Impossible Flyer

Impossible Flyer hates you. It doesn't want you to succeed.

Occasionally this vertically oriented endless flyer will offer you a glimmer of hope. A clear path through its stream of deadly hexagons opens up.

But that just makes your likely failure all the more crushing.

All this suffering comes as the direct result of of a deliberately and infuriatingly twitchy control system.

You drag left and right on the screen to steer your little rocket ship between random clusters of hexagons, but a combination of extreme analogue responsiveness and the inertia of your craft makes for uniquely brief flights.

Even after two dozen attempts you still won't feel like you've got to grips with it - largely because you typically crash and burn within seconds of each restart.

Even on those rare occasions where the stars align and you far exceed your previous score, you're only really making it more teeth-grindingly difficult for yourself in subsequent runs.

It all sounds like some kind of digital purgatory, doesn't it? And to some players - to MOST players, perhaps - it will feel like it too.

But as the likes of Super Hexagon, Pivvot, and even Flappy Bird have proven, a lot of people like to feel that pain.

Impossible Flyer is another game that offers respite from failure by throwing you straight back into the grinder again. It's a proven trick, and it works.

Despite that, I felt that the moments of reward were a little to thinly spread, the moments of triumph too few.

On the rare occasions when I made it through a sequence of extreme twists and turns, I felt relieved and more than a little lucky rather than like I'd actually achieved anything.

For those aforementioned sadists such a thankless war of attrition might be just what they're after.

Me, I like my games to show me just a little more affection. Needy wimp that I am.