Fit In The Hole Is Your Next Little Mindbender

Ketchapp’s newest twitchy high score chaser Fit In The Hole is a clever little game based on positive and negative space. In the spirit of an endless runner, you move forward on a track, positioning little blocks by tapping left or right to align with a gap in a wall. If you are too slow and can’t get your blocks in the right place at the right time to make it through the hole, you’ll hit the wall and die.

It’s a simple concept, as most Ketchapp games are, but I was struck by how much of a mindbender it was. Unlike the pure reflex games Ketchapp is known for, Fit In The Hole feels like a series of very fast-paced mini puzzles flying at you, which you must solve at breakneck speed. As you move forward, the perspective of the camera angle on your block pile and the gap in the wall are adjusting for distance. You can move your blocks left or right but as you approach the wall, you’ll often notice that the orientation of your blocks looks wrong, so you’ll second-guess and adjust your positioning. Everything is moving so quickly that you likely end up crashing into the wall, losing all your hard earned progress.

Fans of the Playstation VR game SuperHyperCube may note that this experience seems a tad familiar, but Ketchapp has done enough different here to make Fit In The Hole feel like a unique riff on SuperHyperCube’s “fit this into that” design.

It’s often a frustrating challenge, but matching the block pile with the gap in the wall adds a layer of complexity that feels more satisfying than just an empty addictive tapping. Though it might be easier for some to play with both hands, you can also play one-handed depending on how fast your thumbs are. Like all Ketchapp games, Fit In The Hole is free to play (as long as you aren’t bothered by ads).

Lian Amaris

• 

Lian Amaris has been studying and writing about games, transmedia storytelling and immersive environments since 2003. She has two Master's degrees from NYU, was a new media professor for 3 years then transitioned to mobile tech in 2011. From 2012-15 she worked on bringing over 35 F2P mobile games to market.