Collapsus is a block breaking/matching game that literally changes the game by allowing you to tilt the game screen in any of the four main directions you want, meaning you can cause each and every block to fall up, down, left, or right as necessary for your strategic moves. The first time I played it, it blew my mind the same way people in 1985 must have been blown away when Mario moved toward the right edge of the screen and it started scrolling along with his progress. On top of introducing a groundbreaking mechanic, the game is also available DRM-free and cost-free for both Windows and Android, and is even made by developers in a healthy work environment with ethical monetization plans.
In fact, you might even be thinking this is all too good to be true, and you might specifically be wondering one thing when you see the game was first published on itch.io in 2016…
Why hasn’t Collapsus Released Yet?
If you’re wary of games that languish in early access forever before eventually becoming abandonware, you might be concerned at the fact that Collapsus has been around and winning awards for years, yet doesn’t seem to have an imminent release date. I have a few points to make here which soothed my own concerns of the sort:
First of all, they have not been selling the game, merely offering it for free on itch.io, which immediately makes it much less suspect than a “forever early access title” that sells for $29.99 with a promise or even a roadmap of future updates that never come.
Second of all, the developer (Wraith Games) is a small team that seems to have a very admirable commitment to a healthy work environment, which also helps explain the relatively “slow” progress.
Third, their most recent update on itch is from just 24 days ago, where they widened the Android compatibility of their build, and they also have an active Discord channel you can join.
In other words, to me, this is far from a team that has given up on the game, and it seems more like a team that has decided to take the approach of the tortoise versus the hare. This also makes sense to me because I think Collapsus is a true breakthrough in puzzle gaming, so I don’t blame them for wanting to do it right and not rush anything. All that said, it seems like it shouldn’t be all that much longer before the game approaches a full release, but in the meantime, if you have a Windows PC or an Android phone, it doesn’t really matter, since you can play as much as you want right now.
Why is Collapsus So Special or Different?
Aside from the fact that the development team is one with a vision that I’m happy to support (although I wouldn’t mind seeing more team members of color on their roster, but that’s an article for another day), Collapsus is laser-focused on its screen-tilting mechanic and making sure people can enjoy it in whichever way they want, meaning this is clearly a puzzle game meant to be played whenever you want for years, not a game that’s casting about for the next monetization ploy. Let me show you an example of how the screen tilting affects gameplay:
In the picture above, I started with the screen on the far left, and I was holding my phone in default portrait mode, so when I broke the blue block in the middle of the second row, the purple block on the top row fell in its place (and you can also see from the second screen that this move used one of my “move blocks” shown on the bottom).
Next, in the second screen, I tilted my phone so the right side of the screen was on the bottom (as shown in a screenshot higher up, the PC version of the game involves rotating by pressing on-screen or keyboard buttons), so when I broke that yellow block in the second row, the purple block in the same row fell in its place.
Then, returning my phone to default portrait mode for the third screen, I broke the yellow block in the third row, dropping both the blue and purple blocks above into four-of-a-kind matches, causing them to disappear and ultimately leaving me with the fourth screen on the right (and a much higher score on the top right, not to mention the restoration of two move blocks because of the two matches I made).
Pretty cool, right? Beyond that, Collapsus has a number of difficulty options and gameplay options that you can use to tweak the experience to exactly the type of puzzling you like. These are the kinds of options that show that this game is made by true puzzle game lovers.
Finally, as you can see in the game over screen below, Collapsus is definitely built for score attack-type gameplay, meaning it’s already completely ready for all the solitaire play a block breaker or match 3 player could want. I’m gonna go out on a limb and even say that anyone looking for the best free or premium match 3 or block breaking or merging games should give Collapsus a try. It really might be more satisfying than anything else out there.
If that wasn’t all enough, the development roadmap (which you can see on the game’s itch.io page) also includes a number of exciting modes including a multiplayer mode and various singleplayer modes. They also express their commitment to accessibility, which is important for all games but particularly important for puzzle games like this which can rely heavily on color-coded information, hard-to-discriminate visuals packed closely together, and fine motor movements. Finally, the developers promise that the final build won’t have ads or microtransactions, and that all DLC will be free for life. In other words, this is shaping up to be the holy grail of puzzle games: A puzzle game you can play on your computer or your phone for years and years without ever running into a timegate or anything like that.
The game is currently in early access and seems like it will eventually release on many platforms, but right now you can download Collapsus for free on itch.io for either Windows or Android.
Personally, I decided to throw them a few bucks for their hard work and creativity, and to try to help them make it to the final build… though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope my donation would get me a free copy of the final build if it ends up costing less than I gave them!
