Rebound: Knife Throw Arcade

The bar swings. The lane fills with blockers. You get one shot straight up and a limited number of knives. Read both, then throw. Miss and the blockers keep it.

Bring the blade home.

A cannon rides a rail along the bottom of the screen. It throws straight up — that is the only shot you get. Above it, a target bar swings left and right, carrying small coloured zones you have to pin.

Between you and it, blocker bars slide across the lane. A knife that hits one embeds in it and rides off the side of the screen, gone.

So every throw is a prediction of two moving things at once: will my column still be clear when the knife gets up there, and will the zone be over it when it arrives?

Knives are limited. The board is on a clock. Pin every zone to clear it and move on.

HOW IT PLAYS

• Drag to place the cannon, lift your thumb to throw. One hand, the whole game.
• Knives stick where they land — the board ends up telling you your own story.
• The bar swings fast through the middle and hangs at the ends. The edges are the easy shot. You work that out yourself; nothing tells you.
• Blockers are big, slow and completely readable. Getting caught by one is always a shot you could have not taken.

WHAT CHANGES

• Boards escalate: more zones, narrower zones, a faster swing, more blocker lanes, less ammo, less clock.
• Clear board 6, 11 or 16 and you permanently unlock starting there. No grinding an opening you have already beaten.
• Earn sparks for every board cleared, and spend them before a run on extra knives, extra time, or an extra life.
• Three lives. Running out of knives or running out of clock each cost one.

No energy meters. No waiting. A lane, a swing, and how well you read it.