#64.0

I’ve been playing a lot of great games lately - Yakuza 3 Remastered, Dragon Quest X, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. They all have something in common, they’re all really long. It can be nice to have something short, simple, and sweet to fill in those gaps where you just don’t want to sit down for such a long, involved experience. When I was given the chance to check out 64.0 on the Switch, I thought it might be just the thing to fill in that gap.

64.0 is described by its developers as a “minimal fast-paced arcade game”. The idea is simple - you are a square, plopped in the middle of a room. Other little squares pour in from each of the four cardinal directions. You must shoot the ones that are the same color as the background, and save the ones that are not. Your goal? Survive for 64 seconds. If the bad guys get you, you lose. If you shoot the good squares, you lose. 

In fact, you lose a lot. This game is hard! Everything moves quickly, and there is no margin of error. The background color changes frequently, meaning that anyone can be a bad square if you aren’t paying attention. Survival requires lightning reflexes and quite a bit of patience. 

There are a few twists, but that’s about it. Survive, shoot the right colors, and pray you don’t hit a friend. Honestly, it’s a bit too hard for my tastes. I don’t have the patience to memorize the patterns, and I have the reflexes of an old man. Still, the fact that you can get right back in for another attempt means that I’ve been toying with it off and on for the past week - a few minutes here, a few minutes there. I suspect that I won’t put much more time into it - it isn’t really my jam - but I can see how others might find it addictive.

Despite the minimalism, there is a certain charm to the presentation. The graphics are colorful, and really pop on the Switch tablet screen. There is also a catchy chiptune soundtrack in the background, which at times is used to deliver hints about the enemy patterns.

64.0 is out now on the Switch and Steam, and for $2.99, is a reasonably fun - if incredibly difficult - way to kill a few minutes between bigger titles.

A copy of 64.0 was provided for this post.