About Billiards on Ice

Billiards on Ice is three familiar games stacked on top of each other. The table looks like an ice hockey rink crossed with a foosball layout, you are striking a disc rather than a ball, and the actual play is pool — line up the angle, judge the deflection, commit to the shot.

That mix catches people out at first. The rink and the foosball framing make it look like air hockey, so you come in braced for something fast and reflexive. It is not that. Underneath the presentation it plays at pool’s pace — patient, deliberate, one considered shot at a time. Once you stop expecting speed from it, the hybrid starts to make sense.

It is a good fit if you like a game that keeps count. There is a score to improve on and results worth coming back to, which makes it a different proposition from the drifting, open-ended puzzles elsewhere on this site. Plays in short sessions and the controls are straightforward.

Who it is not for: anyone expecting air hockey reflexes, and anyone who wants to switch off entirely. This one asks you to aim.