This will turn you upside down and drop you on your head

GravityLine is one of those fast paced puzzle games that, despite its simplicity, demands that you unknot your brain and then rewire it in a completely different way.

Toe the line

The premise is simple, guide a tiny creature as it zooms along a line that loops and curls around on itself. You must avoid various hazards that are dotted along the path (such as spikes and junctions that can crush the unaware organism) as you try to make it to the end of each stage.

The thing is, GravityLine gets tricky. Somewhere between my brain and the games simple two button control scheme, something goes wrong.

Upside down

It should be simple. One button switches gravity‘s direction, while another has the little beast I am guiding let go of the line to fall up or down depending on the directional forces at work.

I have played dozens of similar twitch puzzle games that demand speed and accuracy, but GravityLine’s logic confounds me. I can see that I have to let go of my current position to fall up to another track, but instead I regularly switch gravity instead and find myself careering into an obstacle on the opposite side of the course.

Alternatively, in my desire to (finally) navigate my way through one of the surprisingly long levels I will accidentally decide to let go of the line and let gravity carry me to my death at the top or bottom of the screen, rather than switching the force to flip me around the track and avoid an oncoming danger.

Letting go

The clear, illustrated graphics are almost childlike in their simplicity, but this too feels like it is done to infuriate me. It’s like GravityLine is taunting me saying, “Look, this is for kids, you can do it” or “how much clearer do you want us to make this”. I’m sure it isn’t, but when a good run comes to a premature end because of yet another rookie mistake, it is hard not to feel that it’s deliberate.

But for all of my anger, the clean lines and pale pastel colors of the sketch-like visual design is charming. This, when combined with the tranquil pulsing audio, give GravityLine a distinctive style.

Hanging on

I should clarify, it’s not GravityLine it’s me.

The game offers an incredibly entertaining, mind bending challenge – it’s just that somewhere along the line my brain just can’t keep up. That doesn’t stop me constantly wanting to come back for more though, because maybe next time I’ll make it.