Shufflepuck Cafe (Second Review)


Title           Shufflepuck Café (Second Review)
Game Type       Sport
Publisher       Brřderbund Software
Players         1
Compatibility   OCS (AGA with patch)
HD Installable  Only with patch
Submission      Klaus Dreyer

Review
If you know air hockey you should have a pretty good idea of what's going
on in Shufflepuck Café. Shufflepuck and air hockey are pretty much the
same: There's a rectangular table with borders on the two long sides, two
players sitting at each end of the table with a pad, and finally there's a
puck. The goal is to beat the puck over the edge of the tables at the
opponent's end of the table, which is done using the pad. The one who
reaches 15 points first wins.

The pad is controlled by mouse, which is a necessity for the game to
be as realistic as possible - a joystick simply wouldn't do. Everything is
seen from an angle as if you sat by the table yourself. The guests at
Shufflepuck Café are strange individuals, they all like to play
Shufflepuck and they all have their own style of playing. For example the
crocodille Lexan is almost impossible to beat at the beginning of a
game, but he easily gets drunk, and after a while his reactions start to
fail - and then you win. Eneg is a pig dressed as a General, and one of
the tough opponents. He has no real weaknesses; fast reactions and some
hard shots. The ghost Neural is one of (if not the) hardest players to
beat, (s)he plays exactly like yourself! Everytime you make a hard shot
you'll get it all back, a soft shot results in an equal soft shot. And
talking about the spiritual world, Bejin the Witch is just an overall
player, but with a magic serve. She doesn't even need to touch the puck.
It's magic! Biff Raunch is the unbeatable (?) master, plays much like the
General, just much better! Also, he's the café's champion, but of course
you can try to beat him by starting a little Cup match. If you do, you
have to play against all of the players (about 10), each new player
better than the previous, ending up playing against Biff. If you have
problems winning you can change the size and hardness of your pad (not in
the Cup, though), or even set up a block on the middle of the table. It's
a fun game, but it tends to get a little boring in the long run, as it is
quite simple too. What I really miss about it is the possibility to be
able to play against a human opponent. It would be great, but I guess you
have to go to a fun house or pub to do this. Anyway, if you want to train
your reactions or feel the atmosphere of the pub without being there, then
check out this game.






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