Flippee Ball

The pitch

A HYBRID ARCADE GAME OF PINBALL & BASKETBALL -Flip the flippers and try to hit the ball into the basket. -Play against the CPU or another player on the same device. -Perfect your technique in the Academy - 100 increasingly challenging "assists" for you to try to score from.

Controls & how it runs

You control one set of flippers - either red or blue. Flipping uses just one button and flips all five of your flippers. See if you have what it takes to beat the computer. The default settings are "AMATEUR" speed against the computer on "EASY" difficulty with "AIM ASSIST" enabled (this gives you a little help with shot accuracy). Once you feel comfortable, try the other difficulties, "PROFFESSIONAL" speed, then switch "AIM ASSIST" off! If that's not enough, try the "FLIPPEE ACADEMY" - 100 levels (50 each at "AMATEUR" & "PROFESSIONAL" speeds) where the ball is launched and you must try to score - but each level only allows for a certain number of touches - and you must score before the ball hits your opponent's flippers. Navigate menus using: - Mouse - Touch - Keyboard (arrow keys and space to action) - Controller - direction pad and any of the main four buttons Use the game mode button to the left of the scoreboard to select between 7 game modes: - Longest Streak - see how many games in a row you can win against the computer: - Easy - Medium - Hard - Progressive (difficulty increases with every game) - Career - difficulty increases with every game, but losing doesn't reset progress - Player v Player - play against another human on the same device - Academy - 100 "assists" for you to try to score from To flip: Single player: - Mouse - click the screen - Touch - tap the screen - Keyboard - LEFT CTRL - Controller - any of the four main buttons Player vs Player: - Mouse - click the top left or top right of the screen to control either the left or right flippers - Touch - tap the top left or top right of the screen - Keyboard - LEFT CTRL (left flipper) & RIGHT ARROW (right flippers) - Controller - any of the four main buttons (supports 2 controllers for player v player) To pause: - Mouse - click the scoreboard - Touch - tap the scoreboard - Keyboard - Press "P" - Controller - "Start" button To win: SCORE MORE THAN YOUR OPPONENT! Change the game speed from "AMATEUR" to "PROFESSIONAL" and disable "AIM ASSIST" (if you're up for a challeng!) in the SETTINGS menu. A quick start guide is shown when the game is first run and full instructions can be found in the built-in help guide.

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 landscape (wide) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out. 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.

Flippee Ball — quick-fire questions

Does Flippee Ball 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 Flippee Ball?

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 Flippee Ball on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Flippee Ball 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.