1. How do I play the game?

Don’t worry. You’re not the first person to want more detailed information. The goal of the game is to free all the shmushies. You have a limited number of moves (designated as white boxes on the bottom of the screen). Press a Shmushy to free it. Neighboring shmushies with the same color will merge together and fly away.

2. Seems straightforward. Where’s the challenge?

Ah. The twist…literally. You will need to spin the board to change the direction the shmushies fall. Spinning the board does not cost a move and you may spin as often as you like. Certain levels will require specific spins to move the shmushies into the proper position to clear the board.

3. Why should I play?

Great question! My marketing team has provided an even better answer: Shmush is a wildly entertaining color merge puzzle game. You shmush, smoosh, squash, and squish cute-looking Shmushies to have a fun-filled time while keeping your brain active. This can be played while you sit idly in a cab, train, or bus commuting to and from your office, or just chill with it when you get some time to relax! Score better to rank higher against the Shmush: The Spinning community. Can you be the best? (Aren’t the marketers great?)

4. Why is everything shaking?

That’s the graphics style. I based it on how the cartoon series Home Movies looks.

5. So what’s with the ranking?

Here’s how game ranking works: After you complete a board, the game sends to our server a unique user ID (that represents you) along with the level and your best (i.e., lowest) time for that level. Your rank is determined by the number of levels you completed (the more the better) sorted by the total time for each level (the lower the better). Go back and play earlier levels to decrease your level time and move up the rankings!

6. What about the level ranking?

You receive a rank for reach level. This is independent of your game ranking (but plays a role in game ranking as well). You may play a level as often as you want to improve your time for that level. The faster you complete the level the better!

7. How do I get a better time on a level?

Try to find an optimal way to clear the shmushies with the fewest spins. Once you have it, you’ll need to quickly move through the level to better your time.

9. What’s this daily challenge thing?

Each day the server rolls a new level to play. Unlike normal levels, there is not a minimum number of moves to complete the level. You are ranked by the number of moves you used to clear the level (the less the better), and the total amount of time you used to get your best score (the timer starts when you first see the level).

10. What’s with the arcade mode?

I’m glad you noticed the new mode. As of version 2.0, you can now play the arcade mode. It has a similar mechanic as the arcade but the pieces fall similar to Tetris. Your job is to clear the shmushies before they no longer fit on the board. You need at least three pieces of the same color before freeing them. The speed and number of colors increase as you play so be careful! You rack up points based on the level and the number of shmushies you free at one time. Try to get the highest score!