Switchback: Rail Puzzle

The handcar never stops. The track ahead does something. Where are you when it does?

Switchback is a one-thumb railway puzzle seen from above. A little driver pumps a handcar up a many-laned line, and the car keeps rolling whatever you do — so the whole game is being in the right lane at the right moment. Swipe to take the next connector. Tap the big button to throw a switch or honk at a cow. Thread between broken rails, dynamite and dead ends, collect the golden spikes, and roll into the station.

FIVE WORLDS, 87 LEVELS
• Meadow — switches, cows on the line, dynamite with a short fuse
• Old Mine — tunnels, rockfalls, and a boulder that rolls across the lanes in step with you
• Canyon — bandit trolleys coming the other way, keys and padlocked switches, and a rockslide that sets off behind you
• Snowline — ice that hurries you, snowdrifts that slow you, greased rails that ignore your swipes, drawbridges on a timer, a crow that flips your switch, thin ice that only holds a car at speed, loose wagons rolling away up your lane, and an avalanche on your heels
• Night Yard — dark, with a headlamp; signals thrown from lever tiles, level crossings with a lorry on a schedule, turntables that spin you into another lane

EVERY LEVEL IS A PUZZLE
Nothing is random. The boulder, the lorry, the drawbridge — all of it moves to the same beat as your car, so every level has an answer and you can find it. Then the later worlds make pace the puzzle: downgrades and ramps speed you up, climbs slow you down, and the clocks, wagons and slides ahead run on time, not on rows. Choosing how fast to arrive is the whole trick. Every level is two puzzles joined end to end, with six golden spikes between them; three stars means every spike and no brake taken.

POWER-UPS AND A GARAGE
Brake, boost, helmet, magnet, lantern — lying on the line where a designer left them. Coins you pick up buy paints for the deck and colours for your driver's cap.

PLAY IT ANYWHERE
• Free, no ads, no in-app purchases
• Works completely offline
• No account, no sign-up, no permissions, no data collected
• Portrait, one hand, on a bus
• English and Turkish

Reach the station. Then reach it with three stars.