The music starts slow and rhythmic as you tap delicately on your iPad. Your eyes are glued to either end of the bar on screen, ensuring that your taps never linger long enough to push the bar's limit. You occasionally glance at an appearing second gauge whose new color grows as you maintain a balance on the first.
The music pulses, as does the screen. The bar moves to try to distract you. Text appears in the background. "Hello." "Do you even read me?" It tries to get your attention pulled away from the bar.
Gauge is a very simple game. There's a bar that fills with color when you tap the screen. Hit the ends of the gauge, though, and you lose the game. There's a sweet spot near the end that rapidly fills the gauge, eventually introducing a second level in the gauge that fills, too.
But the game works against you, introducing distractions and pumping up the music to see how well you stand against them. Gauge is a psychedelic game. The screen changes colors. It shakes, and turns into lines to try to confuse you.
It's fun, it's addictive, and there are different modes for you to challenge yourself with. Plus, you can try it out for free.
Gauge [$0.99, iTunes]