Tower Drop Game 3D: Twirldrop Is All About Falling Well
You spin the tower, the ball does the falling, and I still managed to lose to a red wedge. Twice.
By Polarzinho ·
Most tower games ask you to climb. Twirldrop, a 3D tower drop game that runs in a browser tab, asks you to fall, and for once I feel qualified: I am round, I bounce, and gravity and I have always gotten along. The twist is that you never touch the ball. It bounces on its own, and your only job is to spin the tower until a gap opens right under it.
I went down the first ten of its 30 towers, tried the endless Descent and went back to Tower 3 on purpose to get hurt by the red spikes. I only quote numbers the game put on my screen. Yes, it comes from the studio's own shelf, and no, the red tiles did not go easy on me because of that.
What is Twirldrop? A spinning tower arcade where you move the tower, not the ball
Picture a tall pole with colored rings stacked around it and a ball with a coral stripe sitting on the top ring. Each ring is a floor with a wedge missing, sometimes more than one. You turn the whole tower, a gap slides under the ball, the ball drops one floor and the next ring gets its chance to be in the way. That is the entire loop, and it is the kind that eats an hour without asking.
PolarzinhoRound, bouncy and fond of gravity. That ball and I could be cousins.
The studio's own tagline lists the verbs: Spin. Slip. Smash. You spin the tower, slip the ball through the gaps and, when three gaps in a row line up, smash the next floor. There are two ways in. The Campaign is a list of 30 towers, and the Descent is one endless tower where you go as deep as you can in a single run.
One note about the screenshots: the game is tall, so on a wide screen it lives in a narrow column, with the tower pushed to the right on the title screen and centered during play.
How to play Twirldrop, step by step
The whole manual is five lines long, and the first towers repeat most of it in little bubbles, so there is nothing to memorize.
- Click once on the first screen to start. Then pick Campaign (it continues where you stopped) or Play for the endless Descent.
- Drag anywhere on the screen, or use the left and right arrow keys (A and D work too), to spin the tower. The ball bounces on its own.
- Bring an opening under the ball and it falls to the next floor. Every floor you slip through adds points to your score.
- Fall through three openings in a row and the ball charges. The next floor it touches shatters, red ones included.
- Stay off the red spiked tiles and land on any other color. P or Esc pauses.
PolarzinhoDrag anywhere, they said. I dragged everywhere. The ball fell one floor and looked at me like I owed it an apology.
The top of the screen is simple: pause on the left, the settings gear on the right, your score in the middle, three small pills under it and the tower name with a thin progress bar.
Three pills and one smash: how the charge works
Under the score there are three little pills. Each time you fall through an opening without touching a floor, one of them turns yellow. When all three are lit, a yellow SMASH! tag appears under the score and the ball goes gold, with a pale ring around it.
PolarzinhoTwo pills yellow, one to go. I held my breath, which does nothing, but I held it.
Then the ball reaches the next floor and it does not bounce, it bursts. Pieces of floor fly everywhere and a +30 pops up where the floor used to be.
PolarzinhoThat floor did not open, it exploded. Plus 30 for making a mess, my favorite kind of score.
A smash breaks one floor, and then the charge is spent and you start filling the pills again. Tower 6, Through the Barrier, is where the game says the important part out loud: A charged ball breaks one floor, red ones included.
Red spikes: the only color that says no
Tower 3 is called Watch the Stripe, and the lesson arrives in a bubble: Red spiked tiles break the ball. Land on the others. Those red wedges with black spikes keep coming back in later towers, and in the Descent too.
PolarzinhoMy brain read "cake". The ball read "ouch".
I cleared Tower 3 on the first try, with 145 points and one smash. Then, being a panda with a curious streak, I went back to find out how falling goes wrong. I wiggled the arrow keys like a cat walking on a keyboard, and the red tiles got me twice.
Polarzinho"8 floors to go." Thanks for itemizing how much tower I still owed you.
The first failed run ended at 40 points with 6 floors to go, the second (the one in the screenshot) at 20 points with 8 floors to go. The bubble tells you how close you got, and the game promises that a miss means a single tap to get back in.
My trip down: Twirldrop towers 1 to 10
Here is the diary, with the numbers the results screen gave me. Every tower I finished came with the New best tag and the First try star.
Towers 1 and 2: learning to drag
Tower 1, First Turn, is eight floors long: 120 points, a streak of 4 and no smashes. Tower 2, Find the Gap, has ten floors and a bubble that asks you to bring the opening under the ball. It paid 120 points too, with a streak of 2.
