Blockivo

The pitch

Blockivo is a simple block puzzle game. Place colorful shapes on an 8×8 board, complete full rows and columns, and try to score as many points as possible. Plan your moves carefully, use boosters when you get stuck, and climb the global leaderboard.

Controls & how it runs

Drag one of the available shapes onto an empty space on the board. A full row or column disappears and gives you points. After you place all three shapes, a new set appears. If the board gets too crowded, use Line Breaker to remove two selected rows or columns. Undo lets you take back your last move. The game ends when none of the available shapes can be placed. Try to beat your best score and move higher in the leaderboard.

Getting a run going takes exactly one press: Press start, up top, and the game boots inside this page — nothing downloads in the background and no form wants your details before the first jump. The cabinet is drawn for a portrait (upright) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for arcade cabinets

• Treat your first run as a scouting mission. Arcade cabinets hide their cruelty in the second minute, not the first — learn where the difficulty spikes before you start chasing numbers.
• Small scores compound. Grab the easy pickups on every pass instead of gambling the whole run on one heroic line; heroes respawn, banked points don't evaporate.
• Watch the edges of the screen. In classic arcade design the next problem almost always enters from somewhere you weren't looking — build the habit of scanning the borders.

Blockivo — quick-fire questions

Does Blockivo cost anything to play?

Not a token. The cabinet is free from the first run to the five-hundredth — no wallet, no sign-up, no toll booth hiding three levels in. The adverts around the page are what keep the floor's lights on.

What sort of game is Blockivo?

It stands on our Arcade row — that's the family it plays most like. The pitch above is the publisher's own rundown of what it throws at you and what it hands back.

Can I play Blockivo on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Blockivo is an HTML5 game: hit the start button and it boots on this page, and shutting the tab sweeps the cabinet clean behind you.

Before you wander off

Personal best banked, or still chasing it? Either way the full Arcade row is powered on and waiting — The main floor: 415 cabinets of pure arcade stock — the quick, the loud and the gloriously unfair. If it beeps, flashes and dares you to beat a number, it lives on this row.