Squish Machine Guide: Tips, Cheats and Strategies

Squish Machine is a simple yet maddeningly addictive platformer from Brad Erkkila. You know the drill – it’s easy to pick up, but ends up adding new obstacles at every turn.

You play as a blob and must press all the switches before the walls close in and squish you. Hence the title. You might find it a bit tough to get past later levels though, so we’ve come up with the following tips and tricks to help you breeze through them.

• Jump around The controls in Squish Machine are very simple – there’s a button to go left, one to go right, and another to jump. Learning when to jump is obviously essential, but learn quickly that you can jump as many times as you wish in a row – this will allow you to hover in midair and is essential to get used to if you are to progress.

• On the button The main aim in the tiny levels is to press the buttons. So make sure you make note of how many you have to press.

• In order Another thing about the buttons is that if there are multiple ones to press – as there often are – make sure you aim for them in the most logical order. Take a life to work out the best approach if need be.

• Learn from your mistakes The best thing about Squish Machine is that death is only a minor inconvenience – if you die you will, at worst, just have to watch an advert. So use this generous restart system to take risks. See those hard to grab coins for example? Why not just try and grab them? You may as well…

• Adapt to survive Different levels require different tactics. Some need you to go as quickly as possible, whereas others you’ll have a fair bit of time to work out how to avoid enemies and various other obstacles in your path.

• Keep an eye out There are often subtle visual clues to keep an eye out for in levels. The laser cannons in some of the later levels have light up strips – and once they’re all lit up they fire. Make sure you stay eagle eyed as although Squish Machine isn’t visually complex such hints can make completing stages a whole lot easier.

• Time it right The biggest challenge in Squish Machine – and it’s not a game without its share of challenges – is learning how to time jumps right. Holding down the jump button gives you a higher slower leap for example, whereas tapping it in a burst allows you to skip through smaller gaps. The latter is an essential skill to learn to get through the harder stages.

• Enemy of mine? There are a range of enemies in Squish Machine, from slow moving rubes to faster annoyances. Most can be destroyed, but decide whether it’s worth attacking them or not. Sometimes you’ll need to use them to complete stages, but often it’s best just to leave them be and focus on pressing the switches.

• Explosive expert Talking of enemies, the mines that are introduced a few levels in follow you around like a particularly needy ex-partner – and you can use to your advantage. Simply get them to collide into each other and they’ll explode, causing you no further bother. Boom! Literally.

• Coining it in Those coins that are hard to grab in levels? They’re only really worth grabbing if you want to unlock the other characters you can play as. There’s no difference between the various blobs other than their appearance though.

Check out Squish Machine and try to avoid getting crushed yourself by downloading the game via the App Store.

Simon Reed

Simon has been playing portable games since his Game Boy Pocket and a very worn out copy of Donkey Kong Land 2, and he has no intention of stopping anytime soon. Playing Donkey Kong Land 2 that is. And games in general we suppose.