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Intake
Intake is the new retro-futuristic drugstep arcade shooter from Cipher Prime. In this polychromatic love child of Dr. Mario and Ikaruga, you battle a never-ending barrage of pills, pushing your skill and reflexes to the limit to avoid a lethal dosage.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-08-31 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
83 of the 99 reviews raise this.
“do you like challenge game ? do you like smash game ? do you like aim game ? well , this is you will see in this game there are 4 challenges mod aren't unlock untill you play more in normal mod if you play in normal mod…”
“Similar Games: Dr. Mario, Missile Command, Kaboom for the Atari 2600. The Good: The music. Cipher Prime has always had great music in all their other games (Auditorium, Pulse, and Splice come to mind) but this is, to my…”
“Absolutely insane! This arcade game takes 20 seconds to learn, but will keep you hooked for hours. The only thing I didn't understand at first was how the shield at the bottom worked, and I managed to figure that out…”
37 of the 99 reviews raise this.
“do you like challenge game ? do you like smash game ? do you like aim game ? well , this is you will see in this game there are 4 challenges mod aren't unlock untill you play more in normal mod if you play in normal mod…”
“Absolutely insane! This arcade game takes 20 seconds to learn, but will keep you hooked for hours. The only thing I didn't understand at first was how the shield at the bottom worked, and I managed to figure that out…”
“Probably one of the best little score attack games out there. Easy to pick up on, extremely hard to master. The whole point of the game is to shoot colored pills and get as much score as possible, comes with unlockable…”
36 of the 99 reviews raise this.
“Similar Games: Dr. Mario, Missile Command, Kaboom for the Atari 2600. The Good: The music. Cipher Prime has always had great music in all their other games (Auditorium, Pulse, and Splice come to mind) but this is, to my…”
“Well worth the $1 I paid for it on the Humble Bundle. The parallel between the game content and how you feel after playing t for an hour is amazing. you prtty much feel stoned or catatonic one....... The tunes are cool…”
“BE! AGGRESSIVE! B! E! AGGRESSIVE! Wow. This game definitely has a unique vibe going for it. It won't be for everyone, but there's something really satisfying about swapping colors and clicking on exploding pills. The…”
31 of the 99 reviews raise this.
“Shoot the pills and get your daily dose of medications. Swap colors to take down the right pills and get combo going. Presentation is vivid and dynamic but gameplay is pretty much shallow.”
“Probably one of the best little score attack games out there. Easy to pick up on, extremely hard to master. The whole point of the game is to shoot colored pills and get as much score as possible, comes with unlockable…”
“So they made the simplest kind of game possible, and just added an extreme, rediculous amount of flair to make it look like a golden turd. You click on things, while making sure your cursor is one of two colors. I'm all…”
24 of the 99 reviews raise this.
“do you like challenge game ? do you like smash game ? do you like aim game ? well , this is you will see in this game there are 4 challenges mod aren't unlock untill you play more in normal mod if you play in normal mod…”
“Probably one of the best little score attack games out there. Easy to pick up on, extremely hard to master. The whole point of the game is to shoot colored pills and get as much score as possible, comes with unlockable…”
“Addicted to drugs or classic dubstep? want a hyped out game that pushes the boundaries of your mouse? Then this game is what you seek, its one of those games were you would sit down for 10 minutes and then leave it…”
16 of the 99 reviews raise this · 12 of them still recommend the game.
“Probably one of the best little score attack games out there. Easy to pick up on, extremely hard to master. The whole point of the game is to shoot colored pills and get as much score as possible, comes with unlockable…”
“Warning - this game may cause epileptic fits. Intake is a fast-pace shooter esque game in which you click pills before they reach the bottom. Sounds simple, but when they're flashing everywhere and shooting down to the…”
“Pro - Shoot up a bunch of pills without overdosing while listening to dubstep, excellent premise Con - If I'm popping all these pills, I'm going to need more than five tracks to listen to”
12 of the 99 reviews raise this · 11 of them still recommend the game.
