Sea Sprint: Retro Arcade Dodge

Do you have what it takes to survive the treacherous waters?

Most skippers don't. They set sail full of confidence, clip a mine before level 5 and slink back to shore. The river doesn't care about your reflexes, your excuses or your high score in some other game. It just keeps coming, faster and faster, and it only takes one mistake.

Your battleship sits low in the water and the current drags you upriver. Drag your thumb to thread between the mines and the embankments. Slide it up for more speed if you've got the nerve. Slide it back down when the channel tightens and your heart starts hammering. Tap, and the bow gun fires: one shell at a time, and if you bury it in the bank you've lost your gun until the land has passed. The further you get, the faster it comes. There is no finish line. There is only how far you got before the water took you.

And now you don't have to go alone. Host a river and hand a friend the four-letter code, or tap ANYONE and get matched with whoever's online right now. Two phones, the same water, the same moment, side by side. Play co-op and see how far the pair of you get, or head-to-head, where the last ship afloat wins. Sink first and you watch them sail on. Sink second and you've won.

Survive 20 levels and you've earned a stage: a moment to breathe, a burst of confetti, then new waters and a river that's a touch faster than the one you just beat. Complete a stage and you're promoted. The ladder runs from Recruit all the way to Captain, and rank is earned by your single best run. Nobody gets there by grinding. You get there by being good when it counts.

WHAT'S WAITING FOR YOU

Two looks, two soundtracks. Raw 8-bit pixels with a rolling sea shanty, or a sharper 16-bit style with a pulsing arpeggiated synth score. Swap any time.

One thumb. Steer, speed up, ease off, fire. No excuses.

Play with a friend, or anyone. A four-letter code links two phones to one river; ANYONE matches you with whoever's looking. Co-op or head-to-head, with a rematch button when it's over.

A new stage and landscape every 20 levels, with a progress bar counting down to it. River, Arctic, Jungle, Lava Delta, Night Harbour, Desert, Deep Space and a Negative where every colour is inverted. Getting close is the worst time to blink.

A global leaderboard. Pick a handle and see the top ten, then exactly where you sit against every other skipper on the water: #34 of 1,075, say. See how long it lasts.

A promotion for every stage you complete, from Recruit to Captain. Few will see the top.

Reach level 111 and the river turns. From there you sail it the other way, ship at the top and everything rising to meet you, for a hundred levels at a time. Same controls. Your reflexes won't believe you.

Went down just short of a stage? Watch a short video to revive and finish what you started: one revive a run, three a day.

Finish stage 1 seven days running and bank five free revives. No video, used first, and they roll over until you spend them.

Out of revives? A 24-hour pass gives you a free revive every run for a day, or go ad-free for good and get the banner's space back for the river.

Take the top spot on the world leaderboard and the fireworks go up — share the news there and then.

Every note and every explosion is synthesised live in the game. Proper chiptune, no loops.

Sea Sprint is free to play and supported by ads. A single one-off purchase removes them for good.

The water is waiting. Only the bravest survive.