ClusterPuck 99 Review

Recently there has been a resurgence in the local multiplayer scene, with PC leading the charge. Games like Nidhogg, ScreenCheat and SpeedRunners all successfully recreate that not-so-friendly couch competition that many of us grew up with. The latest addition to this friendship-destroying trend is ClusterPuck 99, a game which offers fleeting moments of joy, but lacks the minute-to-minute thrills of the genre's best.

ClusterPuck 99 effectively plays like a top-down version of hockey; two teams face off against each other, attempting to score into their opponent's goal. On the field, players can dribble, shoot and perform a charge tackle, while the left and right sticks are used for movement and rotation respectively. These simple interactions are fairly uninteresting on their own, but become more substantial when more players are involved and you're forced to think about positioning, passing, goalkeeping and shielding.

Matches are played in one of 20+ maps, each varying in difficulty - early levels are plain geometric shapes with goals at each end, while later ones are littered with spikes, speed boosts, bumpers and pitfalls. Things get a bit too crazy on the last few levels, but earlier ones strike a good balance between skill and chaos. The combination of obstacles, the physics-driven puck and other players results in an exciting unpredictability.

The game supports up to eight players locally, although you'd be lucky to make such a set-up on a PC. Thankfully, the developers have included a comprehensive AI to play against, which comes with easy, medium and hard difficulty. To get a human-like challenge, you'll need to put it on the hardest setting, but it's still no match for having some real-life challenge. The AI can be mixed in with real players, meaning you can set up large matches with just a few buddies.

For those who prefer single-player, there's the challenge mode. This includes ten mini-games in which the player must demonstrate their skills, including goalkeeping, shooting and manoeuvring. Depending on your performance, you'll get a bronze, silver or gold medal. These provide a nice distraction, but don't last very long - they can all be completed pretty quickly, and some are easy enough to get gold on the first attempt.

As far as playing without friends goes, that's your lot; there's no online multiplayer, and it's a glaring omission. The PC isn't the easiest platform to gather players around, so matchmaking would have gone a long way to extending the game's shelf life. Without it, ClusterPuck 99 feels almost unfinished.

The simplicity of controls extends to the game's presentation; menus use a slick, minimalist design and there's little cluttering up the screen mid-match. Arenas are rendered in a lovely, isometric 2.5D style. The soundtrack falls short of the mark, though, consisting mostly of unmemorable, repetitive techno loops.

ClusterPuck 99 is a decent game, but with the addition of an online mode it could have been a great one. It's true that the core gameplay isn't as exciting as, say, SpeedRunners, although it is more strategic. I can't see the game racking up hours in many people's libraries, but if you've got a local multiplayer playlist, ClusterPuck 99 will make a good addition to the mix.