Towers 3 to 6: red tiles, the charge, the landing and the barrier
Tower 3, Watch the Stripe, brought the red tiles: 145 points, a streak of 3 and my first smash. Tower 4, Three in a Row, is the charge lesson, with 12 floors, 225 points and 3 smashes. Tower 5, Choose the Landing, has 14 floors and a bubble that says Look below before you drop (180 points, 1 smash). Tower 6, Through the Barrier, is another 14 floors, 275 points and 3 smashes.
Towers 7 to 10: longer drops
Tower 7, Curve in the Path, has 16 floors and I fell through all 16 openings in a row: 430 points, a streak of 16 and zero smashes, because the charge just sat there glowing, unused. Tower 8, Breathing Room, goes back to 12 floors, 225 points and 3 smashes. Tower 9, Two Good Routes, stretches to 18 floors and 440 points. Tower 10, Keep Your Rhythm, is 20 floors: 460 points, a streak of 12 and 2 smashes.
PolarzinhoTen towers, ten stars. I still can't explain what these paws did.
After six towers, My records said 6/30 towers done, 6 first try and 1,065 points, with 24 towers still to play. By tower ten the tower list had ten stars in a row, an open 11 and a locked 12.
PolarzinhoTen stars and a glowing 11. It looks like a doorbell I'm scared to ring.
Descent: the endless tower and its floor counter
Play on the title screen starts the Descent: one run, no levels, nothing but floors. The tower progress bar is gone and a floor counter takes its place. Mine read 27 floors at 605 points in one run, and later 8 floors · best 50 under the score, so it keeps your deepest run in sight.
PolarzinhoThe ball went gold and everything in its way took a step back. I want that in a supermarket queue.
My first Descent run ended at 1,020 points: 50 floors, a streak of 10 and 6 smashes. Here a run ends the moment you land on red, so the red tiles are less a hint and more a deadline.
Twirldrop's own description says the Descent comes with an online ranking, with daily, weekly, monthly and all-time boards. There is a Ranking button on the title screen and another one on the Descent results card. I gave it a respectful nod and went back to falling.
Tower drop game tips from a panda who fell a lot
1. Treat every bounce as thinking time
The ball bounces on its own, so any safe color is a free look. Read where the next opening is before you turn and the tower stops feeling frantic.
2. Chase three in a row, not just any gap
One opening gets you down a floor. Three in a row get you the smash. When two openings line up, look for the third before you touch anything.
3. Look below before you drop
Tower 5 has a whole bubble about it. An opening is only good if the floor underneath is a safe color, so check the landing before the ball reaches the gap.
4. Spend the smash on trouble
The smash breaks one floor and then it is gone, red ones included. Save it for a floor you cannot slip past, not for a gentle blue one.
Controls, settings and what else hides in the menu
On a computer you can drag with the mouse, use the left and right arrow keys or use A and D. I tried all three and every one of them turns the tower. P or Esc pauses, and the pause card offers Resume, Restart, Settings and Menu, with the three language buttons underneath.
Settings has three tabs. Controls has the Spin sensitivity slider, the Spin left and Spin right keys and Ball finish, four round swatches, two of which were still locked on my profile. Display has Less motion, an Effects level of Low, Medium or High, the language buttons (EN, PT, ES) and a Full screen switch. My records, next to it, has a Descent tab and a Towers tab.
PolarzinhoSensitivity set to the middle. I call it a personality.
Is Twirldrop for you? What to know before you fall
Twirldrop is for people who like one-gesture games, short attempts and a clean rule that is easy to learn and sneaky to master. Chasing a longer streak or a deeper floor count is the whole fun.
Now the small print. You do not steer the ball, you only turn the tower, so if you want to run and jump yourself, this is not that. The first towers are gentle on purpose: I finished each of the first ten on my first try, so do not judge the game by Tower 1.
Quick questions about Twirldrop
Do I control the ball or the tower?
The tower. You turn it by dragging or with the arrow keys (A and D work too). The ball bounces by itself.
How many towers are there, and what is the Descent?
The Campaign has 30 towers. The Descent is one endless tower: a single run, as deep as you can go.
Can I play Twirldrop on my phone?
On Polar Games it is marked for desktop and mobile, and a finger does what the mouse does: drag to turn the tower. I played with mouse and keyboard.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Twirldrop runs right in your browser, on Polar Games.
Twirldrop pros and cons
Time to fall
Go down the spiral yourself: open Twirldrop on Polar Games, take Tower 1 and let the ball show you the first drop. If the red spikes get you on Tower 3, welcome to the club.