ROLY

You are a tire. Most platformers give you legs. ROLY gives you a round, heavy body that obeys physics before it obeys you. You gain speed downhill, lose it uphill, and keep rolling after you let go of the button. The whole game is about negotiating with that. Learn the rollWeighted jump — hold to reach the top of the arc, release to cut it short. Super jump — a power bar fills as you roll. Full, it sends you far higher than you should go.

Wall climbing — press into a tall wall and climb it in hops. In a narrow shaft, alternate sides to rise faster. Gliding — a reserve of air softens your fall. It doesn't refill mid-air, so spending it early is spending it badly. Black dust — a short-range attack that undoes the creature next to you. Meet the ZugTouch one and it stops, inflates like a birthday balloon, turns red and blinks three times. When it deflates, it drops what it was holding.

Calling that a bomb is us being polite. The thing bounces along the floor, glows faster and faster, then bursts in a Bomberman-style cross — the fire stops at walls, it doesn't pass through. And the blast grows with every level: the one in level 100 has three times the reach of the one in level 1. The Zug isn't alone.…