Smash Yard

Smash Yard is a demolition game with no pretence of subtlety. There is a wrecking yard, there are thirty-one vehicles in it, and the job is to take them apart as satisfyingly as possible.

How to play

Click or hold a part of the vehicle to smash it; Space does the same on a keyboard, and on a touch screen you tap or hold the vehicle itself. Parts come away as you work — doors, windows, wheels rolling across the yard — and the more you remove, the closer the wreck gets to collapsing entirely.

Two things raise the game above button mashing. The first is the weak points: cyan panels break faster and start chains where several parts come off in a row, so aiming matters. The second is the Super Smash — hold the charge, release inside the green zone, and you land a twenty-hit blow that plays out in slow motion as the vehicle comes apart.

Cash from wrecks buys upgrades, and upgrades open tougher targets: the roster goes from city cars and motorcycles to tanks, helicopters and a flying saucer, with four heavyweights waiting in Boss Rush. Endless and timed modes offer different reasons to be efficient, so the yard stays interesting past the first few wrecks.

Demolishing efficiently

• Hit the cyan parts. Chains are how large amounts of damage happen.
• Save the Super Smash. Twenty hits spent on a wing mirror is twenty hits not spent on an engine block.
• Strip the outside first. Loose panels add to every later impact.
• Upgrade before Boss Rush. The heavyweights are a gear check, not a reflexes check.

Who it is for

This is a stress-relief game: short sessions, immediate feedback, and a slow-motion collapse as the payoff. It works with a mouse or a thumb, and it is the kind of browser game you play for five minutes and unexpectedly enjoy.