# Zsweep

9 Hacker News commenters recommended Zsweep and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A Minesweeper game controlled with Vim motions, praised for respecting Vim grammar and being fully playable from the keyboard. Critics say the Enter key is awkward and the board hides after a mine is hit.

## Why people recommend it

- Respects Vim grammar, not just hjkl mapping (2 comments): "I wanted a Minesweeper experience that respected "Vim grammar" rather than just mapping arrow keys to HJKL." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46601099)) "I built ZSweep because I wanted a Minesweeper experience that actually respects Vim grammar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46596986))
- Fully playable from the keyboard (2 comments): "clean, stats-heavy, and capable of being played entirely with a keyboard (Vim style)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47150903)) "Making a minesweeper keyboard-driven seems like the correct logic for me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47474479))

## What people warn about

- Enter key awkward to reach (2 comments): "enter for clearing feels awkward in conjunction with hjkl movement" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46735075)) "Reaching RET to open a block is too far from the home row, very unpleasant." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46739054))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [TinyWind](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tinywind.md): 61 recommend
- [Starfling](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starfling.md): 59 recommend
- [Starcraft: Ashfall](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starcraft-ashfall.md): 46 recommend
- [Half-Life 2 in a Browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/half-life-2.md): 42 recommend
- [Number Gacha](https://hackerapproved.com/p/number-gacha.md): 33 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zsweep", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zsweep/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).