Android Central: Holedown is a mesmerizing new puzzle game that'll leave you satisfied! [Game of the Week]

Friday, August 3, 2018

Holedown is a mesmerizing new puzzle game that'll leave you satisfied! [Game of the Week]

For those who are fans of physics-based puzzle games and are looking for a new obsession.

Update August 3, 2018: Our pick this week is Holedown, a new puzzle game that's a great mix of strategy and mindless fun!

Holedown

This week, we bring you a brand new arcade puzzle strategy game that's sure to become an instant classic.

It would be easy to write this game off as another ball bouncer game. This genre of puzzle game has been done before and harkens back to arcade classics such as Breakout and Puzzle Bobble. But due in large part to developer Martin Jonasson's reputation for crafting beautiful indie titles (rymdkapsel, twofold inc.) Holedown stands out with charming design and satisfying gameplay.

Holedown has you mining to the core of celestial bodies — starting with an asteroid and working your way up to the Sun — using bouncing miner balls that ricochet off of colored blocks. Each brick has a number that represents the number of hits needed to destroy it. You can let gravity do most of the work by destroying a block supporting other blocks and some are bolded in place and must be destroyed. With a well-aimed shot, you can clear the whole screen as the smooth animation of the bouncing balls leave you mesmerized.

It's very quick to pick up and play this game, but you soon learn that there's a surprising amount of strategy involved. All the bricks are curved, allowing you to set up tricky bank shots to clear out massive sections of blocks in one go. This will become quite important as the screen moves up one row after every shot. If the blocks reach the top of the screen, it's game over.

Along the way, you will collect crystals which are spent on upgrades that give you more balls per shot, and more shots per round. These upgrades are crucial to completing the later planets but also let the earlier levels become more of a mindless distraction for your subway commute.

If you're a fan of physics-based puzzle games and are looking for a new obsession, Holedown is well worth your money!

Download: Holedown ($3.99 )