Blackbox vs Plungo

So you think you understand this thing you’re holding? Think again. Stop tapping. Stop swiping. In fact, stop touching the screen at all. To crack Blackbox’s puzzles you’ll need to find solitude and stillness, climb mountains, call on friends, get in tune with the cosmos, and think outside the box. Minimalistic visual clues make for incredibly satisfying “Aha!” moments, while sonic interfaces provide an extra level of guidance and nuance that makes Blackbox accessible with or without vision. Thoughtful haptic feedback, Easter eggs on Easter eggs, and solutions that can’t be found beneath the glass of your screen redefine what a puzzle can be. You’ll never see your device the same way again. Think you’re clever? Prove it. (Blackbox is a living game under active development by Ryan McLeod. When not eating burritos or drinking coffee, he’s busy designing and developing new Blackbox challenges.) ■

Plungo is a one-thumb arcade dive. Hold to drift right, let go to drift left, and thread your glowing ball through an endless fall of neon gaps. Zoom through hoops to build streaks, chase combos, and beat your best on three hand-tuned difficulty modes — from drowsy "Sleepy" runs to the brutal "Haven't Slept." Every gap is generated to be fair: hard, but always beatable. Grab power-up orbs as you fall: - MEGA — smash straight through every wall - ROCKET — flip gravity and blast upward - ICE ORB — shatter the barriers like glass - DRAGON BLAST — a massive explosion and an instant points haul - ORB SWARM — thirty-two orbs bounce wild while you steer your own Climb the Game Center leaderboard, keep your daily streak alive, and earn coins for revives. Light, fast, and colorful — pick it up for one run and stay for "just one more."