Smash Hit, 2014 zen rail shooter [iOS/Android/VR]

[Hipolito]

Exploring Apple Arcade before I cancel my subscription, I found this little gem. You automatically fly through cool, futuristic-looking geometric levels with a limited supply of metal balls. You fire a ball by touching the screen. Your targets are crystalline pyramids; hitting one increases your ball count by three. But you also have to fire balls to destroy glass obstacles in your path. If you collide with an obstacle, you keep flying but your ball count drops by 10. If your ball count reaches zero, it's game over.



The game has chill music and satisfying sound effects when you shatter crystal and glass objects. Sometimes the game speeds up and throws obstacles in your path with only split-second warning. Another aspect that increases the challenge is that when you fire a ball, it doesn't fly in a straight line; it flies in an arc and is affected by gravity. The game gets difficult pretty quickly; there are about a dozen checkpoints and I'm satisfied with having reached checkpoint 4. But there are other modes like zen (endless mode, can't lose), training (reduced difficulty), mayhem (boss challenge), and local multiplayer versus or co-op.

I bet it's an even tripper experience in VR.

[Skinypupy]

I loved this game ages ago.

There were several long flights where I’d do nothing but play this for several hours.