Coin Strike

Coin Strike is one of those games that explains itself in ten seconds and then quietly eats an afternoon. You flick coins across a board, bounce them off walls and try to line up chains before the timer runs down. The controls are pure touch — drag to aim, release to launch — and once your thumb learns the angles it becomes weirdly satisfying.

What impressed us is how much the game asks of your timing without ever feeling unfair. Later stages throw in moving targets and tighter corridors, so a lazy flick gets punished, but the physics are consistent enough that failure always feels like your mistake. We kept saying 'one more go' well past the point we meant to stop.

It runs smoothly even on an older phone, loads fast and never nagged us to come back. For a short-burst arcade game it's close to the ideal — pick it up at a bus stop, put it down without feeling cheated.

What we liked

• Instant to learn, hard to master
• Clean, responsive touch controls
• Runs well on older hardware