Boing Beat

Boing Beat is a free one-tap rhythm runner you can play in your browser with no download. A round, wide-eyed blob bounces to the right on its own through a bright side-on world, and every level comes with its own song. The trick that makes it work is simple: every obstacle sits on a beat of that song. Tap on the beat and the jump carries you over the spike, onto the block or across the pit. You can play it by eye, but it is easier by ear, and the floor tiles and the scenery pulse with the beat to help.

Tap, click, or press Space, Enter, the up arrow or W to jump. Hold instead of tapping and the blob jumps again every time it lands, which is how you bounce over a long row of spikes: hold through the row and let go when the ground is clear. Touching a spike, a saw or a spiked ball, running into the side of a block or dropping into a pit ends the attempt, and the level starts again almost at once. The attempt counter at the top keeps score of your tries, and the bar beside it shows how far through the song you are, with a small marker at your best run.

There are 21 levels in seven worlds, Meadow, Candy, Dunes, Lagoon, Night, Sky and Disco, and each world brings something new. Meadow starts with spikes and gaps, then adds low roofs with spikes hanging down: run under them and do not jump, and let go of a held bounce before you reach one. Candy adds blocks to climb, some of them tall, and floating steps over open gaps that you cross by holding, one bounce per step. Dunes adds yellow springs that launch you high on their own, so you leave them alone, golden rings in the air where a tap gives you a second jump, and saws that ride up and down a rail with the music: hop a saw when it is low and run under it when it is high. Lagoon has blue gates that flip gravity so you run along the ceiling, where a tap still jumps, only downward. Night has green gates that speed you up and orange ones that slow you down; the gaps change on screen but the beat never does. It also hangs spiked balls on chains that drop on the beat, so a jump on time sails over the fallen ball while an early jump hits it in the air. Sky has pink gates that put you in a bubble: hold to rise, let go to sink, and steer through the gaps between columns. Disco has purple lifts that bob up and down with the music. The last level of each world mixes everything so far, and the final level plays it all at 140 beats per minute.

Nobody is meant to clear a level on the first try. During your first three minutes every crash sends you back to the last checkpoint flag you passed. After that, a level starts from the beginning, but if you fail twice without getting any further, checkpoint flags switch on for that level so you can learn the rest piece by piece. You can turn this off in the settings.

Clearing a level pays coins and up to three music notes: one for clearing it, two for clearing it in a single run without a checkpoint, and three if at least seven of every ten jumps landed right on the beat. The first clear of a level pays the most, and you can double the coins once with a short video. Coins buy eight blob colours and five trails in the shop, from dots and sparks to little music notes and a rainbow. The Levels map lets you replay any level you have opened, and a new world also opens on the map every few minutes you play, so being stuck on one level never stops you. Your levels, notes, coins and colours are saved in your browser, a daily reward adds coins when you come back, and every level you clear counts on the weekly board.