Football Pinball

Football Pinball is exactly what it sounds like, and better than that description suggests: a pinball table arranged like a football pitch, viewed from your own end, with two flippers standing in for your defenders.

How to play

The left flipper fires on the left arrow, A or Z; the right one on the right arrow or D; Space works both at once. On a phone or tablet, the left half of the screen is the left flipper and the right half is the right.

The rules map onto football cleanly. A ball that drains between your flippers is a goal for the other side — there is a net down there, so you get to watch it happen. To score yourself you have to send the ball back up the table, past three midfielders and a keeper who tracks along his line, and into the goal at the far end. Ninety seconds on the clock, more goals wins, level is a draw.

That keeper is the detail that makes the game work. Beating a static obstacle is a timing puzzle; beating one that moves with the ball is a placement puzzle, and it forces you to think about which side of the goal you are attacking before you hit the ball, not after.

Scoring more than your opponent

• One flipper at a time. Both at once leaves the centre open, which is exactly where the ball ends up.
• Work the wings. The keeper owns the middle; the corners are yours.
• Be patient through midfield. Three players is a wall, not a coincidence.
• Shoot late, shoot anyway. A draw is not a win, and the last twenty seconds are free.

Who it is for

This is a two-minute arcade sports game that happens to be a genuinely good pinball table. It works solo against the clock, or with two people sharing a keyboard or a tablet — the kind of game that gets played three times in a row.