Pool Blast: Merge Balls

The pitch

Welcome to Pool Blast: Merge Balls — the ultimate 3D billiards puzzle experience! Combine pool balls, trigger massive chain reactions, and clear the table in this fast-paced casual puzzle. Use cushion bounces for master trick shots, deploy game-saving boosters like the Bomb and Magnet, and climb your way to the top score!

Controls & how it runs

Aim: Click/tap and drag to direct the aiming line. Shoot: Release to launch the cue ball across the table. Merge: Collide two balls of the same number/tier to merge them into the next bigger ball. Survive & Score: Keep making successful merges before you run out of moves!

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 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.

Pool Blast: Merge Balls — quick-fire questions

Does Pool Blast: Merge Balls 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 Pool Blast: Merge Balls?

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 Pool Blast: Merge Balls 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. Pool Blast: Merge Balls 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.