Light Trails: trapping the computer riders

Neon light-cycles race around a dark arena in Light Trails, and each one leaves a solid wall of light behind it. Your rider never stops. You turn at right angles to stay clear of every wall, including the one you're laying yourself, and you try to box the computer riders in so that they crash first. It's drawn in an early-90s PC style, after EGA and VGA graphics, and sits on the Retro arcade shelf of Games by Zaweba.

Turning

Arrow keys or WASD turn your rider in the direction you press. You can also use Z and X to turn left and right relative to the way you're travelling. Both work, so pick whichever you find easier to think in. Pressing the direction you want is simple to read on screen, while left and right turns can feel more natural once you're used to riding.

Every turn is a right angle, so there's no gentle curve to ease out of trouble. Turn early rather than late, and never assume you'll squeeze through a gap at the last moment.

Walls everywhere

The arena fills up with walls as the round goes on, because every rider, you included, is laying one all the time. Early on there's plenty of room. Later, the open space shrinks and gets divided into pockets. The danger is turning into a pocket that's too small, where you run out of room and hit a wall.

Before turning into a space, look at how big it is. A large open area is safe for a while. A narrow corridor between two walls may close off in front of you, and once you're in it there's no way back.

Boxing the computer in

You win a round by being the last rider running, and the way to do that is to trap the computer riders so that they crash first. Riding alongside a rival and then cutting across in front of it can leave it with nowhere to go. Your wall becomes its obstacle.

The risk is that the same move can trap you. Cutting in too close leaves you heading into the same shrinking space, so keep enough room for your own escape. Often the best trap is a slow one: gradually closing off a large area around a rival while staying outside it yourself.

Rounds and matches

The last rider running wins the round, and the first to three rounds wins the match. It's you against the computer, and a single crash isn't the end, so you can learn from how a round was lost. If you keep losing the same way, by getting boxed into a corner for example, change your approach in the next round rather than repeating it.

Around the arena

Esc pauses, F11 makes the arena fill the screen, which helps you see every wall, and the title card and F1 explain the controls. Games by Zaweba keeps your best score, plays and wins on your PC, so each match you take counts towards your record. Like every game in the app it's offline, with no account and nothing to download.

If you enjoy steering something that never stops, Slither on the same shelf is a gentler cousin, where your own body is the wall you have to avoid. In Light Trails, turn early, stay in the bigger spaces, and use your wall as a weapon without boxing yourself in.