PARTICLE MACE

Swinging 🍜 and meatballs at high velocity incurs damage to poorly built triangle ships and polygonal asteroids

I pick it up, I put it down, I pick it up again. fun is fun

There's something to be said for arcadey action games that can be played with one hand using a mouse. They're fun and engaging enough to provide access to the all-important flow state; but they also leave sufficient resources free to write your memoirs longhand, pet the dog, play drums for Def Leppard, or do the thing you're obviously thinking about.

Particle Mace is such a game. You can play it just fine with a joystick and it's lovely fun, but played einhander it has the perfect level of complexity to elevate your mood while letting you think about something else. I've played it as a fidget toy during telehealth counseling sessions. Absolutely brilliant.

I think I bought this on sale for like 99¢ almost a decade ago. That's a hell of a cost/playtime ratio, if I ever met the developer I'd certainly feel obliged to pay for drinks.

I only wish there was option for bots to participate in multiplayer matches and regular multiplayer via internet/LAN as well, otherwise it's an decent enough tiny game that you can come back to every once in a while. Nothing super special but at least satisfying to play and smack things with physics. If you also like high scores, you get that too.

In 2024, no. It's like a budget Geometry Wars, but you don't shoot. Your ship has a tail that you whip around to hit targets. You have to use the inertia of your ship to get the tail in motion. Resorting to quick direction changes and spinning in circles is what works best. Sounds like a refreshing idea, but it quickly gets boring as there is next to no variety. So many better choices out there these days.

It gives you words of encouragement when you die in arcade modes which is cute, and the multiplayer is great fun, but only if you have friends that can come to your house.