Game tables are a great way to spend free time with your family and the best part about them is that you don’t have to leave your home to play them. One of the most popular game tables at the moment is hockey because it is adrenaline filled, fast-paced game that will raise the heart rate for every person who tries to play it. But, there are some disadvantages of air hockey game tables with the size of the table as the most common one.

I am not sure if you knew, but there are different hockey games you can play with your friends or family if you don’t have a place to put an air hockey table. Yes, the air hockey game table is the most popular one, but there are other games and game tables that are as entertaining as air hockey, but they require less room.

So, if you really want to play hockey but don’t have the room to put a full-sized air hockey table in your home, here are some equally interesting game tables for you to try.

Tabletop Air Hockey Game

The tabletop is like a small version of the air hockey table, which means that it works like the full-sized table, but half the size. The best advantage of a tabletop over the full-sized table is that it doesn’t have legs. That means you can easily put it on the existing table (dining table, coffee table – depending on the size), you can put it on the bed or simply on the floor. There are two types of tabletop air hockey games, the air hockey with airflow and push hockey. The air hockey uses a small motor that makes steady airflow, while the push hockey doesn’t have a motor so there isn’t any airflow. The only way to move the puck is to push it around. The tabletop models are mostly kid’s air hockey tables so your children may like it more than you. If you want to spend time with your kids playing air hockey, you can be the crowd or the referee.

Rod Hockey Table Game

Rod hockey table game is actually a pretty interesting game and you could describe it as a combination of foosball and hockey tabletop. As you can see from the name of the game, it is a hockey game where you use small rods to control the players. This game uses actual hockey players and a small puck, so you don’t use the pusher to control the puck, you use the rods that move the players. It is similar to foosball table because you can move the players only an inch or so, just as you can move the foosball players left and right on the foosball field. Although this is a tabletop version, I would recommend putting the game on the table or on the floor because it has small legs and if you put it on the bed, you won’t be able to play the game. The rods are also pretty small, but you can easily grab them and control the players which means that you can enjoy this interesting game as much as your kid.

Bubble Hockey Table Game

The bubble hockey game table is the most interesting one because you can’t touch the players or the playing field. The entire playing field is covered with a protective plastic dome and the entire playing field looks like it is under a bubble – hence the name bubble hockey.  This is a game table, which means it has legs so you can’t put it on the table or on the bed, you have to have room for it. But, it is much smaller than foosball or air hockey table. The dome doesn’t allow you to touch the players so you have to use the rods on the side of the cabinet to control the players (it resembles foosball table). The players on the playing field are real hockey players and they can only move up and down and you can rotate them to shoot the puck. The dome is here to make sure that the puck doesn’t fly off the table and you don’t have to worry about breaking it  – most of them are made of shatter-resistant plastic. When you observe the playing field you will notice that it looks like an ice hockey arena. The players, the playing field, even the scoring monitor located at the top of the plastic come – everything looks exactly like it would look in the ice hockey arena.

Author bio: Adam is a game table enthusiast who loves to spend his free time playing air hockey table, which is his favorite game table. But, he has experience with other hockey games like bubble hockey game so if you are interested in learning more about that game, read his post about Bubble Hockey Table.

Photo Credit: Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash