Mutant Mash: Merge Garden

The pitch

Drop, bump and merge goofy fruit-animal hybrids to create bigger and weirder ones! Every merge can mutate into a shiny Golden, Rainbow or Glitch version. Collect them all in your Album, grab rare seeds at the Seed Stand, and grow your very own Mega Mutant plant a little more every day. Play a quick 2-3 minute round, come back tomorrow, and see what new part your plant grows!

Controls & how it runs

Move your finger or mouse to aim, release to drop. Touch two matching fruits to merge them. Don't let the pile reach the top line! Tap Swap to switch to the next fruit once per round. Keyboard (optional): arrow keys to move, Space to drop, S to swap, P to pause.

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.

Mutant Mash: Merge Garden — quick-fire questions

Does Mutant Mash: Merge Garden 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 Mutant Mash: Merge Garden?

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 Mutant Mash: Merge Garden 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. Mutant Mash: Merge Garden 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.