ORBITAL LAB / GRAVITY CONTROL
Turn gravity — 3D four-in-a-row
RECORD
A free game of 3D Connect Four — also called three-dimensional four-in-a-row — played online inside a 4×4×4 cube of 64 cells. On your turn you either drop a single piece or rotate the board 90° to change which way gravity pulls. After a rotation every piece falls again in the new direction, so your own line can fall apart and your opponent's can appear out of nowhere. Line up four along any of the 76 lines — rows, columns, height or diagonals — and you win.
The CPU has three levels. A preview shows the board as it will be after a rotation, and the SLICE view lays the four layers out as flat grids, so the cube stays readable even if you are new to three dimensions. The "win in one shift" daily puzzle changes at midnight and is the same for everybody. No sign-up, works on phones.
© Rinblog
A board game that takes three-dimensional four-in-a-row — stacking pieces in a 4×4×4 cube and racing to line up four — and adds one more move: rotate the board and change which way gravity pulls. Your opponent is the CPU. You move first, with the cyan pieces; the CPU follows with the magenta ones. The pieces are told apart by their markings as well as their colour: yours carry a ring, the CPU's a cross.
Drag the screen to turn the view. "GRAVITY" at the top shows which way gravity pulls now: on the small cube the cyan face is the floor and the dashed amber face was the floor before. Below it you can see who rotated last, and which way.
You get two per match (across all kinds). You choose which kinds are in play on the title screen, and the CPU cannot use a kind you turn off. Special blocks carry an amber marking.
| BLOCK | What it does | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Mass | Wedges in at the far end of the column and pushes the pieces above it up one place each. It cannot pass through a Fixed block | Lift your opponent's pieces and knock their line out of place |
| Fixed | Stays where it is, even when the board rotates | Build a foothold that a rotation cannot break up |
| Bomb | Clears the pieces in the six cells above, below, left, right, in front and behind where it lands, and disappears with them. The remaining pieces then fall again | Break up your opponent's threat |
One puzzle a day, the same for everybody, changing at midnight. Rotate the board just once and complete your own four-in-a-row. Some directions are traps that hand the line to your opponent instead. Picking a direction lets you check the result as ghosts, but the number of directions you check (SCAN) and the number of tries (TRY) go on the record.
Solve it and your streak grows; you can share the result on X without giving the answer away.
Five moves on a real board: aim, drop, the SLICE view, the shift preview, and rotating to win.
Two players take turns dropping pieces into a 4×4×4 cube (64 cells) and stacking them up. Line up four of your own along any of the 76 lines — rows, columns, height, the flat diagonals or the diagonals through the cube — and you win. In Gravity Shift you can also rotate the board 90° to change which way gravity pulls instead of dropping a piece.
The face you choose becomes the new floor and every piece falls again in that direction. The order of the pieces within each column is kept, but their positions change, so your own line can fall apart and your opponent can end up with one. Before you commit, you can check the board after the rotation as ghosts.
The player who rotated loses. The same goes when a Mass or a Bomb moves pieces and both players line up four at once: the player who made the move loses. And if your own move lines up four for your opponent only, your opponent wins.
The same player cannot rotate on two turns in a row. The one exception is when no column can take a piece (every drop slot is full) — then you may rotate again. If the same position appears three times, the game is a draw.
Special pieces, two of them per match. The Mass wedges in at the far end of the column and pushes the pieces above it up one place, the Fixed block stays where it is even when the board rotates, and the Bomb clears the pieces in the six cells around where it lands. You choose which kinds are in play on the title screen, and the CPU cannot use a kind you turn off.
Easy looks one move ahead and plays roughly one move in three at random (it still avoids moves that lose at once). Normal looks three moves ahead, and hard looks up to six. Hard thinks for up to about 1.2 seconds per move.
The daily puzzle asks you to complete your own four-in-a-row with a single rotation. It changes at midnight and is the same for everybody. On your first try: three stars if you checked only one direction as ghosts, two stars if you succeed on that first try, and one star if you succeed after a retry. Your streak is saved, and you can share the result on X without giving the answer away.
Switch to "SLICE" at the top of the screen and the four layers are laid out side by side as flat grids. A cell in the same position is the same column on every layer, so you can tap a cell to aim and drop straight from there. In 3D you can also drag the screen to turn the view.
It is completely free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs in the browser on iPhone and Android. Your record and your daily results are saved in your own browser.