Break Glass with Your Bare Hands, on Your Phone

Particle effects are the kind of things that video game companies love to show off in tech demos. But they’re usually only used to highlight the potential of a new game engine, the assumption being that developers will use the improved tech to make ever more impressive virtual worlds filled with swirling clouds of dust and crackling fires.

The emphasis is typically on photorealism—a never-ending effort to step out of the recesses of the uncanny valley and into a bright (and potentially creepy) future of life-like interactive entertainment. Rarely are they used for their potential to create abstract but visually stunning pieces of work.

That’s why I was immediately hooked when I first saw Smash Hit, a new mobile game that’s all about shattering glass. Literally. It’s a rail shooter in which all you have to do is tap on the screen to chuck little metal balls at crystalline structures that block your forward momentum.

It’s set in a series of polygonal, Tron-like hallways that reminds me of Dyad, a small but critically lauded PlayStation 3 game with a similar sense of tunnel vision. I haven’t put as much time into Smash Hit as I have with Dyad, but I’m already impressed with how good the game looks on its much more low-tech home on mobile. Never mind the irony of peering into a series of brightly colored tunnels when traveling through the much less exciting tunnels of the New York City subway system for my morning commute.

Here’s a trailer to give you an idea of what it looks like:

Smash Hit was made by a two-man indie team that goes by the name of Mediocre. By their own description, they “don’t really play video games.” Rather than making murder simulators, they say on their website that “Our games are based on physical simulation, because we are both fascinated by science and the playfulness of interacting with something that behaves naturally but doesn’t exist.”

Playing Smash Hit, I see what they mean. This is the kind of mobile game that I didn’t want to put down long enough to start writing about it. Even on the tiny screen of my Android phone, it really feels like I’m breaking glass in the most satisfying way possible. Plus, it’s a lot safer to do it this way than chucking rocks at an empty building.

The game is now available for iOS and Android devices. Get it here.