Pixel Arcade
About this game
Paddle Rally is the simplest game in the hall and the hardest to put down. Two paddles, one square ball, and a court with no walls on the left and right. If the ball passes your paddle, the other side scores. First to eleven takes the set.
You control the left paddle with W and S, the up and down arrow keys, or by moving the mouse vertically over the court. On touch, drag your thumb up and down the left half of the screen. The computer opponent tracks the ball with a deliberate reaction delay, so it is beatable — but the delay shrinks as the score gets closer, which keeps late games tight.
The one real technique is edge control. The ball leaves your paddle at an angle determined by where it struck: centre hits come back flat and easy to read, edge hits fly out steeply and force the opponent to travel. Long rallies also speed the ball up, and above a certain speed the computer starts missing the steep returns first.
Two-paddle rally games were the first commercially successful video games in the early 1970s, and the reason they still work is that the entire rule set fits in one sentence.
FAQ
Can I play against a friend?
This version is one player against the computer. Local two-player is not wired up.
Is the mouse better than the keyboard?
The mouse is faster to react with, the keyboard gives you more consistent small adjustments. Both are supported.
Why is it worth playing today?
Because it takes ten seconds to learn and the rallies still get genuinely tense at high ball speed.
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