Lantern Canals

The pitch

Lantern Canals is a relaxing sliding-path puzzle set in a lantern-lit water garden. Slide stone tiles to build a canal from the spring to the harbor gate, then watch the water flow and your paper boat sail the route you made. Every level hides three lanterns along the way, and a shortcut that finishes fast but leaves them dark, so plan your path before you connect it. Explore 100 levels across five gardens, from Moss Steps to Moon Harbor, plus a new daily canal to keep your streak alive.

Controls & how it runs

Touch and mouse (identical): drag a stone toward the gap; a short flick also works. Tapping a stone next to exactly one gap slides it in, and tapping a gap slides in its only movable neighbour. Keyboard: arrows/WASD slide the stone on the far side of the gap in that direction (sliding-puzzle style). Z/Backspace undoes, R restarts, H gives a hint, M mutes, Esc closes a panel, and Enter/Space goes to the next level on the results screen. Toolbar: undo, restart, hint, and skip (appears after 90 s or 2 restarts).

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.

Lantern Canals — quick-fire questions

Does Lantern Canals 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 Lantern Canals?

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 Lantern Canals 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. Lantern Canals 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.