The short version
A genuinely touch-first puzzle game built by four high-school students in a weekend, and it shows in the control scheme - two-zone tap-to-rotate is the entire input model and it works perfectly, confirmed via the hexagon's own rotation state changing correctly on real touch and keyboard input. Retrospective review; a third-party analytics script and a mixed-content font link were found and fixed before publishing.
Biggest strengths
- Built touch-first from day one - tapping either half of the screen to rotate the hexagon is the entire control scheme, confirmed working correctly by reading the hexagon's own internal rotation angle before and after real touch taps (30 -> 90 -> 30)
- Desktop keyboard controls (arrow keys) confirmed working identically via the same internal-state check (30 -> -30 on ArrowLeft)
- A famous, well-regarded example of the genre - four students built it in a weekend and it went straight to the Hacker News front page, and the "tap one of two halves" control scheme has aged perfectly for a phone shelf
Biggest weaknesses
- Found on retrospective review: a third-party analytics script (hextris.io/a.js) was being dynamically injected into the page on every load - removed before publishing, since it served no purpose for a self-hosted copy and was never disclosed to players
- Also found and fixed a mixed-content issue - the custom heading font was linked over plain http, which modern browsers silently block on an https page, so it was falling back to a system font unnecessarily
- Sound design is functional but minimal, and the game doesn't do much visually beyond its clean core loop
Who it's for: Anyone who wants a genuinely mobile-first puzzle game rather than a keyboard port - quick to learn, hard to master, and a real classic of the genre.
Our recommendation: play
8.2 / 10
Opening
Hextris has been on this shelf since before the review pipeline existed, so this is a retrospective review rather than a first look - but it earns its spot on replay. Four high-school students built it in a weekend; it's a hexagonal spin on Tetris where colour blocks fall inward and rotating the hexagon lets you slot them together to clear three or more of a kind.
Genuinely built for touch
The entire control scheme is two tap zones: tap the left half of the screen to rotate one way, the right half to rotate the other. That's it, and it's exactly right for a phone. This was confirmed properly rather than assumed from the instructions text: a real touch tap was dispatched via CDP on each side of the screen, and the hexagon's own internal rotation angle was read directly before and after - it moved cleanly from 30 to 90 degrees on a right-side tap, and back to 30 on a left-side tap. The equivalent desktop keyboard control (arrow keys) was checked the same way and produced the same clean state change.
Two issues found and fixed on this pass
Reviewing an already-live game meant actually looking at what it was doing under the hood, and two things turned up. First, a small script was being injected into every page load that fetched http://hextris.io/a.js - a third-party analytics call with no stated purpose for a self-hosted copy, so it's been removed. Second, the custom heading font was linked over http://, which is silently blocked as mixed content on this https site, so it was quietly falling back to a system font; fixed to load over https:// instead.
Final Verdict
A genuine classic of touch-first browser puzzle games, and it holds up: the controls are exactly as good as advertised, confirmed by real input testing rather than just reading the instructions screen. Worth its spot on the shelf, and worth the small cleanup it got this pass.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Built touch-first from day one - tapping either half of the screen to rotate the hexagon is the entire control scheme, confirmed working correctly by reading the hexagon's own internal rotation angle before and after real touch taps (30 -> 90 -> 30)
- Desktop keyboard controls (arrow keys) confirmed working identically via the same internal-state check (30 -> -30 on ArrowLeft)
- A famous, well-regarded example of the genre - four students built it in a weekend and it went straight to the Hacker News front page, and the "tap one of two halves" control scheme has aged perfectly for a phone shelf
- Simple to learn (rotate to match 3+ same-colour blocks) with a real difficulty curve as speed increases
- Clean, minimal flat-colour visual style that reads clearly at a glance, which matters when blocks are falling fast
Cons
- Found on retrospective review: a third-party analytics script (hextris.io/a.js) was being dynamically injected into the page on every load - removed before publishing, since it served no purpose for a self-hosted copy and was never disclosed to players
- Also found and fixed a mixed-content issue - the custom heading font was linked over plain http, which modern browsers silently block on an https page, so it was falling back to a system font unnecessarily
- Sound design is functional but minimal, and the game doesn't do much visually beyond its clean core loop