GRINDSTONE

Developer/publisher Capybara Games Format iOS

Capy has, for years now, been one of Edge’s favourite studios – part of that rare breed of game developer that can hop between genres and aesthetics while retaining a sort of signature. Yet after Below – a dark, brooding Roguelike that posed a puzzle Capy spent most of this decade struggling to solve – we were worried that the studio had taken one sharp stylistic turn too many.

Enter Grindstone. The surprise star of the Apple Arcade launch line-up reflects a developer that has emerged from the depths of a difficult project, and is delighting in being back on home turf. Capy’s earliest successes were portable puzzlers, and by returning to first principles the studio turned out its best game in years.

On first inspection, like all good puzzle games, it’s simple stuff: you must trace a path from the warrior protagonist’s position through as many enemies of the same colour as possible. Rack up a combo of at least ten hits, and at the end of your turn a multicoloured gem will soar through the air, landing in a random spot on the board. Pass through that space on a subsequent turn, and you can change to a different enemy colour, racking up combos as you go. As the string progresses, your attack speed progressively grows; as the combo counter soars into the 30s, our hero lets out a bloody, primal roar that’s as satisfying as anything we’ve encountered in a game in 2019.

And, like all good puzzlers, that is only the start. There are environmental puzzles – obstructions to smash, gaps to pass over, blocks to push onto switches – and powerful enemies out to wreck your best-laid plans. And there’s a constant tension, the desire to stick around to complete secondary objectives offset against the fear of dying and losing all you’ve gained. Masterful stuff from a developer back to its best.