Shufflepuck Cafe

Shufflepuck Cafe is a virtual air hockey-esque game developed and published by Brøderbund and released in 1988 initially for Macintosh. It was ported to other platforms in the following years, including the Amiga and DOS. The game has black and white graphics, but the way it’s drawn gives it a graphic novel feel.

As with air hockey, your goal is to knock the puck into your opponent’s goal. Simple enough premise, right? You can play either single opponents or in a tournament setting. You take on nine computer opponents who are pretty varied and out there. Many of the more difficult opponents will happily ‘cheat’ you during the game to win. However, you have your own ‘cheat’ options available, like stretching your paddle out the entire length of your goal. The Amiga version has a storyline where your ship has broken down, and you need to use the phone, but to get to it, you must beat everyone at the cafe.

Shufflepuck Cafe was pretty well received when it was released. I am a big fan of air hockey, so I’m already pretty happy about that part. This title is a friendly, casual game that can hone your reflexes and give you a break from your more ‘serious’ games.