Pressman iPieces Air Hockey

By Will Greenwald

The iPad? has tons of air hockey games, because it's one of the simplest game concepts. You take a puck and two paddles or mallets and knock the puck around. The first home video game, Pong, is based on this. But these touch-screen games all have the same problem: there's no physical feedback, because you can only use your fingers to manipulate the puck. Pressman's iPieces Air Hockey game tries to change that by adding physical game pieces to an air hockey game, letting you put your hands on something while you knock the still-virtual puck around on the screen. At $12.99 (direct), it's an inexpensive novelty, but considering how little you get and how unnecessary the pieces are, it's still hard to like.

The physical "iPieces" are white plastic pawn-shaped pieces with removable red rings and red felt pads on the bottom to set off the iPad's capacitive touch screen. These two pieces are the only physical items in the $12 box (along with two other red felt pads if you want to replace them); everything else is in the free air hockey app you can download from the iTunes App Store.

It's a very clever concept to give players physical air hockey mallets (that's what they're called, mallets) to hit a virtual puck on an iPad screen. It works pretty well, but without an actual puck you still don't get any real feedback from the game. You can play the air hockey app about as well using your fingertip, and the plastic pieces are nothing more than bits that keep your fingers in a different position from rubbing directly on the screen.

Pressman's iPieces Air Hockey game is a fun novelty, but the plastic pieces don't justify the $12 price tag and they don't add to the game because you still can't feel a physical puck respond to the physical pieces; you're just slidding bits of plastic around on a screen. You can find air hockey games you can play with your fingers and enjoy just as easily for free on the iPad, so there's no reason to get this game unless you really want to hold something while knocking around a virtual puck.

More Toy Reviews:
??? Pressman iPieces Snakes & Ladders
??? Pressman iPieces Air Hockey
??? NeuroSky Necomimi Brainwave Cat Ears
??? Hasbro Lazer Tag 2-Blaster Battle Pack
??? Hasbro Lazer Tag Single Blaster
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/E_yFb-HrvdI/0,2817,2409186,00.asp

jionni lavalle earthquake san francisco donald payne elizabeth berkley lenny dykstra the voice jenelle evans