Do you remember “Horizontal Hop” by Chair-Man? If not, go ahead and check out our review. If you do, stay tuned for another game by the same developer. It’s called Paddle Match and it’s an interesting and unique mix of Pong, Breakout and matching games like Color Shock.

On y va!

That’s how Paddle Match looks like

Thoughtful Ideas

I really like the idea of putting all the said games together to form a new gaming experience. If you had two paddles, it would be Pong, if you had some bricks to break, it would be Break-out, if it weren’t paddles and balls, it would be just another matching game, but the developers preserved this retro touch from a bygone era and still found a tiny little niche to create something new. Respect!

On top of that, Chair-Man decided to make this game as barrier-free and accessible as possible, even for people who can’t see colors correctly – like me! So, if you’re colorblind, don’t worry – there is a special mode, where the colors are displayed with a unique number, so that you don’t confuse red with green, violet with blue and so on and so fort. Very thoughtful!

Barren Appearance

However, there is (sadly?) more to a game than its idea or the thoughts and love the developers put into it. And with Paddle Match, Chair-Man created a game with a dull and empty appeal, that will only attract hardcore retro gamers. 

From my perspective, it wouldn’t hurt the arcade style to juice it up a bit. Why not creating a hypnotizing 8-bit soundtrack that keeps the player motivated? What about adding some more particle effects, although they are a bit out of time? Also, the sounds are neither fish nor fowl, since they neither remind of you an arcade machine nor are they up to date in any way. Time to change that!

The color blind mode works perfectly fine.

The Verdict

If you are a fan of retro games, I highly recommend you to download Paddle Match now! Please also make sure to check out the other games by Chair-Man. Have fun!

All pictures are in-game screenshots.