Starbust Strike

Starbust Strike gives you a ship, a narrow run of obstacles, and a single input to get through it with. There is nothing to aim and nothing to shoot - the whole game is the position of your ship against the barriers and spikes coming towards you.

Coins are what turn that from simple into interesting. They sit where the safe line is not, so every run is a string of small decisions about whether this one is worth the reach. Contact with anything ends the attempt outright, no shields and no second chance, which means a cautious run that banks a modest score often outlasts a greedy one. The whole thing is over in seconds and starts again just as fast.

How to play

Steer the ship with clicks and keep it off everything - the barriers across the route and the spikes along the edges both end the run on contact. Coins are worth collecting, but only take the ones that do not pull you into a wall; a coin missed costs nothing and a wall costs the attempt. Look at the gap after the one you are flying through rather than the one you are in, and time your inputs in small corrections instead of large ones.

Controls

The left mouse button does all of it. Click to control the ship and keep clicking as the route demands - there is no second button, no key and nothing to hold down. On a phone or tablet you tap the screen instead, and one hand is enough for the whole game.