Candy Cats

The pitch

A tray of glossy jelly candies forms a cute pixel picture — a strawberry, a puppy, a rainbow. And here come the chubby, hungry kitties! They hop onto a conveyor belt that rolls around the tray, and every kitty munches only the candies of its own color. Pick who rides next, keep the waiting cushions free, and gobble up the whole picture bite by bite! Easy to learn and oh so satisfying — but the order matters. Clear tricky trays with ice-covered candies, chocolate walls and mystery kitties, and earn three stars by planning ahead. • 86 candy pictures to eat up: sweets, fruits, cute animals and more • 27 adorable kitty costumes — pirate, wizard, little dragon, astronaut, frog hood… • 20 achievements — the hardest ones unlock exclusive costumes • A sticker for every picture — collect all 86 in your album • Clever boosters: the Paw grabs any candy, Mint lets kitties see through candies for a whole level • A treasure chest every 3 wins, daily gifts with a new costume every 7th day, daily and weekly quests • Leaderboard — see how far other players got • Replay any level for three stars • No timers in the puzzles — relax at your own pace

Controls & how it runs

Tap a kitty at the bottom to send it onto the conveyor. As it rides around the tray it eats the first candy of its color in each row and column. A kitty that isn't full after a lap waits on a cushion — tap it to send it again. Eat every candy to clear the tray. Don't let all cushions fill up!

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 flexible screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture. 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.

Candy Cats — quick-fire questions

Does Candy Cats 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 Candy Cats?

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 Candy Cats on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. It reshapes itself for tall and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all get the full picture.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Candy Cats 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.