MZR

MZR opens with a warning screen: "flashing images, visuals synchronised with music, and shaky camera". Dear twitch puzzler, you had my curiosity... but now you have my attention.

After a breezy tutorial you're greeted by an incomplete circuit board that's missing connections. The screen pulsates and rocks from side to side as a timer counts down.

It's your goal to bridge connections by tapping them in order, from closest to farthest away. Each connection you make adds a valuable second to the clock.

Succeed and your combo count will increase as the next board is laid on top. Fail and you gain no points or extra time, plus you'll break your combo chain.

The randomised nature of each level makes it tough to discern the correct tapping order. A couple of connections may seem equidistant even after your first glance, leaving you hesitating in a horrible state of limbo.

Bonus rounds, using slightly different rules, pop up every four stages. Here you must choose only one circuit connection: ideally the one with the most time and height power ups en-route.

Inevitably the dreaded Game Over text will blow up in your face. Then the camera zooms out to reveal the giant techno sandwich you've built, and how it compares to other players from around the world.

Sharing video of your playthrough is seamlessly integrated with all the usual social media suspects if you're a bit of a boaster (incidentally, my high score is 399).

Every beat of the looping glitch soundtrack infuses MZR with a pleasingly futuristic vibe.

Within a second of tapping the app icon, you're in the game. No ads, no bloated logos. This is a refreshingly pure, unadulterated puzzler untouched by grubby publishers.

MZR is a free, frenetic puzzler that feels both tight and accomplished. Only a stone's throw away from a Tetris for the '10s.