find it on the Android or Google Play Store.
Glow Hockey 2 by Innovative Air Hockey Game
Overall Feel
Overall the game felt pretty decent. We'd give it a 4 out of 5 simply because we felt the mallets and pucks were a bit too big for the table. If things were a bit smaller, it would be more representative of the real game and give players better ability to set up shots and execute more advanced air hockey strategies.
You can also switch out the board to get something a bit more realistic if you don't like the neon lights.
Aside from Air Hockey Gold, we'd rank it as our second choice.
How Much Does It Cost?
The app itself is free, but you can upgrade it to remove the ads for $0.99. However, at the time of writing this we weren't actually able to do the upgrade because it didn't support our phones operating system.
Supports Two Players?
Glow Hockey 2L does support two players, but the players have to use the same device. If you're on an iPad or large phone this could work, but not going to be ideal with the average mobile device.
Download the App
Air Hockey Multiplayer by Nancy Stack Colgan
Overall Feel
While we thought the puck size was on point for this app, the sound effects were kind of annoying. Rather than clicking around when the puck hits the mallet, it made a "bumping" and "buzzing" type sound which felt inappropriate and kind of annoying. Some of the sounds were OK, such as when the puck went into the goal.
Also, things felt a bit buggy if the puck got behind your mallet. The puck would bounce far too rapidly to make any moves or do anything about it.
How Much Does It Cost?
This app was free, but there was an option to get some visual upgrades or remove ads. Each seemed to be an additional $0.99. We didn't notice any ads while playing, so there's not a real reason that we'd upgrade. Perhaps the app is outdated.
Supports Two Players?
This app actually had the greatest number of options for multiplayer. You could play with another person on the same device or online. When we tested it out, it couldn't find a random person to pair us with, but gave us the option to invite another player in our contacts.
Download the App
Glow Air Hockey HD
Overall Feel
This was the least favorite on the list in terms of overall feel. The game went for a bit too much of a cosmic vibe and thus made it quite laggy. We tested it on a new phone as well, the iPhone 8 and still found that the gameplay was a bit jumpy.
It seems that the creators of this app put much more effort into making it look cool than making it run well. You can choose from a wide variety of pucks which they refer to as "balls". The balls range in design from all sorts of cosmic looking things (like black holes) to sprinkled chocolate donuts.
It's kind of fun and visually pleasing, but just not the greatest in terms of game play.
How Much Does It Cost?
Although the app charges $0.99 if you want to eliminate the ads, we didn't actually notice many ads on the game. A lot of the other apps had really intrusive ads that would take up your whole screen, but this wasn't as apparent with the Glow Air Hockey HD app.
Supports Two Players?
This app has a two player mode, but both players must be on the same device. There was no wireless pairing or online play.
Download the App
Wrap Up
If you can't get to a table, then playing air hockey on an app can actually be quite amusing. This is especially the case when you get two people involved rather than playing versus a computer. While we can't recommend any of these apps over the real thing, they will keep you busy in a pinch!