Star Grazer: Space Dodge

Rockets fall. You don't get hit.

Star Grazer is a one-thumb arcade game about reading what's coming and slipping through it. Drag anywhere on the screen and your ship follows — left, right, and up and down inside a band near the bottom. Every hazard that gets past you is a point. Touch one and the run is over.

THE HITBOX IS TINY, AND YOU CAN SEE IT

Only the glowing core at the centre of your ship can be hit — a third of the ship's width. It's drawn on screen, so the line between a close call and a dead run is something you can actually judge instead of guess.

GRAZING IS THE WHOLE GAME

Passing close to a rocket without touching it is a graze, and a graze is worth more than surviving. Chain them and the multiplier climbs. Twelve grazes charge a blast that clears the screen. So the greedy play and the safe play are the same play, and a good run doesn't look like careful — it looks like threading.

ADVENTURE: 36 STAGES

Six worlds of hand-made stages, each a little harder than the last, with a finish line and three stars to earn: reach the finish, graze enough hazards, and catch all three stardust. It starts with a guided How to Play stage, then brings minefields, comet showers, rock gardens, stages where only grazes score and, in THE VOID, the lights going out and a gravity well that pulls you in. Collect stars to open new worlds, and win the Voyager and Eclipse trails.

TEN WORLDS, EACH WITH ITS OWN SKY AND MUSIC

LAUNCH, DEBRIS FIELD, CROSSFIRE, SWARM, DEEP SPACE, EVENT HORIZON, SINGULARITY, THE LONG DARK, NEBULA and SUPERNOVA. Earth falls away beneath you, then a galaxy, a black hole and a supernova. Rockets fall straight. Rocks drift. Mines steer toward your column and make you commit. Comets streak across, their path drawn just before they strike. Every cluster is guaranteed to leave a way through — if you died, there was a gap you didn't take.

FIVE POWER-UPS, ALL LABELLED

SHIELD UP absorbs one hit. SLOW MOTION crawls the world while you still move at full speed. HOMING SHOTS gives you six shots that each pick their own rocket and chase it down. SCREEN CLEARED does what it says. DOUBLE POINTS doubles everything you score. Each one names itself when you grab it and shows its own timer, so you always know what you're holding and how long you have.

A DAILY CHALLENGE

One fixed layout per day, the same for everybody, resetting at midnight. Your score on it is a real comparison rather than a matter of what the generator happened to roll.

BUILT TO BE PICKED UP

Instant retry — no menus between runs. A Game Center leaderboard if you want one, and the whole game works if you don't. Plays offline on a plane.

THE STAR PASS

A new season every four weeks: 30 tiers of rewards filled just by playing. Every run, mission and daily gift earns pass XP. The free track pays grazes and the season's own trail. Star Pass Premium is a one-time purchase for that season, never a subscription that renews, and adds the season's exclusive ship and far more grazes. Everything on it is cosmetic.

A REASON TO COME BACK

A daily gift that grows with every day of your streak — keep it for seven days to win the NEBULA engine trail. Three new missions every day, and a level that climbs with every run and pays out grazes as it goes.

A HANGAR TO FILL

Eleven ships in six different shapes — from the sleek Needle to the Manta, the Saucer and the Twinfang — and twelve engine trails, from ion and plasma to inferno and crystal. Everything is earned by playing.

FREE, AND FAIR ABOUT IT

No account to create, and your progress follows you across your devices through iCloud. Star Grazer is supported by an occasional ad between runs, and by optional videos you choose to watch to continue a run or double your grazes. A one-time No Ads purchase removes the between-run ads. Nothing you can buy makes the game easier or touches the leaderboards.