Breaking the Bank
- Genre Puzzle games
- Players 1
- Session 3 min
- Price Free
- Updated
Before there was a prison break, an airship or a museum job, there was this: a two-minute Flash short from 2008 in which Henry Stickmin stands in front of a windowless bank in the middle of a desert and has to decide how to get inside. That is the whole game. One screen, six pictures, one click — and then you sit back and watch the consequences play out in hand-drawn animation.
The options are a shovel for a tunnel, a bundle of TNT, a laser drill, a wrecking ball crane, a strange green teleporter and a dollar-sign money bag labelled Disguise. Most of them end badly and in very specific ways. Dig under the wall and Henry pops up somewhere a lot busier than a vault. Use the teleporter and he arrives, technically, inside the building — just not in a part of it a person can occupy. When a plan fails, the six pictures fade back in over the frozen disaster, so you can immediately try another.
It is tiny by the standards of the later episodes, which grew into branching stories with dozens of fails, but it set the tone the whole series kept: the losing outcomes get the best jokes, and the fun is in seeing all of them. The successful plan ends with a credits roll and a final twist that leads straight into Escaping the Prison.
| Mouse | Click PLAY on the title screen, then click one of the six tools on the bank wall |
|---|---|
| Tap | On a touch screen a tap on a picture works as a click |
How to play Breaking the Bank
- Press the red PLAY button on the desert title screen.
- Henry walks up to the bank and the six options appear around him: Tunnel, Explosion, Lazer Drill, Wrecking Ball, Teleporter and Disguise.
- Hover over a picture to light up its label, then click to commit to that plan.
- Watch the short animation. If the plan fails, the choice screen returns on top of the last frame — pick something else.
- Find the one plan that gets Henry to the money and let the ending and credits play to the end.
Tips
- There is no fail counter and no penalty, so the best way to play is to click all six on purpose.
- The ending only makes full sense if you know the next episode, so keep the credits running after the success.
- The game is short enough that a full run of every option takes about five minutes.
Questions about Breaking the Bank
How many choices are there in Breaking the Bank?
One decision with six options. Each option is its own short animated scene.
Which Henry Stickmin game comes first?
This one, from 2008. It is followed by Escaping the Prison, Stealing the Diamond, Infiltrating the Airship and Fleeing the Complex.
Can I play it on a phone?
It only needs clicks, so taps work, but the stage is small and the labels are tiny on a phone. A tablet or computer is more comfortable.
Who made it?
Marcus Bromander, known as PuffballsUnited, with Stickpage.com presenting the original Flash release. The series was later remastered as a paid collection.
Does it need Flash installed?
No. The original file is played in your browser through Ruffle, an open-source player for old Flash files, with nothing to download.
