The idea of tabletop shuffleboard on the i-platform is nothing new.  In fact, Shufflepuck was one of the first games I discovered on my iPod Touch.  So, the first time I glanced at 10 Pin Shuffle, I thought it would be more of the same.  Ho-hum.  Uh…yeah.  I downloaded the free trial to check out how a game like this would look on the “big screen”, and within minutes, I was completely hooked.  This was anything but more of the same.  I immediately contacted the developer, and they were nice enough to send me a copy for review.

What sets 10 Pin Shuffle apart from any other Shuffleboard game I have played are the three game modes.  In addition to regular shuffleboard, you can also play 10 Pin Shuffle mode and the ultra-original 10 Pin Poker.  We’ll get back to the game modes in a moment. 

In the meantime, regardless of which mode you select, you can choose to join (or host) a Peer-to-Peer connection over a  network (you can do this via wifi or Bluetooth, though in my testing, I was never able to find anyone online with whom to play), play solo, play against another person on the same device (pass-and-play), or play against the computer.  When you play against the computer, you can select from one of two difficulty levels, Easy or Expert.  Each level has five opponents, each of which had a slightly more difficult style of gameplay than the last.  Of course, when you start, only the first will be available.  To unlock the next, you will need to start winning.

The game is controlled pretty much the way you would expect, which makes the whole thing extremely intuitive.  Simply flick the puck to send it sailing down the table.  Obviously, the harder you flick, the harder your shot will be.  I really liked the gameplay in this one, which did its best to approximate the real game, even providing an opportunity to use advanced techniques like side-wheeling (a method of controlling the spin on the puck using other fingers).   I was really quite impressed by the realism this gave the game.   Then again, since the game is on the iPad, the developers were able to offer assistance which goes well above and beyond the real-life game.  Options like the helper arrow, which shows the path your puck will take.  Just follow the path suggested by the helper arrow, and the puck will fire straight and true…or so you hope.

OK.  That brings us back to the three game modes included in this one package.  You are all pretty familiar with Shuffleboard already.  This is the basic form of gameplay.  There are two players, one controlling red pucks and the other blue.  The two players alternate shooting the pucks from one end of the table to the other, attempting to land in one of the scoring zones, without sailing right off the end of the table.  The object is to get as close to the edge as possible, without falling off.  Only those pucks which are closer to the end than your opponents closest puck will be scored.  Whoever reaches the preset scoring limit first wins the game.  Really, that is all pretty standard, and is consistent with most of the Shuffleboard games we have seen in the past.

This brings us to the Bowling part of the game.  There are two modes here.  In 10 Pin Shuffle, instead of aiming the pucks for scoring zones on the other end of the table, you will find a standard array of ten bowling pins.  Gameplay here is identical to bowling.  You get two shots per frame, with 10 frames comprising a game.  Scoring is based on the number of pins you knock over in each frame.  One point per pin.  A strike (all ten pins in one shot) is worth ten plus the total of the next two shots.  A spare (all ten pins down in two shots) counts for ten plus the value of the next shot.  Obviously, the player with the highest score at the end of the game is the 10 Pin Shuffle champion.

One impressive feature here is the pin physics.  When you hit a pin, it realistically collides with the other pins, sending them all flying.  This attention to detail in the graphics and animation is one of the features which makes this a fantastic game.

This all brings us to the most unique mode of the game, 10 Pin Poker.  Gameplay here starts off the same as Ten Pin Shuffle.  In other words, you will see the same standard arrangement of bowling pins.  In each frame, you will have two shots to knock them all over.  Knock them all down in one shot and you will receive two cards.  Knock them all over in two shots and you will receive one card.  Anything less, and you receive no cards.  The object is to earn enough cards to make the best poker hand.  As you might expect, there is a catch.  You can only hold five cards at a time, meaning once you have earned five cards, you must discard one card for each new card you receive.  That will take some strategy, and can be much more difficult than it sounds.

Once you are done, the game will even keep track of the various poker hands you were able to make, tracking how many times you successfully completed each hand.  It will even show the best winning combination of cards you played at each hand type.  Though the game does track how many games were played and how many of those were won, it does not track how many times you won with each hand type.

So…to sum up, this is one incredible game.  Not just shuffleboard.  Not even shuffleboard+Bowling.  This one ended up as Shuffleboard+Bowling+Poker.  So, even if you throw straight and true, knocking over every pin in each frame, you still must play the cards correctly in order to build a strong poker hand.  This unique style of gameplay, more than anything else, really set this game apart from anything else in the genre.  I am exhausted just thinking about that, and yet I keep coming back for more.  The game is incredibly addictive.  I could not stop playing.

If I had any disappointments with the game, though, it was that there simply was not enough of it.  Once you get a taste of the crazy creativity going on inside the heads of the folks at Digital smoke, you are left screaming for more.  Three game play modes is simply not enough.  One wonders what other modes they might have developed or added.  Who knows, maybe we will see more gameplay modes in a future update.

10 Pin Shuffle is available from the iTunes App Store from Digital Smoke, for $3.99.  There is also a free version which is ad supported, and only features the 10-Pin Poker game.

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