Vex 3 — Play Free Online

Vex 3 is a stickman parkour platformer in the series by Amazing Adam. You guide a small figure through a run of hazards: spikes, spinning blades, gaps, moving platforms and other traps that can end an attempt in a split second. The whole game is built around the retry. You fail, you restart from a nearby checkpoint, and you try the same stretch again until your hands know it.

It plays at a quick, twitchy pace, and that is why it fits a Doodle Jump crowd. Both games reward reading the screen a few steps ahead and committing to a jump at the right instant. Where Doodle Jump is one endless climb, Vex 3 is a set of hand-built courses where each obstacle has a specific answer.

It runs in the browser with nothing to install, so a few minutes is enough to get somewhere, and it is just as happy as a longer sitting if you want to clear a tough section.

How to play

Move with the arrow keys or WASD. The mouse is used to aim and to pick items in the menus. On a phone or tablet you tap and swipe instead.

A round is simple: run right, clear whatever is in the way, reach the end of the stage and move on. Touching a hazard sends you back to the last checkpoint, so you lose a few seconds rather than your whole run. The game keeps count of how quickly and cleanly you got through, which gives you a reason to go back to a stage you have already finished.

Tips

• Stop and watch a trap for one full cycle before you move. Most moving hazards repeat, and the gap is predictable.
• Tap the direction keys in short bursts when a platform is narrow. Holding a key down builds speed you may not want.
• When one section keeps killing you, change the approach. Jumping from a different spot often works better than repeating the same timing.
• Do not rush the early stages. They teach the basic moves that the harder ones rely on.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

Ovo 2 and OvO game are the closest cousins here: precise, fast platforming with a minimalist look and a lot of dying and retrying. Bird Jumper and Hoppenhelm are lighter picks, with a calmer pace and less punishing hazards. If you prefer a partner, Fireboy and Watergirl is a two-player puzzle platformer where positioning and teamwork count for more than reflexes.

Vex 3 suits anyone who likes a challenge that is fair but exacting, and who enjoys the small satisfaction of finally clearing a stage that beat them ten times in a row. Keyboard is the comfortable way to play, though touch works if that is what you have.