Stickman Hook: The Grappling Game That Rewards Momentum

By Nham Vu · Updated July 2026

Stickman Hook is a one-tap swinging game built by the French studio Madbox, where a stick figure launches a grappling hook from anchor point to anchor point across increasingly tricky levels. The core loop is dead simple: tap, swing, release, repeat, and yet it took off because that simplicity hides a surprising amount of skill.

I have played through a good chunk of Stickman Hook's level list over the years, and what keeps me coming back is how forgiving it feels early on and how demanding it becomes once obstacles like spinning blades and moving platforms show up. This guide breaks down how the game actually works, what separates a clean swing from a faceplant, and what to expect if you pick it up on mobile or in the browser.

What is Stickman Hook and who made it?

Stickman Hook is a physics-based arcade platformer developed by Madbox, first released for mobile and later ported to browser platforms like Poki. The stickman character has no legs of his own power, no jump button, and no run mechanic. Movement is entirely a product of hook physics: swing momentum, gravity, and timing.

In practice that makes it closer to a rope-physics puzzle than a typical runner. Madbox has kept the game updated over the years (recent builds sit around version 9.2.1), and it remains available on both the App Store and Google Play as well as through browser portals.

How do you play Stickman Hook?

Controls are a single tap or click. Press and hold to shoot the hook toward the nearest anchor point, and release at the right moment to fling the stickman forward with momentum carried over from the swing. Let go too early and you undershoot the next platform. Hold too long and you slam into a wall or a hazard.

What trips up new players almost every time is treating it like a jump timer instead of a swing timer. The hook is not about hitting a button at a fixed instant, it is about reading the arc of the swing and releasing on the upward curve so the stickman gets launched rather than dropped.

• Tap and hold to fire the grappling hook at the nearest point
• Release during the upswing to launch forward with speed
• Chain swings back to back to build extra momentum
• Watch for spinning blades, gaps and moving platforms mid-swing

What makes Stickman Hook levels harder as you progress?

Early levels exist mostly to teach the release-timing habit. Once you clear the first stretch, the game introduces obstacles that punish sloppy swings: rotating saw blades positioned right where a lazy arc would carry you, narrow gaps between anchor points, and platforms that shift while you are mid-air.

The best players I've seen treat momentum as a resource to manage rather than something to reset every swing. Instead of stopping fully at each platform, they chain hook after hook, using leftover speed to skip past hazards that would otherwise require a precise stop-and-go approach.

Is Stickman Hook free to play and where can you play it?

Stickman Hook is distributed as a free mobile app on the App Store and Google Play, and it also runs in-browser through portals such as Poki and other online arcade sites, no installation required for the web version.

If you are searching for an APK outside official stores, be cautious. Sideloaded APKs from unverified sites carry real risk of bundled malware, and there is no upside over just installing from the official app stores or playing the browser version directly.

How many levels does Stickman Hook have?

Stickman Hook ships with a long list of numbered levels, and community searches around terms like level 10000 point to just how deep dedicated players have gone in endless or extended modes. The exact top level count has shifted across updates as Madbox has added content.

For most casual players, the interesting difficulty curve lives in the first few hundred levels, where new hazard types keep getting introduced. After that, it becomes more about consistency and speed than learning new mechanics.

Are there other games like Stickman Hook worth trying?

Madbox followed up the original with sequels and spin-offs that keep the same swinging core while changing themes or adding blocks and obstacles, which is why searches for Stickman Hook 2, Stickman Hook 3 and Stickman Hook and block show up so often.

If you enjoy the hook-swinging feel specifically, look for other grappling or momentum-physics arcade titles. If what you actually like is the stickman aesthetic and combat instead of swinging, something like Stickman Fighter epic battle scratches a different itch entirely, it is a fighting game rather than a physics platformer.