We're in a run of mobile games in the 1001 list as they keep coming, with the latest being a Marble Madness/Devil Dice looking puzzler by the name of Edge, or sometimes Edgy, thanks to a certain trademark owner.
In Edge, you pilot a cube around a level full of spatial challenges to negotiate and a giant void to avoid tumbling into, gobbling up style points for balancing like an absolute legend.
That won't make any sense until you've seen Edge in action, or better yet, play it.
Fun Times
I'm playing the PC port of Edge, which is pretty much an HD version of the iOS original. It's appeared in many forms and under a few names since its original release, but when you know what you're looking for it's not too hard to find.
The goal of the basic Edge experience is to move a cube through the level to the end zone, grabbing bits and bobs (I don't recall what they're called) to increase your speed and look flashy with your ever-changing hue, fastest time wins.
It is as simple as that, but there is of course a lot to consider when trying to be quick.
You'll probably play the early stages and immediately get the gist of things. There are only four directions to move your block in, some elements of the stage will move and you can either move with them or find ways to avoid them knocking you into the void, and you can climb up steps because all cubes can climb up steps, can't they?
What you might notice when you do climb anything is that you can feather your inputs to delicately, and impossibly, balance on the edge of the block you're climbing up. As you wobble closer to the threshold where you either climb the thing or fall off it, a timer will tick up to record your efforts, and the time you get here will be removed from your total stage time, meaning you go quicker by stopping to wobble on the edge.
I can tell you now that I wasn't wobbling to save any time. I was far more concerned with getting through the levels at any pace, and admiring the view along the way. Some stages are loosely themed to represent something - a metro station, with trains running down the line to take you to the next little puzzle, for example.
The colours all glow and the minimalism allows you to focus on exactly what you're looking at, and little else. There's a top-down map to help you out, but so focused on my cube was I that I barely looked at it for assistance.
Falling over an edge, into the void, is probably a case of when, not if, and will count against your score if that's what you're aiming for. You'll be near-instantly reset to somewhere close to where you fell off, ready to try again, and you will because you just want to get through and prove to yourself that you can figure this out, damnit.
The isometric viewpoint plays havoc with the orthogonal WASD or arrow key layout, and many of my mistakes were due to simple rolling the wrong way, but I said 'Gah!' and got on with it for level after level.
To make sure you've understood how your cube moves, one level tests your ability to climb and wobble by making it an integral part of the challenge.
In any other game, moving platforms would move towards each other so that you can hop from one to the other and carry on. In Edge, the platforms may move the same way, never meeting, and the only way to get to one from the other is to start climbing up a wall you will never reach the top of, and dropping onto the next platform as it swoops in below.
Later in the same level, you have to cling to the side of a moving block as it passes through narrow gaps. Climb up and you'll bounce off the wall and fall off, stop climbing and you'll fall off. Wobble like a pro and you'll save time for your end score.
Mix all that in with regular moving platform timing - i.e., miss the opportunity to climb up a certain staircase and that's that, you've missed those collectables - and Edge is a devious little puzzler that you'll want to play for a long time to come.
Final Word
I spent just half an hour with Edge before knowing that I needed to praise it here. There are 50 basic levels before you even get to the expanded levels, and I've no idea what other tricks they'll add to walk clinging, pressure pad pushing, even cube shrinking, but I look forward to the head-scratching that'll come of it.
I almost dread looking at a speed run of Edge. Would it even be a speedrun if you're stopping so often to offset your timer by balancing on the edge? I don't know, but it's such a unique twist on this kind of puzzle that it's found a place in my head and may stay there a while.
These games aren't my usual type of puzzler to be attracted to, and I'm sure as time goes on, I'll get annoyed at still not being able to use the arrow keys in an isometric view, but failure in Edge is met with an instant 'give it another go', and it looks and sounds so nice that yes, I will give it another go. And another one. And one more. Oh thank goodness, the level end is in sight. What's next?
I'd say to grab this nice and shiny high def looking version, but truth be told, whatever platform of choice you play Edge on, it'll capture your attention.
Fun Facts
If you don't like the puzzles, just chill out with a playlist of the soundtrack for some lovely chiptune-esque electronica. I've no idea how to describe music. Never have had any idea. Just know what I like, and I like the sounds from Edge.
Edge, developed by Mobigame, first released in 2008.
Version played: PC, 2011.