Pin Game
Shoot every pin in, never touch another
How to play
Pin Game is the classic one-tap timing game, free online: shoot pins into a spinning circle one by one without letting a pin's head touch another. It plays in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download and no sign-up, on a plain black and white board by default.
Pin Game is the classic one-tap timing game with pins and a spinning circle. A circle turns in the middle of the screen with a few pins already stuck in it. Tap anywhere, or press Space, to shoot the next pin straight up; it sticks in the circle and turns with it. If its round head touches the head of a pin already there, you miss. Put every pin in to clear the level: the number on the waiting pin says how many are left. The circle turns faster level by level, changes direction, speeds up and slows down, and stops and goes again, so the gaps keep moving. You have three hearts, a miss costs one and starts the level again, and every fifth level gives one back. Sixty levels in all, the same climb for everyone in the daily.
- Click anywhere, or press Space (Enter and ↑ work too), to shoot the next pin into the turning circle.
- A pin sticks and turns with the circle. If its round head touches another pin's head, that's a miss: you lose a heart and the level starts again.
- Put every pin in to clear the level; the number on the waiting pin says how many are left. Three hearts, and every fifth level gives one back.
How to play the pin game
A circle turns in the middle of the screen with a few pins already stuck in it. Tap anywhere, or click, or press Space, Enter or the up arrow, and the next pin flies straight up from below and sticks in the circle's bottom edge; from then on it turns with the circle. If its round head touches the head of a pin already there, the pin knocks it and you miss.
Put every pin of the level in to clear it. The waiting pins sit in a column below the circle, and the number on the next one says how many are left. A cleared level leads to the next one after a short pause; the level number is written in the circle.
You have three hearts. A miss costs one and starts the same level again with the same circle and the same pins, and every fifth level cleared gives a heart back. When the hearts are gone the run is over; there are sixty levels in all. A long run can be handed in with Finish, since the score only grows.
Each pin that sticks is worth the level's number in points. A cleared level adds ten times its number, and five times more when it was cleared without a miss, so level 10 cleared cleanly adds 150.
Pin game tips: how to get further
- Watch the gaps, not the circle. Pick the widest space between two heads and follow it round; tap a moment before it reaches the bottom, because a pin takes about a tenth of a second to fly up.
- Fill the big gaps first. Early in a level there is room everywhere, but the last two or three pins need whatever space is left; a pin dropped into a narrow gap early can leave no room at the end.
- Learn each circle's habit before the first shot. Some turn steadily, some reverse every couple of seconds, some speed up and slow down, and some stop and go. Shoot when the motion is steady: just after a reversal, or during a stop, when the gap sits still under the launcher.
- Do not rush the countdown. There is no timer, so waiting a turn for a better gap costs nothing.
- A miss restarts the level from scratch, so a perfect level is worth more than it looks: the bonus for no miss is half again the level's clear bonus.
Modes and difficulty
The daily climb is the same sixty levels for everyone and changes at 00:00 UTC; only your first daily run counts on its leaderboard. Practice deals a fresh set of levels whenever you like, and your best practice score goes on the all-time board. After a run you can send it as a challenge: your friend climbs the same levels with your score as the target.
Playing Pin Game on Matsuri
The first three levels are gentle for everyone: a slow circle, few pins and no tricks. The default look is the plain one, a black circle and black pins on pale grey; sewing pins with coloured heads and a strawberry birthday cake with candles for pins are the other looks. Every level comes from the run's seed, so the server replays your taps to check the score, and the circle rests by itself when nobody taps for a while so a phone left on the table does not warm up.
A little history
The one-tap pin game became a worldwide hit on phones in the mid-2010s, and its idea, shooting pins into a turning wheel without touching the others, has been remade countless times since. In Japan it is widely played in the browser as the machi-bari game (まち針ゲーム, after the round-headed sewing pin), and in China as 见缝插针, an idiom that means using every gap.
In the same series: Quick tests
- Reaction Time Test: Tap the moment the screen turns green
- Click Speed Test: How many taps can you fit in 5 seconds?
Update log
- · Pin Game arrives: shoot pins into the spinning circle without touching another, sixty levels, a plain black and white look.
Questions
- Can I play the pin game free online?
- Yes. It is free with no ads, no download and no sign-up, in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram through @MatsuriGamesBot. Tap anywhere to shoot; on a computer, click or press Space.
- Why did my pin miss?
- A pin misses when its round head touches the head of a pin already in the circle. The pin flies for a tenth of a second, so the circle turns a little while it flies: tap when a wide gap is about to reach the bottom, not when it is already there.
- How many levels are there?
- Sixty. The first ones are slow with few pins; later the circle turns faster, reverses, speeds up and slows down, and stops and goes. You have three hearts; a miss costs one and restarts the level, and every fifth level cleared gives one back.
- How is the score counted?
- Each pin that sticks is worth the level's number, a cleared level adds ten times its number, and five times more when you cleared it without a miss. The daily climb is the same for everyone, and the server replays your taps to check the score.