Planko

The pitch

Planko is a strategy game where you need to make the ball travel from one point to another. By tapping on the targets you can make the planks move by making them fall. Be sure to make sure you make them fall at the right time to ensure you don't miss your chance.

Controls & how it runs

Your goal is simple: get the red ball safely to the green target. Each level is a small physics puzzle made up of balls, planks, platforms, and obstacles. The red ball moves with gravity, but its path is often blocked by other balls. Tap the removable balls in the correct order to make them disappear. Removing one can change the balance of the level, allowing the red ball to roll, slide, bounce, or fall onto the planks below. Think before you tap. Removing the wrong ball too early could send the red ball in the wrong direction or make it miss the target completely. Plan your moves, clear the right obstacles, and use the planks to guide the ball all the way to the finish. Simple to understand, but each new level introduces a different puzzle to solve.

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 landscape (wide) screen and listens to mouse, keyboard or touch, whichever the game prefers. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out. Given a fullscreen button, use it — scores look better at full size, that's just science.

Pro tips for puzzle cabinets

Count what's missing, not what's there. In matching and logic boards the empty spaces and absent pieces usually draw the shape of the solution for you.
Solve the corner first. Constrained edges and locked pieces have the fewest options, which makes them the honest starting point of almost every board here.
If you're stuck, change the order, not the plan. Many boards on this row are the same moves played in a different sequence — the lock was the order all along.

Planko — quick-fire questions

Does Planko 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 Planko?

It stands on our Puzzle 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 Planko on my phone?

Happily, yes. It runs inside the browser on phones and tablets the same way it does on a computer. This cabinet runs wide: landscape screens flatter it, so tip a phone on its side or hand it a tablet or desktop and let it stretch out.

Do I need to install anything first?

Nothing whatsoever. Planko 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 Puzzle row is powered on and waiting — Boards, bubbles and blocked exits: 139 puzzle cabinets for players who like their pressure quiet and their solutions sudden. Think first, tap second, gloat third.