It’s hard to deny the primal pleasure of smashing something to bits, isn’t it? Swedish studio Mediocre, the modestly-named creator of Smash Hit, certainly understands this simple joy.
This is an endless arcade game in which you lob metal balls at a procession of different glass objects, from dangling panes to translucent pyramids. When hit, your targets shatter and fall to the ground with a satisfying crash.
Like a pilot of a spaceship caught in a tractor beam, you‘re pulled through this game’s calming futuristic worlds from a first-person perspective. And compounding the otherworldly atmosphere is the game’s soundtrack, a slice of ambient electronica that suits the play perfectly.
Surviving for long enough to trouble the high score tables means aiming carefully at any smashable pane in your way before your ammunition runs dry. If you get too trigger happy, you’re in trouble – no metal balls means no smashy-smashy.
We just keep coming back to Smash Hit, years after it first arrived. Shattering that old high score just feels great – and there’s no tidying up afterwards.