Shufflepuck Cantina – play ‘Star Wars’ like air hockey in the revamped 80′s game of Shufflepuck Cafe

by Paul Wilks Mar 12, 2013 7:57 AM – Leave your thoughts

Install

Shufflepuck Cantina is an immersive and richly developed air-hockey game where you face off against a series of aliens. It ‘feels’ a little Star Wars-y and the infectious Cantina music is cutely included. The game is a freemium model and, while you can play to your hearts content, you’ll probably need to pay out in order to progress in any meaningful way.

Price: Free, plus In-app Purchases

Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Everyone

AndroidTapp.com Android Game Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

Awesome graphics!
Detailed and immersive sound and music!
Loads of levels!
Missions!
Lots of characters to meet and beat!
Collecting biographies lets you assume that chracters power!

Cons

You’re unlikely to progress unless you dip into your pocket for in-app purchases.

Features:

Shufflepuck Cantina is a new, cool and addictive air-hockey game. The title is heavily themed with a far-flung Star-Wars style theme and wickedly sumptuous visuals. Now, if you’re a bit of a retro gamer and are feeling itchy about the title, you’d be right in thinking you’d seen this somewhere before. The developers are at odds on their website to note that the game is very much an update of Shufflepuck Cafe- a popular PC title from the late 1980s.

And what an update it is! If you like air hockey- there is lots to love about Shufflepuck Cantina, so let’s begin with the positives. Graphics are second to none; beautifully animated and responsive. Everything is remarkably sharp and pixels glisten with colour and movement. This is backed up with brilliant sound and effects. From the familiar Cantina band music to the small menu sounds and gaming effects- it’s as richly sonic as you can find anywhere else in the Google Play Store.

The game features over 100 levels of gameplay, but I think you’re very unlikely to reach them unless you pay out with in-app purchases. You have to pay an exorbitant amount to ride the elevator to other levels, meaning you are mostly likely bum around on the first floor playing the three characters there unless you are willing to use real cash. This, to be fair, is the only thing that stifles the game. It means that while you can play over and over entirely for free, you’ll only be able to play the first level unless you really are incredibly patient and are able to slowly save up credits won while competing.

The game boasts 12 different characters to play against over 4 floors. There are missions to complete and alien biographies to collect. These biographies allow you to use that individual opponents in-game tricks, which are pretty cool. The game has massive potential, but is over reliant on you making purchases if you want to progress. There is even a highly ambitious purchasing option which lets you fork out £77 (about $115) for a big stack of credits. Now, no matter how good a game is, this is just too much for a mobile game, how much value can you possibly get from that? So kids, think carefully.

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Gameplay view (1)

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Gameplay view (2)

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Gameplay view (3)

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Gameplay view (4)

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Gameplay view (5)

: Shufflepuck Cantina – One on one with a friend

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Losing

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Victory

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Outside menu

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Crashlanded

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Tutorial controls

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Missions

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Duel mode

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Identification

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Biographies

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Friendly locals

: Shufflepuck Cantina – In-app purchases

: Shufflepuck Cantina – Pop up ads

Fun Factor:

Despite the looming negative mentioned, the game is undoubtedly fun and enjoyable to play. Those gorgeously crisp graphics, quirky characters, immersive music and familiar gameplay mean it sucks you in very easily. There is even a mode that lets you play against a friend one-on-one.

Addictive:

If you enjoy the air hockey genre of games- and to be fair- there’s not a huge amount of quality on this sector of the Google Play Store, you’re very likely to enjoy and become engrossed in this.

Graphics:

The graphics are fantastic. Deliciously smooth, stunningly animated and chock full of cool detail.

Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:

The sound is really impressive too. The Cantina music is incredibly cool and catchy.

AndroidTapp.com Rating

(4.15 out of 5)

Should you Download Shufflepuck Cantina? Shufflepuck is a stunning game with only one flaw- its thirst for gamers to make in-app purchases. It’s not even strictly a freemium title in that it occasionally throws up a full screen advert for other applications. There are the means to earn ‘free’ credits (download another app, do this, watch that, go here) but this method is becoming tedious now. Despite this criticism, I’d recommend anyone to try it out- it has been impressively created and even for the limited gameplay, it’s loads of fun and has huge potential. If only other areas of gameplay were a little more accessible without requiring cash, or if there was a meritocratically rewarding paid version, it would verge on being a 5 star game without hesitation.

Developer: Agharta Studio

Tags: 3D, 3D Games, Air Hockey, Android App, Android Apps, Android Game, AndroidTapp.com App Review, Cantina, Hockey, Shufflepuck, Shufflepuck Cafe, Shufflepuck Cantina, Star Wars

Categorised in: Arcade & Action