Those infinite runner cave flyers are nothing new in the world of mobile. Oh sure some of them you’ll play horizontally, and some of them you’ll play vertically, but in almost all cases you’ll be playing as a little triangle that’s trying to avoid crashing into walls or obstacles. It’s a fun genre, don’t get me wrong, and fits perfectly on mobile, but in 2019 you definitely need something to set yourself apart from the hundreds of similar types of games out there. And Heinous Games aka developer Steven Hanus’s upcoming Skibs does just that, hence me talking about it right now. All the expected pieces are here. A tiny triangle that you steer down a narrow passageway all set against minimalist visuals. But there are also the titular “skibs" to contend with. These are “power-ups" that mess with how the game plays, so one might make the playfield fade in and out or another might swell the size of your ship making it more likely you’ll crash. These skibs are not your friends in Skibs.

Another interesting thing about Skibs is that the developer says the game “uses geometric art to induce a motion aftereffect" and that “this game is designed to explicitly cause visual illusions within skilled players." Yes, Skibs wants you to hallucinate and see things if you do well. Ok maybe not ACTUALLY hallucinate, but focusing on the game in motion for an extended period can produce similar effects to something like staring at the center of a spinning spiral and then looking away to see that the real world is spiraling briefly afterwards. Trippy! The neatest thing about Skibs is how its progression works. You get 3 goals to complete at a time which typically involve collecting and surviving the effects of skibs. The more goals you complete the more you level up and thus the more skibs get added to each game, meaning the game gets gradually more difficult and more interesting the more you play. Skibs seems like it’ll be an interesting twist on the established infinite runner genre when it launches on February 8th for just 99¢ and if you’re into the whole pre-ordering thing you can do so on the App Store right now.