Air Hockey

🕹️ How to play

1. How air hockey works in one line: Each player holds a finger anywhere on their own half and drags their mallet to knock the puck into the other player's goal; first to 7 wins. Red plays from the bottom, blue from the top (right and left in landscape), and a mallet can never cross the center line.
2. Start a 2 player game in 3 steps: Lay the phone flat between you and sit on opposite ends. Tap “Start match” — a coin toss picks who serves first. Both of you press and drag on your own half at the same time; the server waits until the puck stops looking faded, then touches it with the mallet to serve.
3. How serving and scoring work: A puck whose center crosses the other end's goal mouth scores 1 point. The scorer's half flashes, the score pops, and 0.9 s later the puck appears on the conceding player's serve spot — the player who was scored on serves. A fresh puck is locked for 0.8 s (faded, can't be hit) so nobody can snipe the serve.
4. Practice air hockey alone: Tap “Solo? Wall practice” on the start card. Only the red mallet plays and the blue goal becomes a solid wall. Each return after the puck has crossed the center line counts as one rally hit; a goal in your own net or a stalled puck ends the round, and your best rally is saved.

📖 Rules & variants

Table and halves: the table stands upright, red owns the bottom half and blue the top half, with a goal mouth in the middle of each short end. You only control the mallet on your half. The finger that pressed first stays tied to that mallet until it lifts — dragging over the center line never hands it to the other player and a second finger on the same half is ignored, so both players can really play at once.

Scoring and winning: the puck scores when its center crosses the other end inside the goal mouth. Knocking it into your own goal still scores for the other player (marked “Own goal”). First to the target wins immediately — choose 3, 5 or 7 points (default 7), no win-by-two. Each finished match adds a win to the series score so you can keep a running tally.

Serving and stuck pucks: after a goal the player who conceded serves from their own serve spot by touching the puck with the mallet — there is no serve button. If the puck stays on one half for 8 seconds in a row (usually stuck in a corner), a 3-2-1 countdown appears for the last 3 seconds and then the serve goes to the other player. Crossing the center line resets the timer.

Two pucks and golden goal: with two pucks, each side starts with one and both are in play at the same time. A puck that goes in respawns on the conceding player's serve spot while the other keeps going. If both pucks go in at the same instant and both players hit the target together, it is a golden goal: one puck, coin toss for the serve, next goal wins.

Example rally: red serves and banks the puck off the right wall into the middle of blue's half; blue blocks it back. As it comes into red's half, red pushes it straight through the middle and it slides into blue's goal — 1:0, and blue serves next. When a player reaches 6 of 7, a “Match point” banner appears on their half.

Air hockey tips: bank shots off the side walls are much harder to block than straight pushes; on defense park your mallet in front of your own goal instead of chasing the puck; with two pucks defend the one closest to your goal first; never push hard toward your own end (that's how own goals happen); on fast speed get into position early and score with angles, not force.

❓ FAQ