Soak & Squeeze

The pitch

Soak & Squeeze is a bouncy 3D physics slingshot game starring a cute, squishy sponge. Soak up water, then squeeze it out to blast yourself across floating islands over a bottomless gap! Every world is completely different: a toy kitchen, a bubble bath with giant soap bars, a toy box with ABC blocks and conveyor belts, a windy garden, and a rainbow sky of clouds. Ride water slides, get fired from cannons, bounce on trampolines, smash foam walls and fly through boost rings. Fall or run dry and you are back at the start, but every bit of progress earns drops: spend them to upgrade your sponge with a bigger tank, more power and more income, plus wings, a rain cloud and rescue bubbles. Each world gives you a brand-new sponge to grow again. Can you reach the far-away goal?

Controls & how it runs

Press anywhere, pull back and let go: your sponge flies the opposite way (like a slingshot). The longer you pull, the farther you fly. While you still have water, you can pull once more in mid-air to jump again. Land on blue OASIS islands to refill water automatically. Use trampolines, cannons and water slides to cross the big gaps, smash walls and fly through rings for bonus drops. If you fall or run out of water, spend your drops on upgrades and try again. Reach the GOAL to unlock the next world. Keyboard: hold Space to charge, arrow keys to turn, release to fly.

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.

Soak & Squeeze — quick-fire questions

Does Soak & Squeeze 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 Soak & Squeeze?

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 Soak & Squeeze 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. Soak & Squeeze 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.