Welcome to the madness of Don’t step the white tile

Love simple and frustratingly addictive games? Don’t step the white tile is a bizarre, twitch-based game that is difficult to put down.

Watch your step!

Don’t step the white tile is a twitch-based arcade game that is maddeningly addictive. The general jist of the game is that you must tap the grey tiles as fast you can. If you step on the wrong tile, a great white shark pops up and eats you: think Jaws meets the spelling “Jehova” scene from the third Indiana Jones film. There are three different game types: TimeAttack, LongRun, and StoppingJust.

The point of TimeAttack is to reach the yellow tiles as fast as possible. The number of tiles is always the same. There’s no time limit on this, but failure to tap the correct tile results in a shark attack.

In LongRun, you have to go as far as possible without time running out. Reaching checkpoints adds another 10 seconds on to your time. You can choose to have the timer displayed on screen which it makes it more difficult as it adds a sense of anxiety. Stepping on the wrong tile or running out of time leads to a shark attack.

StoppingJust is probably the most difficult of the three game types in Don’t step the white tile. In it, you have 10 seconds to tap as many tiles as possible. A timer on screen displays the first five seconds, but you’ll have to keep track of it after that. If you are still moving when the timer hits 0, a (wait for it) shark comes up and eats you.

All three of these games are equally addictive and silly. Don’t step the white tile doesn’t make you wade through loads of advertisements or screens to start playing again. Like Flappy Bird, a simple advertisement pops up on the bottom of the screen while you play. Another plus to the game is that the rounds are incredibly short, meaning that you could fit in a quick game at about any time.

Aside from keeping track of your top score, there are also achievements. The achievements, which are just as madcap as the rest of the game, involve collecting footwear.

It’s also important to note that roughly half of the game’s text is in Japanese. It’s odd, but doesn’t get in the way of actual gameplay.

Taptastic

Don’t step the white tile is simple to play. The game only supports vertical mode on your phone and it’s recommended that you use two thumbs to play. Simply the tap the gray tile that’s on the bottom of the screen to move forward. 

Shoes and Sharks

Like Flappy Bird or 2048, this game has put its emphasis on addictive gameplay rather than graphics. You’ll mostly be looking at grey,white, and yellow tiles. Other than those, the only graphics you’ll see are for the occassional shark that pops up or your footwear collection. 

Addictive madness

For all it’s quirks (e.g. text in Japanese, collecting shoes, shark attacks), Don’t step the white tile strikes the perfect balance of urgency and fun that makes it a difficult game to put down.