Winter has gone, Spring has sprung, and that old childhood favourite Super Mario has jumped from the Mushroom Kingdom on our television screens and games consoles and into the sporting world! Well not quite, he has jumped from the screen and into the sporting arena, but in the form of tabletop air hockey! Mario against Luigi!
Super Mario Air Hockey is a fun and exciting tabletop game that is suitable for 1, 2 or 4 players, for players from age 4+, and has been so much fun for all the family. A game where the puck glides on real air! It is 2 games in one – regular air hockey for 2 single players to compete against each other or 1 player can player can play bonus strike by themselves. Skills needed to play (and develop as you play) are dexterity, agility, hand-eye coordination and good reaction times.
Contents:
- Air Hockey table with integrated score counter
- 2 Green Paddles (large and small sizes)
- 2 Red Paddles (large and small sizes)
- 6 Characters tabs
- 2 Centre Bridge Pieces (red and green)
- 6 Pucks (3 red and 3 green)
- 4 Goal End Pieces
It is very quick to set up, and it is very minimal (first play requires you to decorate the game with the stickers supplied). It does require batteries to be installed, and not the usual AA or AAA that you will have loads of lying around the house (or that you borrow from remote controls) but two of the larger and fatter C size batteries.
To play air hockey, you just place the bridge in the centre and add the goal ends, select your side, grab your paddle and try to knock the pucks into your opponent’s goal on the other end – the first to score 15 goals is the winner. To play Target Strike, you place 3 characters at one end and try to knock them over.
Overall, we have all loved playing the Super Mario Air Hockey, it is excellent fun, and the pucks really do float over the air. Once turned on, the air flow is very good, and the pucks slide around the board very easily and at a very good speed (without the air turned on the puck slides around like a soggy piece of toast and rarely reaches the other goal).
There are two different sized paddles to use, or to enable 2 teams of 2 to play. Game play is simple, just hit and block pucks, pushing them back towards the goal of your opponent. The first to reach 15 goals is the winner. Whilst 15 seems a big number to be keeping track of during the excitement of play, there is a handy scoring system built right on to the table – there is a slider on each side so that you can keep track of your own score – if would be better if the numbers where of a different colour than that of the white of the game frame, so that they are easier to read.
The game can also be played in one player mode (handy in our house where one always wants to play games and the other one doesn’t). You remove the centre bridge pieces, change the goal for a piece that holds targets and you can play Target Strike. You place 3 of the character tabs (or figures from the Link System games) in the slots and you try to use your paddle and pucks to knock them over.
The Super Mario Air Hockey is a fun game with quick game play. Simple to set up and can be played as a 1 or 2 player game (or 2 teams). The rules are simple, and it does bring out that competitive edge. The only very tiny downsides of the game are the batteries (personally we would have preferred AA or AAA batteries as we always have those in the house) and the numbers on the scoring board could have been a different colour so that they are easier to read at a glance.
We loved Super Mario Air Hockey, it is good fun for all players regardless of age and young can play against older age groups with no real disadvantage. Highly recommended to add some fast and competitive play to game nights.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £29.99
For more information visit supermario.epochtoys.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
