Coin Strike review: the arcade game we couldn't put down

We almost skipped Coin Strike. The store screenshots made it look like a hundred other tap-to-score arcade games, and we were ready to give it a polite paragraph and move on. Then someone handed the phone over at lunch and nobody got any work done for an hour.

The whole game lives in one gesture: you drag to set an angle and power, release to launch, and watch your coin ricochet across the board. Early stages are forgiving, but the game slowly tightens the screws with moving targets and narrow gaps where only a near-perfect flick gets through. What makes it work is how predictable the physics are — when you miss, you know exactly why, which is the hook that keeps you trying again.

A tip from our hours with it: stop aiming for the obvious target and start thinking about where the coin ends up after the bounce. Chains build the momentum you need for the tougher stages, and planning two shots ahead is the difference between stalling out and clearing a level clean.

Coin Strike runs beautifully on old hardware, loads in a blink and never pestered us to return. For a pick-up-and-play arcade game it's close to perfect — and a good reminder that a plain-looking game can hide a sharp one underneath.