Pop the Lock Game

Pop the Lock’s titular lock is based on one of those combination locks, and if you know anything about these little gizmos, then you know opening them isn’t quite as simple as inputting some secret numbers. You need to wind a little dial one way. Then it has to go in the opposite direction. Then it goes forward again. And so on until all the numbers are where they ought to be, and everything goes “click.”
So how do you play it?

Pop the Lock’s action takes place on a lock-shaped playing field. When you begin a round, a small horizontal line begins moving in a clockwise motion. A yellow dot pops up at the same time. The idea is to tap the screen just as the line hits the dot. As soon as that happens, the line begins moving counter-clockwise, and you have to stop it on another dot. Then the line begins moving clockwise again, and so on.

Pop the Lock is mind-numbingly easy for its first few rounds because ascending to higher levels is simply a matter of making the line stop on a dime once, then twice, then three times. But by the time you climb to level ten, you begin to notice you’re being thrown up against a pretty daunting task.

See, every time you match up the line and the dot, your level count falls backwards until it reaches zero. So if you’re on level ten and you make a match, you go down to level nine. Then eight. Then seven. When you clear number one, you move up to level eleven, and begin counting down from there. If you screw up, your count resets back to its initial level.