It is rare to see a mobile game that actually surprises us with its control scheme anymore. Usually, we are stuck tapping glass, tilting the screen, or maybe folding the device if you have the budget for it. But a new web-based experiment called Charchery has thrown all of that out the window. It turns your physical charging cable into the controller.
The concept is as simple as it is destructive: you plug your charger into the phone to nock an arrow, and you physically yank it out to fire. It is undeniably clever, bizarre, and almost certainly a terrible idea for the longevity of your hardware.
The “Plug and Pray” gameplay loop
The game comes from the mind of developer @rebane2001, who has a history of messing around with phone hardware in weird ways (they previously made Foldy Bird, which you played by bending a folding screen). Charchery seems to be a nod to those old-school Flash games we used to play in browser windows, like Defend Your Castle or Bowmaster Prelude.
In the demo shared on X (formerly Twitter), the gameplay looks pretty straightforward. You play as an archer facing down waves of stick-figure enemies marching slowly toward you. To fight them off, you have to engage in a frantic rhythm of plugging and unplugging your phone. There even appears to be a combo system that rewards you for chaining shots together quickly, which presumably encourages you to treat your charging port with even less respect than usual.
A graveyard for lightning cables
Let’s be honest: this game is going to kill some cables. In the developer’s own demo video, the white cable being used already looks like it has seen better days, with the outer sleeve peeling away near the connector. Most charging cables – especially the cheap ones you grab at a gas station – are designed to sit still on a nightstand, not to be inserted and ripped out dozens of times a minute.
If you are actually planning to try this for more than five minutes, you might want to use a heavy-duty, nylon-braided cable that can take a beating. And then there is the phone itself. Charging ports (whether USB-C or Lightning) are durable, but they have a finite lifespan. Turning your primary method of charging into a high-stress game controller is a bold move, especially since replacing a port is a lot more expensive than buying a new cable.
Despite the obvious hardware risks, Charchery is cool because it reminds us that smartphones are packed with sensors and inputs that we rarely use for play. We have become so accustomed to the touchscreen that we forget the physical nature of the device. Developers who experiment with these “forbidden” inputs – like using the charging state as a trigger – are pushing the boundaries of what mobile gaming can physically feel like.
You can play Charchery right now through your mobile browser (it obviously won’t work on a desktop since your PC doesn’t know when it’s being unplugged). It likely won’t become the next Candy Crush, but it stands as a hilarious, creative, and slightly dangerous piece of interactive art. Just maybe don’t play it with your only working charger.