Protocol notes close the Arcade Surge shortlist with Puck & Perch on the ice filter. The browser build asks the sled to rebound a hockey puck so slap shots crack fish from a creeping ice sheet. Check recorded 12 November 2026. Pass/fail criteria weigh pierce clarity against sink risk inside a 60–140 second session. Rank three does not mean fail; it means longer loops and a different failure grammar than the tower pair.

Intake logged sled position as the perch and puck trajectory as the tool. Bounce angles determine whether the sheet yields fish or the puck loses energy and sinks. Creeping ice changes the geometry over time, so early safe angles later become traps. The flange treats that creep as the density ramp analogous to Mag Climb’s pipe waves and Nut Rise’s tighter gaps.

Setup and control map

Sled motion and shot timing mapped without dead zones in the desktop pass. Narrow viewport kept the ice sheet readable; puck silhouette remained distinct against the sheet. Protocol notes require that sink events show the puck descending rather than vanishing. That condition passed. Session clocks on practiced clears reached toward two minutes when fish targets were taken carefully; panicked early sinks landed nearer one minute. The 60–140 s claim holds for Arcade Surge logging.

No store listing accompanies the build. No public store rating — browser build, not a store listing Play remains first-party under the on-site path. The desk refuses to paste marketplace stars onto an HTML5 ice session.

Strengths

Strength one: the pierce-versus-sink tradeoff is the entire mastery sentence. Best-for tagging — slap shots that pierce ice without sinking the puck — is observable in the first successful crack. Pass/fail criteria favour that alignment. Players who overcharge shots learn sink; players who undercharge learn bounce without crack. The middle band is the Arcade Surge lesson.

Strength two: creeping ice provides a readable clock without a numeric countdown dominating the frame. The sheet’s advance shows why late angles differ from early ones. That supports longer sessions without feeling padded. Compared with tower climbs that end on a single dump, ice allows recovery sequences after a miss — if the puck remains in play.

Strength three: genre separation. Ice filter chips on the home flange isolate this card from Mag Climb and Nut Rise. Protocol notes value clean filters because they keep comparison tables honest. Mixing tower and ice into one mush tag would hide why session bands differ.

Strength four: rebound fantasy stays physical. Sled perch is not a floating aim bot; misplaced perch yields wild angles. Failures teach positioning. That keeps the build inside casual arcade grammar without aiming assist that would fake skill.

Limits

Limit one: longer sessions raise the cost of a late sink. A near-complete sheet can still erase progress if energy management slips. Protocol notes mark this as intentional tension, yet it makes the card less suitable as the pick-of-list for ultra-short breaks. Rank three follows partly from that duration profile relative to Mag Climb.

Limit two: first-run angle literacy is slower than magnet hold. Tower cards explain themselves in a few seconds of sparks and reels; ice needs a few rebounds before pierce feedback clicks. Editorial copy must not imply instant mastery.

Limit three: visual calm can be misread as low stakes. Creeping ice is quieter than swinging pipes. Some sessions under-respect sink risk until the first deep loss. The check still passes because sink animation is clear; the limit is expectation setting on the flange card.

Limit four: comparison against tower builds tempts unfair metrics. Scoring fish cracked per minute is not commensurate with gold bolts reeled. Arcade Surge ranks therefore use protocol clarity and session honesty, not cross-genre scoreboard fantasy.

Field sample notes

Three timed samples were logged on the flange. Sample A ended at sixty-four seconds after an early sink from an overcharged slap. Sample B reached one hundred twelve seconds with mixed pierce success and two recoveries. Sample C touched one hundred thirty-eight seconds on a conservative perch line that skipped marginal fish. Protocol notes treat that spread as confirmation of the published window rather than noise. Arcade Surge cards must show the band so visitors do not assume Mag Climb’s shorter median.

Pass/fail summary

Pass recorded. Sled-puck loop cracks ice inside the session band. Sink states remain visible. Creeping density ramps without hidden timers. Fail would require invisible sink zones, broken rebound mapping, or invented store proof. None recorded. Rank three on the flange is a placement among three passes, not a rejection.

Comparative note: Mag Climb leads for short decisive heat management. Nut Rise holds mid rank for helix spatial exams. Puck & Perch supplies the ice specimen and the longest honest window. Dispatches file this review under ice protocol; tower reviews stay separate for topic scanning.

Operational remainder: play path is on-site. Strengths and limits above are the stamp text for 2026-11-12. Future creep-speed changes should update the archive and this review’s session line in the same pass.

Best for: Slap shots that pierce ice without sinking the puck

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