A visit to the arcade usually isn’t complete if I don’t do either one of two things: have a game on the venerable Daytona USA arcade machines, or if I’m with a bunch of friends, play a game of Air Hockey. The latter is a crazy past time that usually elicit screams and shouts whenever a puck goes into the goal, and because of this, I have not one but two Air Hockey apps on my iPhone.

The first one is simply titled Air Hockey(pictured on the right) by Accelerato, and the second, more recent app is Glide Hockey HD (on the left) by Sharkable Inc. Having played both, I can pretty much draw up comparisons between the two. Glide Hockey HD has really smooth graphics but at the same time, the AI tends to behave like a turtle, coming out of it’s shell only when the puck is near the goal.

The AI guards the goal jealously andso the player will have to go on the attack, and if you were to make a mistake, you can always expect the AI to punish you. In other words, it’s defensive and predictable.

On the other hand, Air Hockey may lack the graphical polish Glide Hockey HD has, but the AI plays more like a human, with mistakes and all. It knows when to defend, chases the puck, and attacks like how a human player would. This obviously makes it a more fun experience compared to GHHD. The only problem is, Air Hockey comes with a 99 cents price tag, but an even greater problem to some would be the distracting ads that Glide Hockey HD displays while you are playing.

Anyways, do check out both games. Air Hockey is located here, whereas Glide Hockey HD is available over here.