Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker

The pitch

Hatchfire is a cute dragon brick breaker game where you bounce fireballs to break your baby dragon out of its egg. Aim, fire and watch your fireballs ricochet around the inside of the shell, smashing blocks, setting off bombs and collecting power gems. Break every glowing rune to crack the egg open, then fire your way out to hatch! With 200 handcrafted levels across 5 colorful worlds, Hatchfire mixes the classic brick breaker formula with relaxing puzzle strategy. It's easy to pick up and satisfying to master, whether you have two minutes or an hour. Features: - 200 levels across 5 worlds: Fire Mountain, Frost Peaks, Forest Grove, Storm Sky and Golden Dunes - Bouncing fireball gameplay: aim once and watch the chain reactions - Power gems: Multi-Ball adds a fireball, Magnet widens your catch zone, Turbo speeds things up - Bombs that blow whole sections apart, tough stone and brick, and unbreakable iron - Spinning rings and hard eggs for players who want a challenge - Earn up to 3 stars per level by hatching before the frost timer runs out - Collect 4 baby dragons in your Dragon Book: Tangerine, Blossom, Lilac and Clover - Plays on desktop and mobile, in landscape or portrait - Progress saves automatically

Controls & how it runs

Break every glowing rune to crack the egg open, then fire a fireball through the gap to hatch your dragon. Mouse: click and drag to aim, the dragon fires automatically. Touch: touch and drag to aim. P or Esc pauses, R restarts the level. Hatch before the frost timer runs out to earn 3 stars.

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.

Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker — quick-fire questions

Does Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker 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 Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker?

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 Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker 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. Hatchfire: Dragon Brick Breaker 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.