Pocket Games
Stack
Stack is a timing game with a cruel rule: whatever overhangs is cut off for good. Every imprecise block narrows the tower, and a narrow tower makes the next block harder. You lose by accumulating small errors, never one big one.
How it works
A block slides back and forth above the tower. You tap to stop it: the part overhanging the block below is sliced off and falls away, and what is left becomes the new top. The more precise you are, the wider the block you land.
The game ends when you miss the tower entirely — when the block stops without touching it — and your score is the height you reached.
On Pocket Games
Tap anywhere on the screen to drop the block; on a computer, use the space bar or Enter. Blocks come in along the tower’s two axes in turn, once from one side and once from the other, and the swing is wide enough to miss the tower completely. There are no lives and no undo, and the height that serves as your score is the number of blocks placed.
The numbers behind the game:
| Mechanic | How it works here |
|---|---|
| Perfect | the block’s centre lands within 3.5% of the base width of the one below |
| Combo | the ×2, ×3… counter appears from the second perfect in a row and turns gold from the fifth |
| Widening | from the fifth perfect in a row, each perfect adds 9% of the base width, up to the starting width |
| Speed | rises every 5 blocks, up to about three times the starting speed |
| Breather | every 8 perfects in a row the speed drops back to the starting value |
The game saves after every block: if you leave, reopening it brings back the game in progress with the height you reached, and you carry on with the same tower. The record is your tallest tower, and it syncs with your account.
The perfect centre, and why it is everything
If you stop the block almost exactly over the one below, nothing is cut: that is a perfect. And it is not just a cut avoided:
- Consecutive perfects build a combo.
- From the fifth perfect in a row onwards, every perfect widens the tower a little. It is the only way to recover lost width.
- Every eight consecutive perfects the speed resets to its starting value as a reward: a breath of air worth dozens of blocks.
The strategy follows, and it is a single line: do not play for height, play for the run of perfects. A block landed badly but "well enough" does not lose you the game immediately, but it does reset the combo, and without combos the tower narrows until it is a thread.
How to improve your timing
Watch the edge, not the centre. The brain is far better at telling when two lines align than at judging where the centre of a shape is. Fix on the left edge of the incoming block and tap when it meets the left edge of the tower.
Anticipate. About two hundred milliseconds pass between the thought and the finger: at high speed that is a quarter of a swing. The tap has to come before the block arrives, not when it gets there, and you learn how much lead you need within three or four games.
Find the rhythm. The swing is regular: counting "out and back" in your head works better than following the block with your eyes, exactly as with a metronome.
Do not rescue it at the last moment. When you realise you are late, the temptation is to tap anyway. That is the best way to get a huge cut: better to let the swing pass and take the next one — the block is not lost until you stop it outside the tower.
When the tower is narrow, change your goal. At two fingers wide you are no longer playing to climb: you are playing to land five perfects in a row and win space back. That is the phase to slow your breathing and stop thinking about the score.
Frequently asked questions
Can lost width be recovered?
Yes, and it is the most important mechanic in the game: from the fifth consecutive perfect the tower starts widening again. Anyone who does not know that plays doomed to shrink.
Does the speed always increase?
It rises every five blocks, up to a ceiling of about three times the starting speed. Every eight perfects in a row, though, it drops back to the starting value and climbs again from there: that is how a game gets young again.
Can I stop a game and resume it later?
Yes. The tower is saved after every block you place; when you come back you find the game in progress, with the height you reached, and pick it up from there. If you choose a new game instead, you are asked to confirm first.
Does my record survive a change of phone?
Yes, if you sign in with your Google account: your tallest tower is synced, and across two devices the taller one wins.
More games to try
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