Mochi Rescue

The pitch

A cute physics drawing puzzle where your line becomes real. Mochi is in trouble, and you can draw the way out: sketch a single line with your finger or mouse, and when you let go it turns into a real object. Light wood floats and burns, heavy stone sinks and survives lava, and bouncy jelly springs anything back up. Shield Mochi from falling rocks and cannonballs, bridge lava and rising water, and roll the strawberry to a hungry friend. 30 handcrafted puzzles across three worlds (Sunny Meadow, Ember Quarry and Lagoon Isles), and using less ink earns more stars.

Controls & how it runs

Pick an ink (wood, stone or jelly), then draw one line. Release it and it falls and obeys physics. Protect Mochi until the timer ends, get Mochi home, or deliver the strawberry to win. Use less ink to earn more stars. Stuck? A hint shows the solution. Controls: touch or mouse to draw. Keys: 1-3 pick an ink, R restarts, P pauses, H shows a hint, Esc closes dialogs.

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.

Mochi Rescue — quick-fire questions

Does Mochi Rescue 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 Mochi Rescue?

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 Mochi Rescue 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. Mochi Rescue 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.