Stack Slice

What it is

Stack Slice is a one-button tower builder, one of our own arcade games. A tall dark panel with a starfield, a pale block at the bottom and another block sliding back and forth above it. The caption says click or tap to drop the block. Counters in the header track Score, Combo and Best.

How to play

Tap, click or press the action key when the sliding block is over the stack. It drops. Whatever hangs over the edge of the block below is sliced off and lost, and the next block is only as wide as what survived. Land one dead center and the page calls it a perfect: your width is kept and a combo starts, and the page says a run of perfects can even widen the tower back out. The page says a block that misses the stack entirely ends the run. Score is the number of blocks placed, and each block shades a little further from blue toward purple as the tower climbs.

What makes it different

The game squeezes you. Every sloppy drop makes the target smaller, so the margin for error shrinks until you are trying to land a sliver on a sliver. The perfect mechanic is the escape hatch: precise players get their width back and can, in theory, climb forever. There is no timer, just the slide, the drop and the slice.

Why it is on Bored

One button and a narrowing target is a pure test of rhythm, and a run is short enough to restart without thinking. The widening-combo rule turns a death spiral into something you can fight back from, which is what keeps the next attempt coming.

Tips

• Drop a touch early, the block keeps moving as it falls
• Aim for perfects, they keep your width and start the combo
• Find a steady rhythm instead of reacting to each block
• New game in the header restarts at any time

FAQ