Save the Zacks is a delightfully strange puzzler that's just landed on iOS

Save the Zacks is a delightfully strange puzzler that's just landed on the App Store as a free-to-start game. I was quick to hop on a preview build after having noticed it at our Pocket Gamer Connects London event in January, and I'm glad that I did.

As its name suggests, Save the Zacks tasks you with saving dozens of cute aliens known as Zacks. They're really rather helpless, truth be told, so you'll have to guide them every step of the way if they're to make it to safety.

Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on

You can do this by terraforming levels via swipes and taps on the screen. Soon enough, you'll be creating underground pathways and even the odd ramp. Tilting your device will change the direction of gravity, allowing you to manoeuvre the Zacks around each level while avoiding the local fauna and some especially nasty traps.

Sadly, sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where one or more Zacks will have to be sacrificed for the good of the many. Holding down on their blob-like bodies will cause them to explode, clearing any nearby obstacles or enemies with ease.

One such hazard is a recurring tentacled creature who just loves to gobble your Zacks whole. They're nightmarishly fast, and I even recall jumping slightly the first time one grabbed a couple of my little buddies.

Outside of being eaten, Zacks can also be incinerated, impaled, and electrocuted. And yet it still remains a largely kid-friendly experience throughout, one that has just enough strangeness going on under the hood to keep older players interested.

If you're in the market for a cutesy puzzler with a slight edge to it, Save the Zacks is now up for download over on the App Store.