“Pro - Shoot up a bunch of pills without overdosing while listening to dubstep, excellent premise Con - If I'm popping all these pills, I'm going to need more than five tracks to listen to”
“Intake is bananas. I’m not even sure what genre to clump it into. I think the best way to understand what the game is would be to just watch the video on the steam store page. Gameplay wise, this is one of those titles…”
“This is a cute game, and enjoyable for short bursts, but certainly not worth $10. If this game were closer to $5 then I would be far more open to recommending it, but there's just not enough here for that larger…”
8 of the 99 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“So they made the simplest kind of game possible, and just added an extreme, rediculous amount of flair to make it look like a golden turd. You click on things, while making sure your cursor is one of two colors. I'm all…”
“BE! AGGRESSIVE! B! E! AGGRESSIVE! Wow. This game definitely has a unique vibe going for it. It won't be for everyone, but there's something really satisfying about swapping colors and clicking on exploding pills. The…”
“This game is awesome. You will love it, but expect some small bugs in the game play, and some achievements are either extremely hard or impossible to get, either due to the design of the game0, or due to a bug. Update:…”
8 of the 99 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Arcadey gameplay with great graphics makes for a decent game with 4 unlockable tracks that run on a fifty second or less loop. Almost addicting but the music is underwhelming if you are a fan of any edm. Feels like a…”
“This is a cute game, and enjoyable for short bursts, but certainly not worth $10. If this game were closer to $5 then I would be far more open to recommending it, but there's just not enough here for that larger…”
“Are you currently on acid, magic mushrooms or bath salts? Do you think dubstep is actual music and not a cry for help? Are you ok with both your eyes and ears bleeding while trying to play a game? Do you like to pay for…”
7 of the 99 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Interesting shooter with potential for big high-scoring entertainment (it's Ikaruga with mouse-aiming, basically) Loses points because it makes the worst attempt to explain how it works I've ever seen - no tutorial…”
“Not exactly a shmup. Swap the color of your pointer to shoot pills of the same color. You're immune to capsules of your current color, but if one of the wrong color passes the bottom of the screen, you lose. It's a…”
“Are you currently on acid, magic mushrooms or bath salts? Do you think dubstep is actual music and not a cry for help? Are you ok with both your eyes and ears bleeding while trying to play a game? Do you like to pay for…”
Counted across 99 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 91.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“88 / 100 As the saying goes 'Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.' This is personified in Intake with its super simple yet challenging, pill popping gameplay. Intake takes some practice to master; it's a true…”
— a player, Steam review · 8 hrs played“Neon colors. Dubstep. Pills. Flashes. Bangs. Booms. Coin-up look and feel. Excellent game. Intake it's a rare gem, every single part of it in harmony with the rest, making this game an instant thumbs up. Gameplay is excellent, either you use keyboard or mouse: simple controls…”
— a player, Steam review · 8 hrs played“I wasn't sure about this game, but now I'm absolutely in love. It's almost pure gameplay, and at that the game excels. It's a lot of fun and has surprising variety thanks to a system of unlocks. It's also just challenging enough, which gives it nigh-infinite replayability.…”
— a player, Steam review · 2 hrs playedAchievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-19.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-08-12. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-25). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Small Update Today
Hey Everyone! We posted a small update today to Intake. Here's what changed! :bluepill:Special Levels start at level 10, not level 5! :pinkpill:Challenge Modes only unlock if YOU get to the level. Wat
Small Update Today
Hey Everyone! We posted a small update today to Intake. Here's what changed! ːbluepillːSpecial Levels start at level 10, not level 5! ːpinkpillːChallenge Modes only unlock if YOU get to the level. Wat
Here comes Intake's MAYDAY Update!
Hey all! We've released Intake on iOS, and we're updating Intake on Steam with some new features, gameplay tweaks, and performance/bug fixes! We've revamped the game's level progression, tweaked chall
Here comes Intake's MAYDAY Update!
Hey all! We've released Intake on iOS, and we're updating Intake on Steam with some new features, gameplay tweaks, and performance/bug fixes! We've revamped the game's level progression, tweaked chall
Another Small Update!
Hey Everyone, We've posted another minor update, fixing the issue with "Points On The Board" not unlocking. If you're on the scoreboard, it should unlock for you now! This fix is near and dear to me,
Games like Intake
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Super Hexagon
96.8% · 16,721 reviews
shares Addictive, Music, Fast Paced, Score Attack
LUFTRAUSERS
90.7% · 3,398 reviews
shares Addictive, Fast Paced, Score Attack, Great Soundtrack
Hotline Miami
96.5% · 49,419 reviews
shares Addictive, Music, Fast Paced, Great Soundtrack
BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
90.9% · 1,993 reviews
shares Addictive, Music, Score Attack, Great Soundtrack
Super Crate Box
87.4% · 4,010 reviews
shares Addictive, Fast Paced, Great Soundtrack, Difficult
Jet Lancer
94.1% · 742 reviews
shares Addictive, Fast Paced, Great Soundtrack, Difficult
Savant - Ascent
92.0% · 1,851 reviews
shares Music, Fast Paced, Score Attack, Great Soundtrack
AudioSurf
95.6% · 7,580 reviews
shares Addictive, Music, Fast Paced, Score Attack
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Action, Indie |
| Player tags | Indie · Action · Arcade · Score Attack · Great Soundtrack · Music · Fast-Paced · Addictive · Difficult · Shooter (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Achievements · Steam Cloud · Stats · Steam Leaderboards · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English * * |
| Achievements | 77 |
| Official site | http://www.playintake.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows XP or Later Processor: 2.2 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia 8600M or better Storage: 450 MB available space Additional Notes: We recommend some great headphones or a nice speaker set.