Poxel.io

Poxel.io is a first-person shooter built in the .io mould: blocky characters, small maps, and matches against whoever else is online. It runs in the browser — no download, no account, no install.

The pitch is a lightweight version of the arena shooters of the late nineties, stripped to the parts that survive contact with a web browser. Movement is fast, the field of view is wide, and the shooting is hitscan, so the difference between winning and losing a duel is usually who saw whom first rather than who managed their resources better.

Because there is no install and no launcher, matches fill from people dropping in and out, which shapes the game: rounds are short, the skill range in a lobby is wide, and getting better means learning the maps rather than unlocking anything. Predictable corners, sightlines and spawn positions do most of the work.

It is a mouse-and-keyboard game first — the aiming demands it — but it loads on a phone as well, where the controls are the compromise.

On cool games spot this page is the index entry: cover, description, and search terms. The game itself is loaded from the game's own site in an iframe on Play, so nothing is bundled into the site. It is filed under io and tagged multiplayer, so it appears alongside the rest of the multiplayer games in the catalog.

Press Play and find out.