Noob: Steal the Egg

The pitch

Sneak up to animal nests, steal an egg and race back to your base before its owner catches you. Hatch pets, grow your collection and earn coins to improve your farm. Train on the treadmill to run faster, equip companions and explore nine zones with 27 animal species. Upgrade your base, merge matching pets and compete for the best farm score. Play solo alongside three computer-controlled neighbours. Optional rewarded videos offer coins and cosmetic items.

Controls & how it runs

Desktop: use WASD or arrow keys to move, Space to jump, hold the right mouse button to rotate the camera and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Press E near an egg to steal it, at your base to place it, or near the treadmill to train. Press I for pets and Esc for settings. Mobile: move with the on-screen joystick, drag to rotate the camera and use the action and jump buttons. Start with the chicken's egg in the green zone. Escape through the central fence opening, return to your base and place the egg. Hatch and grow pets for income, train your speed and buy upgrades to reach tougher animals.

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.

Noob: Steal the Egg — quick-fire questions

Does Noob: Steal the Egg 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 Noob: Steal the Egg?

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 Noob: Steal the Egg 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. Noob: Steal the Egg 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.