B3 Riftball Paddle Ball Game Review

A Riftball set comes with everything you need to set up and play out of the box, including: the metal frame, two nets, two paddles, two wiffle balls, and a carrying bag. Everything is vibrant, bright, and gets you in the sporting mood. Set up is very simple (or it’s supposed to be, more on that later.) Just let the bungee cords in-between the metal poles and joints guide the frame together, slide on the nets, cap the frame with the top connector, and velcro the upper net to the top of the frame. Now you’re ready to play! Be sure to set it up in the final location you desire, it’s a little tricky to move once assembled.

Riftball requires a cocktail of skills from across various “ball and net” sports. You need the micro-adjustments of ping pong, the precision of tennis, and the hit commitment of volleyball. Stand no less than 4 feet away from the net, and hit the ball back and forth through the rift. The first one to 11 points, while being 2 points ahead, will win! You can adjust the width and position of the rift by spreading or compressing both nets. You can add extra rules such as needing to bounce off the net once before serving back, but depending on how taught the net is, your bounce strength will vary greatly. One very nice aspect of Riftball, is that the wiffle balls bounce off of the paddles with minimal effort. It’s satisfying to hit and angle the ball wherever you please.

Something to note, our copy of the game was mis-assembled out of the box. It would normally be a simple matter to rearrange pieces if not for the elastic cord locking them all together. We fixed it easily enough, and hopefully this was just an issue with our copy. Once set up properly, it’s a good bit of fun.