Grindstone offers a view of an alien reality, a world where mobile games are not the wallet-consuming apex predators that they are in ours. That doesn’t mean their evolution was entirely disrupted.
Just as all animals become crabs, all mobile games have at least some things in common. Clean UI. Simple, easy to learn mechanics, that can be stretched like taffy. Bite-sized levels and gameplay that can be picked up, and put down whenever you want.
Grindstone is pretty much a masterclass in all of these.
The basics are simple. You’re dropped onto a grid, and you draw lines through matching colored enemies, then punch the go button to watch our hero Jorj murder them all in a surprisingly bloody spree of cartoon violence.
Of course, if you get a chain of at least 10, you’ll add Grindstone to the board after the combo, and linking through a grindstone allows you to swap the creep color you’re currently chaining. After taking out enough enemies, you can chain yourself out via the exit, and complete the level.
Also, some enemies become active at the end of a turn, meaning they’ll attack you if you end a chain near them.
Oh, and then after a few levels, it adds wood debris, which needs a chain of 3 to break though. Then rocks that need a chain of 5. Then enemies that need a chain of 10. Then….
You get the idea. It’s the standard pattern: a slow incremental addition of mechanics and rules, spread like butter on toast. If anything, I’d like those mechanics to be introduced a bit faster than they actually are, but it’s not really a big issue.
There’s also a bunch of side elements, with a whole crafting system for getting better gear, and refilling said gear. These mechanics would be aggravating if I had to buy StoneBucks each time, but since this is a real video game (and not a mobile game leech), it’s fine. I do wish it was possible to automatically refill my health, but again, at least I don’t have to spend real money on it.
All of this aside, I’ve been playing it on PC, which is clearly not its native environment. Some of the UI elements are a little wonky on PC, and it’s clear touch controls are the intended experience.
Which makes it kind of a shame that to play it in its intended environment, you’d have to subscribe to Apple Arcade.
After all, the reason that Grindstone doesn’t have to devour your wallet is because it was almost certainly built and paid for as part of Apple’s of attempt to transform our current macro-transaction nightmare into an “All Software Is A Service” hell. So maybe it’s less of a view into an alternate reality, and instead a peek into a different-and-still-bad future for gaming.
But right now, it’s just a good game. And it’s $5 on Steam for the next few days. So if you want a small, simple puzzle game, now would be the time to pick it up. Slay some creeps, and try not to think much about what it says about our Anime PNG present, or our SasS future.