The short version
A genuine showpiece of what a browser could do in 2012 and still a good-looking, functional WipEout-style racer today. Touch controls are confirmed real and responsive - not just present but forceful enough that a hard drag on the turn pad at speed sent the ship flying off the track to a full crash, proof the steering is directly and physically wired to the ship's flight model.
Biggest strengths
- Touch controls confirmed genuinely functional and responsive, not just theoretically present - a real touch hold on the on-screen ACCEL pad took the ship's speed from 0 to 343 with a visible engine glow, and a real drag on the TURN pad while accelerating caused a strong enough steering deviation to send the ship off the track to a full "DESTROYED" crash sequence
- Still visually striking well over a decade after release - banked WipEout-style tunnels, reflective surfaces, and a heads-up shield/speed display that all render smoothly
- Desktop keyboard controls (arrows/WASD, shift for air brakes) confirmed working via visible ship banking on a turn input
Biggest weaknesses
- The heaviest game on this shelf by a distance - genuinely needs a real device and a moment to load the WebGL assets, and quality/performance will vary a lot by phone
- The flight model is twitchy at speed, meaning a firm touch drag can send you off the track almost immediately - not necessarily a flaw for the genre, but a real learning curve for a first-time mobile player
- Sound is present but understated compared to the visual presentation
Who it's for: Anyone who wants to see a proper 3D racer running in a browser tab, on desktop or phone, with real physics-driven flight rather than a rails-style demo.
Our recommendation: play
8 / 10
Opening
HexGL has been on this shelf since before the review pipeline existed, so this is a retrospective look rather than a first pass - but it's aged well. Released in 2012 as a demonstration of what WebGL could do in a browser, it's a WipEout-shaped anti-gravity racer: banked tunnels, a magnetic ship, and a shield that drains when you scrape a wall, all running on Three.js.
Touch controls, confirmed with a genuine crash
The manifest already claimed touch support, so this pass tested it directly rather than taking that on faith. On a simulated phone, the title screen correctly auto-detected touch and defaulted its control-scheme setting to "TOUCH" without being asked. In the actual race, a real touch hold on the on-screen ACCEL pad took the ship's speed from a standstill to 343 with a visible thruster glow and real forward track progress - and a real drag on the TURN pad while still accelerating produced a strong enough steering response to send the ship off the track entirely, ending in a full "DESTROYED" crash sequence. That's about as decisive a confirmation of working, physically-connected touch controls as this kind of test can produce: the input didn't just register, it had real, visible, occasionally fatal consequences.
Still a looker
Over a decade on, the presentation holds up: reflective tunnel surfaces, a glowing engine trail, a clean shield/speed HUD, and a genuinely 3D banked track rather than a flat rails demo. It's honestly labelled as the heaviest game on the shelf, and that's a fair trade for what it's showing on screen.
Final Verdict
A real 3D WebGL racer that backs up its reputation with controls that are confirmed to actually work - and work hard enough that a careless drag will put you into the scenery. Worth the load time on a real device.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Touch controls confirmed genuinely functional and responsive, not just theoretically present - a real touch hold on the on-screen ACCEL pad took the ship's speed from 0 to 343 with a visible engine glow, and a real drag on the TURN pad while accelerating caused a strong enough steering deviation to send the ship off the track to a full "DESTROYED" crash sequence
- Still visually striking well over a decade after release - banked WipEout-style tunnels, reflective surfaces, and a heads-up shield/speed display that all render smoothly
- Desktop keyboard controls (arrows/WASD, shift for air brakes) confirmed working via visible ship banking on a turn input
- Auto-detects touch vs keyboard/mouse and defaults the control-scheme menu option accordingly, rather than assuming desktop input
- MIT licensed, no third-party analytics found in the shipped bundle
Cons
- The heaviest game on this shelf by a distance - genuinely needs a real device and a moment to load the WebGL assets, and quality/performance will vary a lot by phone
- The flight model is twitchy at speed, meaning a firm touch drag can send you off the track almost immediately - not necessarily a flaw for the genre, but a real learning curve for a first-time mobile player
- Sound is present but understated compared to the visual presentation