Math Meteors

The pitch

Math Meteors is a mental-math arcade. Meteors drift down towards the planet, each carrying a math problem. Type the answer on the keypad and press ✓ — the meteor with that answer explodes. A meteor that reaches the surface costs a life; you have three. Problems get harder as the round goes on: addition and subtraction within ten, multiplication and division, numbers up to a hundred, then two-step problems and brackets — new kinds appear gradually. The sky breathes: calm stretches, busier ones and, once a minute, a ten-second Apocalypse with a storm of meteors. Later some meteors split into two or three small ones, and now and then a boss arrives — a big violet meteor with a chain of problems, each answer breaking one of its parts. Three difficulty levels change how fast and how often meteors come. Lost? Once a round you can watch an ad to continue it instead of starting over. Eight achievements mark the milestones — the first meteor down, 500 and 2000 points in a round, twenty hits in a row without a mistake, fifty in Times tables, a thousand on Hard — and every one of them puts a badge into your collection. Come back the next day for the daily reward: three, seven and thirty days in a row each add a star, and the streak sits next to your name. Features: • Answers are typed, not picked — no guessing, only counting. • One tap to play: the round starts right away with your last mode and difficulty (the very first time, the planet asks which mode and difficulty to train). • Play in portrait or landscape — with a mouse, a touch screen or a computer keyboard. • Eleven tiers of problems — from sums within ten to brackets with two-digit numbers — and three difficulty levels. • Times tables mode: multiplication 2…9 only, the sky just gets busier — with its own records and leaderboard. • Squares mode: 2² to 9², and from the third period square roots join in — with its own records and leaderboard. • A global and a personal table for each of the five modes. Difficulty multiplies the score — Easy ×1, Normal ×2, Hard ×4. • Gold for every round, more for a clean Apocalypse and a beaten boss; spend it in the shop on three traps: ice freezes the sky, reverse sends the meteors back up so they crash into each other, blast clears the whole field. • Splitting meteors, bosses with multi-step problems and the Apocalypse once a minute. • Eight achievements with badges, a daily reward and streak stars — all in one collection. • Pause, volume and language in the settings; interface in 7 languages.

Controls & how it runs

1. Press "Play" — the round starts at once with the last mode and difficulty (the first time, the planet asks you to pick them). To change them, use the mode tiles and the difficulty switch under "Play" or on the result screen: all problems, + −, × ÷, times tables or squares; Easy, Normal or Hard. 2. Solve the problem and type the answer on the keypad — on the right in landscape, at the bottom in portrait: digits, ⌫ deletes, ✓ submits. On a computer keyboard use digits, Backspace and Enter. 3. The meteor with the typed answer explodes and scores: every period of the round raises the multiplier (×2 → ×16), and difficulty multiplies it again — Easy ×1, Normal ×2, Hard ×4. 4. A meteor that reaches the planet takes one of three lives. Lose them all and the round is over. Once a round you are offered "Watch an ad to continue" first: the ad brings one life back and clears the sky, your score stays. 5. On the result screen switch the mode or the difficulty if you like and press "Play again", or return to the main menu. 6. The pause button in the corner of the keypad lets you continue, open the settings (volume and language) or return to the main menu. 7. Every round goes to the leaderboard of its mode by itself; the "Leaderboard" button shows the global and the personal table of each mode. 8. Every round pays gold. Spend it in the "Shop" (or press the wallet at the top right) on traps, or watch a video there for more gold — up to three a day, the card counts them. In a round use a trap with its button over the keypad or the keys Q (ice), W (reverse) and E (blast). Ice holds the sky still, reverse sends the meteors back up — the fast ones crash into the slow ones — and blast destroys every meteor on the field. 9. The "Achievements" button in the menu lists all eight achievements with what each one is awarded for. They unlock by themselves as you play — a badge lands in the collection under your name. Once a day the menu offers the daily reward: take it, and the streak grows; three, seven and thirty days in a row each add a star. Tip: shoot the meteor that will land first — the fast ones have a long tail. When the countdown 3 · 2 · 1 starts, get ready for the Apocalypse.

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.

Math Meteors — quick-fire questions

Does Math Meteors 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 Math Meteors?

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 Math Meteors 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. Math Meteors 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.