Free arcade games

What makes a good arcade game

Arcade games are built around one simple action that gets harder the longer you survive. You steer, shoot, flip or hop, the screen speeds up, and the score at the top tells you exactly how well you did. A round lasts a minute or two, and when it ends the next one starts with a single key, which is why it is so easy to say one more go.

The arcade games on Kiloo take the ideas that filled the old cabinets, such as the growing snake, the splitting asteroid, the marching invaders and the pellet maze, and rebuild them for a browser window. They load in seconds, keep your best score in the browser you play in, and need nothing installed. Each one adds its own twist, from power-up capsules to a black hole in the middle of a pinball table, so they feel familiar without being copies.

Arcade games to start with

Snake is the quickest way in: steer the snake, eat the dots, grab the gold stars and see how long you can grow before you run out of room. Asteroids asks for more control, because every rock you shoot splits into smaller, faster pieces, so you pick your shots and keep the ship moving. Invaders is the patient one: a formation marches closer with every step and you thin it out from behind four crumbling shields.

If you like chasing, Maze Chase puts you in charge of Blip, a glowing orb that eats every pellet and turns the hunt around on the drones with a power orb. Brick Blast is the classic paddle and ball, with capsules that drop out of the bricks: wider paddles, lasers, sticky catches and three balls at once. Pinball Planet is a full table with chrome flippers, a lit Saturn ramp and three planet bumpers.

For quick rounds on a phone, try Road Hopper, where one tap is one hop across roads, railways and rivers, Fruit Slice, where a fast swipe cuts fruit out of the air, or Lane Runner, a three-lane sprint that keeps getting faster. Comet Catcher slides a net along a moon deck to catch comets while dodging the black rocks that fall with them.

Playing on a keyboard, a mouse or a touch screen

Every arcade game here works on desktop, tablet and phone. On a computer the arrow keys or WASD do the steering in most of them, Space fires, launches or restarts, P pauses and M mutes the sound. Brick Blast and Comet Catcher also follow the mouse, and Pinball Planet uses Shift or Z for the left flipper and the / key for the right one.

On a touch screen the controls change to suit a finger: swipe to steer in Snake and Lane Runner, drag the paddle in Brick Blast, tap to hop in Road Hopper and draw a line across the fruit in Fruit Slice. Turn the phone the way the game asks, and play in full screen if the browser bar gets in the way.

Frequently asked questions