Hook a Duck

Hook a Duck sets up the oldest stall at the carnival as the sun goes down: a striped booth with plush prizes on the shelves, strings of warm bulbs, and a painted trough where a little pump keeps the water flowing round an island. Rubber ducks ride the stream, bobbing, drifting across the channel and nudging each other along. Move the rod over the water, watch the hook's shadow, and dip it just as a duck's ring slides underneath. Time it well and the duck comes up dripping and flips over to show the number painted underneath; dip a moment too soon or too late and the hook only splashes.

Every duck's value is in plain sight: the colour and the number on its back tell you what it is worth, and the most valuable ducks wear the smallest rings. A golden duck is worth ten. When a mother duck paddles out with her three ducklings in a row, hook her first and then each duckling in turn: the ducklings count double, triple and four times, and the whole family together earns a bonus of ten. The stream speeds up through each 90-second round, so the last stretch asks for a steadier hand.

There are five ponds, from the Paddling Pool to Sweetheart Pond, each with its own channel to follow, a high score and three stars to win, and every star brings the next pond and the next plush toy on the prize shelf a little closer. Relax mode drops the clock altogether: an endless, quiet paddle with gentle water sounds and a soft tune, for when you just want to relax and hook a few ducks. Your stars, prizes and scores are saved in your browser.