Mochi Crush

About Mochi Crush

Mochi Crush is a relaxed swap-to-match puzzle played on a 7x7 grid of glossy pastel mochi, each with tiny dot eyes and a blush. You move by swapping any two mochi that sit side by side: drag one toward its neighbour, or tap a mochi and then tap an adjacent one. The instant three or more of the same colour land in a straight line they pop, the mochi above tumble down to fill the holes, brand-new ones drop in from the top, and any fresh lines that form pop too - a cascade that can ripple several times from a single swap, with the match chime rising in pitch each step. A swap that fails to make a line just slides right back, so nothing is ever wasted.

Bigger matches leave behind special mochi. Line up four to forge a striped mochi that clears a full row or column; bend a match into an L or T shape to drop a star-bomb that blasts the surrounding 3x3 square; and stretch five in a straight line for a rainbow mochi that wipes every mochi of one colour off the board. The real fun is swapping two specials together - two stripes fire a cross, a bomb plus a stripe sweeps three rows and three columns at once, two bombs clear a 5x5 patch, a rainbow plus a stripe turns a whole colour into stripes that all fire, and swapping two rainbows clears the entire board in one dazzling burst.

Every level sets one of three goals, shown on the track at the top of the screen: pop a target number of mochi, clear a set amount of pink jelly backing (each jelly square fades when you pop a mochi resting on it, and double jelly needs two hits), or collect a quota of one specific colour. Standing in your way are wooden crates, which never fall and only crack open into a plain mochi when a match happens right next to them, and icy locked mochi, which stay frozen until a neighbouring match thaws them. There is no clock and no move limit - Mochi Crush never fails you, and if a board ever runs out of legal swaps it quietly reshuffles itself.

The 20 hand-built levels are grouped into five themed worlds of four levels each - Sakura Meadow (a gentle five-colour tutorial with no specials yet), Sunny Beach (stripes, bombs, and the first crates), Mint Forest (a sixth colour, locks, and rainbow mochi), Ocean Deep (double jelly and layered blockers), and Starry Night (everything at once, packed tight). Clear all twenty and Endless mode opens: an unbounded run of freshly generated, always-winnable boards that start near the difficulty of the final curated level and keep ramping upward, cycling the world themes as you go. Finishing any level always awards three stars, and your unlocked levels and stars are saved on your device.

Want to get better? Read our full Match-3 Tips guide.

How to play Mochi Crush

1. Drag a mochi toward the mochi beside it, or tap a mochi and then tap one next to it, to swap the two.
2. Get three or more of the same colour into a straight line and they pop; if the swap makes no line, the mochi slide back and the move is not used.
3. After a pop, the mochi above fall to fill the gaps and new ones drop in, often forming more lines for a free cascade.
4. Match four for a striped mochi, an L or T shape for a 3x3 star-bomb, and a straight five for a rainbow mochi that clears one whole colour.
5. Read the goal track up top - pop a number of mochi, clear the pink jelly squares, or collect enough of the shown colour - and play toward it.
6. Break crates and free locked mochi by matching right next to them, then finish the goal to clear the level and earn three stars.

Controls

Tips & strategy

• Hunt for swaps that drop matching mochi together higher up - one well-placed move can trigger a long cascade and do the work of several.
• A striped mochi clears the line that crosses the direction of the four you matched, so set up your four with the row or column you actually want swept.
• Park a star-bomb or rainbow mochi next to a stubborn double-jelly square or a locked mochi, then fire it there - a single special clears far more than a plain match.
• Swapping two specials together is the strongest play: rainbow plus stripe, or rainbow plus bomb, can clear most of the board at once, and rainbow plus rainbow wipes all of it.
• On collect levels, jelly is turned off so the board stays clear - just keep matching the colour shown in the basket; specials that catch that colour count toward the quota too.
• On jelly levels, aim your matches over the pink squares rather than the empty corners, and remember double jelly takes two separate pops to fully clear.
• There is no penalty for waiting, so plan each swap; if you ever get stuck with no move, the board reshuffles automatically so you can keep going.

Game features

• Swap-to-match-3 on a 7x7 board with multi-step cascades and a match chime that climbs in pitch the longer the chain runs.
• Three special mochi from big matches - striped (clears a row or column), star-bomb (3x3 blast), and rainbow (clears one whole colour).
• Deep special combos: stripe+stripe cross, bomb+stripe three-row-three-column sweep, bomb+bomb 5x5, rainbow+stripe, rainbow+bomb, and rainbow+rainbow full board clear.
• Three goal types - pop a count of mochi, clear pink single and double jelly, or collect a quota of one colour - shown on a live progress track.
• Crate and locked-mochi blockers that only break from an adjacent match and act as floors the falling mochi pile up on.
• Five themed worlds (Sakura Meadow, Sunny Beach, Mint Forest, Ocean Deep, Starry Night) of four levels each, with their own colour palettes and drifting backdrops.
• 20 hand-tuned levels plus Endless mode - generated, always-winnable boards that ramp from the final level's difficulty and cycle the world themes.
• No timer, no move limit, and no fail state; an automatic reshuffle whenever a board has no legal swap left.
• Plays instantly in the browser on phone, tablet, and desktop with synthesized sound, and saves your unlocked levels and stars on your device.

The Match-3 With The Brakes Off

What separates Mochi Crush from the games it descends from is everything it leaves out. The level data still carries a move budget per board, but the resolver never spends it: there is no counter ticking down, no clock, and no fail screen anywhere in the code. A swap that fails to line up three slides straight back with a short sawtooth groan and a hiss of noise, costing nothing. If a board ever runs dry of legal swaps, it quietly reshuffles the loose mochi until a move exists again. You can sit on a single board indefinitely, which reframes the whole genre from a resource you ration into a space you poke at.

The cascade is where the craft hides. Each clear plays a chime pitched to how deep the chain has run, stepping up a fixed ratio scale per cascade so a long ripple of pops audibly sings upward. The gravity is the unusually careful part: every falling mochi carries its own drop distance, so a survivor that did not move stays planted while only the pieces above an actual gap slide down. Columns settle like a real pile instead of yanking up and slamming back. Clears of four shudder the board, and only a clear of five or more triggers the white screen flash, so the biggest plays announce themselves.

Specials arrive faster than the gentle framing suggests. World one teaches the swap with no powerups for two boards, then quietly drops striped mochi into its third level, so you are forging your first row-clearer before leaving Sakura Meadow. Star-bombs come from L and T intersections, rainbows from a straight five, and the real ceiling is swapping two together: stripe pairs fire a cross, a bomb and a stripe sweep three rows and three columns, two bombs blast a five-by-five, and two rainbows wipe the entire grid. Crates and icy locks never fall and never match, instead standing as floors that split a column into segments the new mochi stack against.

Three goal types rotate across the five themed worlds, each with its own palette and a drifting field of petals, sun rays, leaves, bubbles, or stars. You pop a count, clear pink jelly that fades a layer per pop over it (double jelly wants two), or collect a quota of one colour. Most of the depth is optional, so a casual run clears all twenty boards on plain threes while a combo hunter chases the full-board rainbow wipe. A bobbing finger surfaces only after five idle seconds or five fruitless swaps, and it nudges a single mochi rather than the move. It is a match-3 built to be fidgeted with, free of lives and paywalls.