G-Switch 1, 2 and 3: What Each Game Adds and Which to Play

G-Switch

The first game, the one on our home page, keeps things simple. Story mode is one long run broken up by checkpoints, with a progress bar from start to finish and a short text ending once you get through. Endless builds track from random pieces and keeps your best score. Multiplayer takes 2 to 6 people on one keyboard (2 to 4 on a touch screen). Every runner has a fixed key, and a tournament runs for six rounds. There are no characters to unlock and no computer opponents. It is the best one to learn the timing on, because the only thing on the track is surfaces to flip between.

G-Switch 2

The sequel splits story mode into three separate levels, each with its own level button and a best time. It adds secret orbs to find: the game says "Secret Orb Found" when you pick one up and "New character unlocked!" when you have collected enough. Multiplayer can now be played against the computer. It handles up to eight runners, the game has a "Choose New Key" screen so players can pick their own keys, and it has messages for ties of up to eight players. A tournament still ends with a Final Round. If the fixed keys of the first game feel cramped, this is the version to try.

G-Switch 3

The third game has the most going on. Its language file names three story levels, Lime Cityscape, Red Giant and Purple Dreams, and story mode has short dialogue scenes between them. The game has sound files for power-ups, saw blades and "cloner" checkpoints, and the closing dialogue talks about getting through "double-body conditions", so later sections ask you to control more than one runner at a time. Secret orbs unlock characters again, multiplayer can include computer players (shown as CPU), and you can still choose new keys. The text strings handle ties of up to eight players. The credits list Vasco Freitas for game design and programming, Frederico Martins and Rute Soares for artwork, and Francisco Furtado for music and sound effects.

Some lines in G-Switch 3 belong to its mobile app, such as a paid "G-Switch 3 Plus" that adds extra multiplayer stages and options. The browser version on this site is the free game, so those extras are not part of it.

Which one to play

• Learning the flip: start with G-Switch. One run, one key, nothing else to think about.
• Playing alone for longer: G-Switch 2 or 3, because the orbs and level best times give you a reason to replay a level.
• Big groups: G-Switch 2 or 3 if you have seven or eight people or want to choose your own keys. G-Switch if six is enough and you want to start in seconds.
• One person and a computer: only 2 and 3 have CPU racers.

All three use the same basic control: one input flips gravity and the runner never stops. What you learn in one carries straight over to the others.