Air Hockey Championship Deluxe — Play Free Online

Air hockey is one of the simplest ideas in sports games: a puck, a table with no friction to speak of, and a goal at each end. Air Hockey Championship Deluxe brings that to the browser as a quick head-to-head match. You control a mallet on your half of the table, and the job is to knock the puck into the opponent's slot before they do the same to you.

Rounds are short and the rules fit in a sentence, which is why this kind of game works well as a break between longer sessions. If you came to Doodle Jump for one-more-try arcade play, the appeal is similar: the skill is in reading movement and reacting a fraction earlier each time, not in memorising menus.

It loads in the page with nothing to install, and the same build works with a keyboard, a mouse or a touchscreen.

How to play

On a computer, move your mallet with the arrow keys or WASD, and use the mouse to aim and to pick options in the menus. On a phone or tablet, tap and swipe instead. Press Play above, choose from the on-screen options, and the puck is served.

A typical exchange goes like this: the puck comes toward your side, you meet it with the mallet, and your hit sends it back, either straight or off the side wall. Whoever fails to cover their own goal gives up a point, and the match carries on from the restart.

Tips

• Stay between the puck and your goal rather than chasing it all over the table. A mallet parked in front of the slot saves more shots than a fast one out of position.
• Use the side walls. A bounced shot arrives at an angle that is harder for the opponent to line up than a straight one.
• Avoid hitting as hard as possible every time. A controlled shot you can repeat beats a wild one that rebounds into your own half.
• If you are on touch, keep your finger near your own goal between shots so you are not starting from a standstill.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you want another sports-flavoured game with a physics feel, Bouncy Basketball is the closest on this site, built around awkward, wobbly movement rather than precise aiming. For cooperative play, Fireboy and Watergirl swaps the rivalry for puzzle-solving. And for the vertical arcade climbing the site is named after, there is Doodle Jump itself, along with Helix Jump.

Air Hockey Championship Deluxe suits short sessions, a few minutes at a time, and anyone who likes a sport where the rules take five seconds to learn.