Causality

Time is a flat circle of your own missteps

$1.99 Developer Loju, playcausality.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9.0 or later

We’ve all done it, been late for that very important date. But what’s the worst you’ve had to face in terms of consequences? It’s not like your future self has upped and disappeared or anything, is it…?

Welcome to Causality. This puzzle game dabbles heavily in temporal tricks. Each level gives you one or more astronauts to guide to their color-coded end goals, and a particular number of turns in which to do it. The game’s basic mechanics are simple: a downwards swipe of your screen moves both spaceman and your turn counter on one space, while an upwards swipe rewinds them.

Your miniature Armstrongs follow certain rules: they carry on forwards unless directed otherwise – by yourself or by obstacles – and given a choice between left and right, will always opt for right. As a result, steering them as you’d like can take some lateral thinking. Puzzles have directional tiles whose guiding arrow can be rotated with a tap, and blocks that pop up and down at a press of a button can also help or hinder.

Then there are the portals. Arrive at one portal at a given point, and you’ll be whisked back a certain number of turns (which varies from puzzle to puzzle) to pop out from its twin. Essentially, it’s a way of buying yourself more time to carry out your objectives. But fail to arrive at said portal at the designated hour? That future-self avatar you’ve been directing about the map in tandem with old-you vanishes.

If that sounds like there are a lot of moving parts to keep track of, it’s because there are – but in motion it’s all more fluid than words might suggest. The rewind mechanic is forgiving, and you’re never penalized for scrolling back as many turns as you like to iterate on a strategy. These aren’t always simple puzzles, but they are elegant ones.

the bottom line. If you take delight in tinkering about until you get something just so, this refreshingly original puzzler will push all your buttons.

This route-blocking bollard will pop down just in time, thanks to Mr Purple there on the button.

Hazards are flagged up on your timeline, so you can work around them.