Mini games online

What makes a mini game good

It starts at once. If a mini game needs a download, an account or a long tutorial, it has stopped being mini. Everything here starts on one tap, and the game waits for your first press before the clock runs.

It has one control. Each of these games is played with a single button, a hold, or a left and a right. That is what lets you learn it in one go, and it is also why they work the same by touch, by mouse and by keyboard.

It has something to beat. A mini game with no target is over the moment you understand it. Here every game has a ladder that starts again each hour, and you play against the run of the person just above you. Beat it and you move up one place.

The timing mini games

Stop the dial is the simplest. A needle sweeps round a dial and you stop it on the gold arc. Dead centre scores double, so being nearly right is never quite enough.

Stack slides a block across the top of a tower. Tap to drop it. Whatever hangs over the edge is cut away, so each block is only as wide as the last one you landed.

Pulse is a rhythm game in miniature. A ring closes on a circle and you tap as it lands. Keep the beat and the bonus grows with every ring in a row.

The reaction mini games

Sort shows you a shape and asks one question: circle or square. Circles go left and squares go right. The faster you answer, the more each one is worth, and a wrong answer ends the attempt.

Catch drops gems and bombs down three lanes. Move under the gems and out from under the bombs. Moving late scores more, which is where the nerve comes in.

Orbit puts you on a ring with blocks in the way. One tap changes ring. The later you leave the switch, the more the block you miss is worth.

The steering mini games

Dodge is a cave and one button. Hold to rise and let go to fall. Your score is how far you fly, and gold rings give a burst of speed to anybody brave enough to go and get them.

Drift is a road seen from above that bends left and right. One tap turns the car. Staying near the edge scores extra for every moment you hold it there.

Run is a race to a finish line with hurdles and gaps on the way. A tap is a short jump and a hold is a long one. It is the one game here where the lower score wins, because the score is your time.

The judgement mini games

Cast is the calm one. Hold to build power and let go to send a lure across a lake to a mark. There is wind, and it changes with every cast.

Swing hangs you from a rope. Hold to catch a peg and let go to fly to the next. Let go on the way up and you travel a long way; let go late and you drop into the water.

Balance gives you a pole to keep upright in a wind. Holding pushes one way and letting go pushes the other. The straighter the pole, the faster the points come.

How the scoring works

Every game has a new course each hour, the same for everybody, so nobody can sit on an old score. If an attempt ends early you go back to the start of the same course, a second down the clock, and your best attempt of the run is the one that counts.

The server replays every run from the moves that were really made, so a score on a ladder has been checked. Where there are not enough players yet you play a house player, and it is always marked House.

You can play as a guest. Pick a name if you want your place on the ladder to show, and that is all it takes.

Which mini game to try first

If you have thirty seconds, play Stop the dial. If you like rhythm, play Pulse. If you want something calm, play Cast. If you want to feel your pulse go up, play Dodge or Swing. All twelve are on the arcade page, with the name of whoever holds each one right now.