Launchway
← Play something else Arcade hockey · Build 27 · Playable

Rink Rattle

Three-on-three arcade hockey with the big hits left in.

Rink Rattle
Works on phone, tablet and desktop · No download · No account Also at rinkrattle.com

What it is

Three skaters a side, plus a goalie each. You control one skater at a time and the computer runs everyone else, including both goalies. A game lasts four minutes and can end level: the result reads You win, You lose or Tied. After a goal the scorers lift their sticks, the crowd jumps, and the goal plays again, slowed down, from high behind the net; a tap skips it. Touch the rink for a single game, or tap Season to play one through.

Seasons

Name your team, or keep the Rink Rattlers, and play ten games: five invented rivals, each twice, at home and away. Some are tougher than others. The rest of the league plays its games off screen, so the table moves around you. A win is worth two points and a tie one.

The top four make the playoffs. First plays fourth, second plays third, and the winners meet in the final, one game a round. A tied playoff game goes to sudden-death overtime, three on three until someone scores.

Every game earns points, the most for a win and a little extra for big hits. Spend them to make each of your three skaters faster, harder shooting or harder hitting. The season is saved after every game, and a game left part way doesn't count: it comes up again.

Big hits

Skate hard at an opposing skater and Shoot turns into Check. A hit that lands usually knocks him down, and a carrier who goes down loses the puck. Any opposing skater can be hit, not only the one carrying it, and when two are in reach it is the carrier you take. The computer checks too, and will sometimes skate at the man it is marking to put him down.

You can't check while your own team has the puck. Shoot is for one-timers then.

Faceoffs

The puck drops after a pause and Shoot reads Draw. The first centre to tap as it lands wins it, and tapping before it lands loses it.

How to play

  • SkateThe left stick
  • Pass, or call for itTap Pass
  • ShootHold Shoot
  • Switch, poke or checkWithout the puck

With the puck, Pass throws toward whichever teammate you are pushing towards, and holding Shoot winds up. Without it, Pass reads Switch, to take over another skater, and Shoot reads Poke, or Check when you are skating hard at an opponent.

The game is in English and Czech. It starts in your browser’s language, and the button on the title switches.

On a desktop, the arrow keys or WASD skate, J passes, holding K shoots, and M turns the sound on or off.

What it leaves out

A game is one four-minute period. Only a playoff game goes to overtime, and there is no shootout: anywhere else a tie stands. Nothing is ever called on a hit, including a hit on a player without the puck.

Build Log

  1. Build 27

    Česky! The whole game is now in Czech as well as English, chosen by your browser or by the button on the title.

  2. Build 26

    Every goal gets a slow-motion replay from behind the net, a celebration on the ice and a roar from the crowd.

  3. Build 25

    Seasons are here: name your team and play ten games against five invented rivals while the rest of the league plays around you. The top four make the playoffs, where a tie goes to sudden-death overtime. Every game earns points to make your three skaters faster, harder shooting or harder hitting.

  4. Build 21

    Big hits land harder: the game holds the moment of contact, a star flashes where the shoulder meets, more snow flies, and the man hit is snapped back before he goes down. Sticks are held properly through it all, kept low by the checker and dropped flat by the player knocked down.

Earlier builds (2)
  1. Build 17

    Numbers on the players’ backs, a full crowd in the stands, glass over the boards and skate marks on the ice.

  2. Build 15

    Rink Rattle joined the board as three-on-three arcade hockey. Players gained rounded pads, striped sleeves and socks, and goalie masks with cages. A check can hit any opposing skater, not only the puck carrier. Faceoffs became a timing contest: the puck drops after a pause, the first centre to tap as it lands wins it, and an early tap loses. A red light on each net flashes when a goal goes in, so goals at the far end read clearly.

Credits and licences

Built on three.js, used under the MIT licence with the copyright notice retained in the shipped file. Typefaces are the ones already on your device; nothing is downloaded. Cover art was rendered from the game’s own drawing code.

Rink Rattle is original work by Launchway Games.