MOWER MADNESS

A ride-on mower, a ticking clock, and a lawn full of gnomes that will not get out of the way.

MOWER MADNESS All games

MOWER MADNESS

A ride-on mower, a ticking clock, and a lawn full of gnomes that will not get out of the way.

Fifteen gardens to cut against the clock, from a tidy front lawn on Number 12 to a royal garden party with the corgis loose. The mower drives the way you press and spins on the spot, the grass turns light or dark by the way you mowed it, and every straight pass you lay right beside the last one grows a STRIPE CHAIN that multiplies everything you cut, up to five times.

Gnomes, a dog that chases, sleeping cats, toys that clog the blades, pop-up sprinklers that leave slippery mud, bunkers, slopes and a hedge maze all stand between you and the target. Each garden has three stars, for time, stripes and untouched flowers, and the stars unlock four more mowers in the Garage, from the sliding Zippy to the Monster Mower that chews toys for points.

What is in it: Cartoon garden chaos: gnomes and toys get knocked flying and shatter, a dog chases the mower and bumps into it, and cats leap away hissing. No animals are hurt and there is no blood. More for parents

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Controls

  • WASD / arrowsdrive the way you press
  • Space / Shiftboost (burns fuel)
  • Esc / Ppause
  • Rrestart the garden
  • Enter / Spacenext garden on the results screen
  • Drag anywheresteer on a phone
  • BOOST buttonboost on a phone
Mow in lanes along the long side of the lawn and tap straight back next to your last pass: the chain multiplier is worth far more than cutting corners past a gnome.

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How to play

MOWER MADNESS puts you on a ride-on mower, seen from above, against the clock. Drive with W A S D or the arrow keys. The mower drives the way you press: press left and it swings round to face left, spinning on the spot if it has to, and drifts a little. Hold Space or Shift to boost to one and a half times your top speed. On a phone, drag anywhere on the screen to steer and hold the BOOST button.

Each garden has a target, shown as a flag on the meter at the top: 85 per cent of the grass in the first garden, falling to between 68 and 75 per cent in the cluttered later ones. The garden ends the moment you reach the target. Clocks run from 50 to 90 seconds. When you are within ten points of the target, a yellow arrow and a ring point to the nearest patch you missed.

The grass shows which way you mowed it, light or dark, just like a real striped lawn. Drive dead straight for 150 pixels or more over fresh grass and you score a STRAIGHT! Turn round and come back right beside it, within nine seconds, and that is a parallel stripe: your STRIPE CHAIN grows, and every cell you cut is worth more. Each parallel pass adds a half to the multiplier, from one times up to five times.

Every garden has three stars: one for finishing with at least 22 per cent of the clock left (11 seconds in the first garden), one for a striped lawn (45 per cent stripes in the early gardens, 50 later, 55 in the last), and one for not mowing a single flower.

Tips and strategy

  • Mow in lanes, like a groundskeeper. Drive the long side of the lawn, tap up or down at the end, and drive back. The next pass counts as parallel anywhere from a third of a deck width to just over two deck widths across, so a quick keyboard U-turn nearly always chains.
  • Protect the chain. Hitting a gnome, the dog or a cat, running over a toy or mowing flowers all break it. A long chain is worth more than the corner you saved.
  • Boost on the straights, not in the turns. Boosting burns fuel at 13 a second against 0.75 for ordinary driving, and you start with 100. Fuel cans give 45 back. Run dry and you crawl at under half speed.
  • Close shaves pay. Flash past a gnome fast and close without touching it for 75 points. A full 360 spin is a DONUT for 300, once every three seconds, and one pass of 520 pixels or more adds a LONG STRIPE bonus of 200.
  • Creep past the cats. A sleeping cat only wakes if you pass close at speed. Run into one and it costs three seconds.
  • Use the dog's patience. The dog chases you if you come within 300 pixels, and gives up after five seconds. If it catches you it bumps the mower away and costs two seconds, then it trots home and leaves you alone for a few seconds. Boost away, or lead it off the part of the lawn you are working on.

What's in it

Fifteen gardens, each unlocked by finishing the one before: Number 12, Back Garden, Gnome Sweet Gnome, Sprinkler Season, Beware of the Dog, Hillside Cottage, The 18th Green, Sunday League, Cat Nap Close, Hedge Maze Estate, Fountain Court, Vicarage Fete, Castle Lawn, Grand Estate and Royal Garden Party. There are 45 stars to collect.

Each garden adds its own trouble. Garden gnomes cost three seconds and fly off and shatter. Toys, golf balls and football cones clog the blades for 2.2 seconds, so you cut nothing and drive at just over half speed. Sand bunkers slow you down. Slopes push you steadily downhill, shown by chevrons on the grass. Sprinklers leave slippery mud. At the royal garden party, the dogs are corgis.

Five mowers in the Garage, unlocked by your total stars:

  • Old Faithful (from the start): a red ride-on with a 50 pixel deck.
  • Zippy (7 stars): faster and lighter, with a narrower deck and less grip, so it slides.
  • Wide Boy (15 stars): a 72 pixel deck, the widest, but slow to turn.
  • Monster Mower (25 stars): giant tyres. It chews toys for 50 points instead of clogging, gnomes cost it only one second, slopes do not push it and it grips in mud.
  • The Golden Blade (38 stars): fast, wide and uses the least fuel.

Questions

How is the score worked out?

Every patch of grass you cut is worth 2 points times your stripe multiplier. Stripe runs, donuts, close shaves and long stripes add bonuses, and each flower you mow takes off 100. When you finish, you also get 100 points for every second left on the clock and 30 for every per cent of stripes.

How is the stripe percentage measured?

The lawn is a grid of small cells. A cut cell counts as striped if it was cut on a straight pass and the two cells either side of it along that line were cut the same way. Wobbly lines do not count.

Does it save?

Yes, in your own browser: your stars and best score for every garden, which gardens are open, the mower you chose and your sound settings. Clearing your browser's site data clears the save.

Can I play on a phone?

Yes. Drag anywhere to steer; the further you drag, the faster you go. A BOOST button appears on touch screens. On a keyboard, Esc or P pauses and R restarts.

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