Helix
Step into the gaming world with Helix, one of the top $3.99 games in the App Store! Crafted with creativity and innovation by Michael Brough, this captivating Action game is bound to grab your attention. With its content rating of 9+, it caters to a wide audience. Ever since its release on 16th October 2014, it has been constantly updated, with the latest version rolled out on 14th November 2022.
Whether you have a liking for Action, games, Helix is sure to keep you hooked!
User Ratings
Join the crowd of 32 gamers who have given their verdict on Helix.
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Dive into Helix
A frantic arcade game from the creator of 868-HACK, Corrypt and Glitch Tank. An "anti-shmup". Precise touchscreen controls to avoid and encircle enemies. Some twists.
Honourable mention for IGF Design award 2013/2015.
What’s Fresh in the Latest Update?
Discover what’s new in the recent update of Helix on 14th November 2022:
Due to the baffling inability of Apple’s vast team of highly paid engineers to maintain backwards compatibility while updating their operating system, the rendering area of some applications became displaced off-center on the screens. For this new version, I recompiled Helix to fix this issue. No code changes were necessary. The game itself has not been altered; it is already excellent.
I also changed the icon.
Hear from the Players – Helix Reviews
Find out what gamers are saying about Helix:
Anti-shmup arcade game from the mad genius behind 868-HACK.
IOS games don’t get better than Brough, one of the true geniuses of the indie game movement. Get this, and get 868-HACK and Imbroglio, his two brilliant roguelikes- his take on the genre is so special it deserves to be considered its own subgenre… Broughlikes! And don’t stop playing until you get to the point you can’t stop playing. Take it from us, Helix World Champion for two years running, and top 10 player of all Brough’s iOS releases.
Very unique and clever control scheme! A great original game that’s a steep challenge but rewarding to keep playing.
Great little Arcade Game. Looks like Hotline Miami, Plays like Geometry Wars and sounds like Old School Electro.
So, we wasn’t having any issues with the game on iOS 9.2.1, but once we updated to 9.3, the game suddenly had black bars on the sides. Like a game that hadn’t been updated for widescreen. Which is strange, because we know it’s widescreen supported… We have no clue what settings were changed with the iOS 9.3 update, but they messed this game’s display up. We doubt it’ll ever get fixed (and we don’t expect it to, it is Apple’s fault anyway and look at how long GameCenter has been broken). Just thought we should let people know that the game might not be as easy to play if you update your OS.
This game is extremely satisfying to play. The controls feel incredibly natural and we get a lot of pleasure out of getting better at the game.
This is our favorite iOS game. We can’t stop playing the darn thing. We just finally beat one of the developer’s high scores and we feel like the kid in The Wizard. This thing’s brilliant in all facets. Very cool hypnagogic art style, killer computer virus music, super secrets. People on public transit stop and ask us what this game is. Gosh darn!
Super fun to experience without any prior guidance. Just jump in, explode, and figure it out. Good stuff.
Want great games then we say lets do it. This man is a once in a lifetime developer. Do you so called gamers understand this mans genius, sometimes we wonder. Support is the name of the game here people. You call yourself a gamer, well Mikes got the games.
We feel like we were oversold. We have been eyeing this game for several years decided to try it out. To us, there’s just not enough to latch onto. We draw circles around the bad guys? That’s the whole game? No upgrades, the different modes are indistinguishable except by difficulty. The art style is cool, but not enough for us to latch onto. I’d direct you to Spirit for a similar but IMO better game. FYI we love the developer’s 868-HACK so we feel like we’re being fair!
After the hype, we were suprised how crummy this game is. Like a low-end 1985 PC DOS CGA game written by a student. Crude grapics, poor controls, boring. We deleted it after a week.
Sheer genius on all levels. Incredibly fun to play. Art style and soundtrack are perfect. An instant classic (and we do not use that phrase lightly).
Reminds us of Bit Pilot, which is one of our favorite iOS games to date. This is very addictive and we can see myself playing it for a long, long time. Hopefully it gets optimized for the 6/6+ screens soon. Playing zoomed isn’t the best, and right now the tablet is the definitive "high score" version.
The controls are spot-on and the gameplay fun. You can’t get much better than this.
This kind control and gameplay is refreshing, with superb enemy design.
Great controls. And the graphics are so unique. Will stay enjoyable for a lifetime.
This game is perfectly suited for a touch phone. The controls feel great, rounds don’t take to long, and it’s a unique game built on a inherently interesting interaction on the device. This game is like a breath of fresh air in the stale sea of mediocre iPhone games.
Another Brough winner. Our favorite so far, honestly. Arcade heaven. Edit: Had to drop in again just to say that this is our GOTY. This continues to get almost daily play, and we’re always getting questions about the game from others. We’re always excited to share, and we hope it’s resulted in a few new purchases. Crazy, crazy, crazy about this quirky, intense, challenging game.
Pleasing and strong mechanics with mad actions.
Never played Mr. Brough’s other games but after this one we’re definitely interested in doing so. Three different game modes offering different twists to the same base mechanics. Excellent music and delightfully weird visuals. The game is "endless with an ending" meaning if you survive long enough and rack up enough points you will eventually see a conclusion to the games premise, which we think has something to do with killing computer viruses by encircling them. Overall great gameplay hook, the encircling bit, lots of different enemy types to discover and great music make this a solid twitch based high score game. Highly recommended if those are your jam.
Love the pixel art , the smooth control ( silky smooth) and addictive gameplay.
This is simply a sublime high score game! Brough’s graphics, which are not always to our taste, work perfectly here. The music is outstanding. The offset controls work exactly as they should. The game can be brutal, but the instant restart allows you to keep trying and continue to improve your game. Every new high score is so satisfying! While we don’t love all of Brough’s games, they are always interesting. Along with Helix, our favorite is Corrypt. To the reviewer who states that this game is way overpriced, since when is hours of entertainment not worth $3?
Fresh, frantic and great fun, Helix is undeniably Brough. The best iOS game we’ve played this year.
Sure, the gameplay is original and compelling, but be prepared to be also blown away by the visual aesthetic and sound working so well together. Get this.
Great controls, bumping soundtrack and addicting gameplay. Buy now!
Helix is an entertaining game with fluid and responsive controls. The graphics are fun in an Apple IIc or maybe even Commodore 64 sort of way. Best of all, the game possesses that rare quality that encourages us to play just one more time, over, and over, and over… Five out of five stars.
Corrypt was a masterclass in puzzle (or anti-puzzle?) design, and 868-Hack was a masterclass in enemy design. Now we have Helix, which is a masterclass in both enemy design and touch controls. All three are App Store essentials, and Helix may be the most fun of the bunch. Also, don’t be discouraged about those who say it’s too tough to play on the iPhone. We’re sitting here in the top 3 on each board playing on iPhone.
Genius in its initial simplicity with plenty of surprises hidden within. A perfect arcade experience. And once you think you’ve mastered it, you can switch to Terror Mode for a new challenge.
Great music and art, fluid controls, but ultimately a bullet hell experience that is more frustration than fun on the smaller screen of a phone.
This is a simple twitch game i.e. Flappy bird, the mechanic is easy enough to perform just circle objects to remove them from the screen. It would probably become very repetitive if you could play it for more than a few seconds, however we find it very hard even in the normal because the screen fills up to fast and because you have to complete a full circle around an object to remove it you keep running into objects before it can be completed. We don’t understand the positive reviews they are truly misleading. Don’t waste your money it’s worth no more than .99 cents and then only to people who enjoy playing unplayable games,,,
Where are the good reviews coming from? This game is unplayable. It’s a joke!
How is this getting good reviews??