Pixel Tetris

The pitch

Pixel Blocks is a compact arcade puzzle about clean lines, fast restarts, and readable pixel effects. Play classic score attack, try physical falling cells, build sand bridges, escape the rising hazard, defuse hot bombs, unlock visual skins, and challenge a bot in Bot Duel. Choose Easy, Normal, or Hard and earn 15, 30, or 45 bonus coins when the bot tops out first.

Controls & how it runs

Move and rotate falling blocks to complete horizontal lines. Use arrows or WASD on desktop, swipe/tap controls on mobile, Space for fast drop, and Hold to save a piece. In Bot Duel, your field is on the right on desktop and the bot field is shown on the left; on mobile the bot appears as a small non-blocking window. Survive longer than the bot to win bonus coins.

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 portrait (upright) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window. 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.

Pixel Tetris — quick-fire questions

Does Pixel Tetris 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 Pixel Tetris?

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 Pixel Tetris on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet stands tall: it was built for portrait screens, so a phone held upright gives it the frame it wants — though it will squeeze politely into any window.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Pixel Tetris 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.