The yard woke up.
Lawn Dart is a free browser-based 16-bit side-scrolling platformer, and the arcade's first. You are a pink plastic flamingo who has been staked in the same back yard for thirty years, and this morning you can move. Your neck does everything: whip it to knock the grubs off the lawn, hook it over a crossbar to swing across gaps nothing could jump, or drive it straight down beak-first to bounce off whatever is underneath you. Your wings are decorative — flapping will slow a fall but it will never lift you, because you are a lawn ornament and lawn ornaments do not fly. Six levels take you out of the yard entirely: a light comes down over the cul-de-sac, and you end up crossing the moon in a pressure suit and a glass dome before re-entry drops you into the ocean. Each place changes how you move. The moon is low gravity, so the same jump hangs half a second longer and carries a third further. Underwater, buoyancy pulls you upward instead of down, you have to swim to go deeper — and your wings finally do something, because a stroke is not flight.
You are a lawn ornament. Everything you can do, you do with your neck.
Tap NECK to whip whatever is in front of you. One swing sweeps a whole arc, so a line of grubs goes down together.
Hold UP and press NECK near a wooden crossbar to hook it. You will swing from it like a pendulum — press left and right to pump the swing higher, and jump to let go.
Let go as you come up out of the bottom of a swing. You carry your swing speed plus a boost, and you are fastest through the low point — at the very ends of the arc you are barely moving at all.
Press DOWN and JUMP in mid-air to dive beak-first. You fall faster, and you bounce off whatever you land on — ground, grubs, anything.
A successful beak bounce gives your flap back, so you can chain bounces across a row of grubs without ever touching the floor.
Jumping a second time in mid-air flaps your wings. It caps how fast you fall for a moment; it never gains you height. You are plastic.
Pinks are the little ornaments scattered around the yard. They are worth points and they mark the route the level wants you to take.
Score is 100 per grub, 25 per pink, 1500 for reaching the exit, a time bonus that bleeds away as you go, and 1000 more if you clear a level without being hit.
The campaign runs six levels across three places: the yard, the moon, and the sea floor. Two levels each — the first teaches what is different about the place, the second assumes you learned it.
On the moon everything is lower gravity. The same jump reaches the same height but hangs in the air much longer and carries about a third further, so gaps that would kill you at home are routine.
Underwater there is no falling. You float upward on your own, so DOWN swims you deeper and the beak dive is how you get to the bottom in a hurry.
Your wings work in water. Every jump press underwater is a stroke you can repeat, not a one-shot flap — it is still not flying, which is the only rule your character respects.
Your score carries across levels and only banks when you finish one. Dying costs you the level you were on and nothing before it.
Every sound is generated in the browser — there are no audio files. Each place has its own track, and the moon has no drums at all, because there is no air up there to carry them.
Lawn Dart is a free browser-based 16-bit side-scrolling platformer. You play a pink plastic flamingo that has been staked in the same back yard for thirty years and has just started moving. Your neck is your whole moveset — a whip, a grappling hook and a pogo stick. The campaign runs six levels across three places: the back yard, the surface of the moon in a pressure suit and glass dome, and the sea floor after re-entry goes badly.
Six levels, two in each of its three places. The first level of each pair teaches what is different about it and the second assumes you learned it. Your score carries across levels and banks when you finish one, so dying costs you the level you were on and nothing before it.
Gravity. A jump reaches the same height but hangs in the air about a third longer and carries a third further, so gaps that would be lethal in the yard are routine — and the gaps in the moon levels are built wider to match. Your flamingo wears a pressure suit and a glass dome from the moment it leaves Earth.
There is no falling. Buoyancy pulls you upward all the time, so DOWN swims you deeper and the beak dive is how you reach the bottom quickly. Every jump press is a swim stroke you can repeat rather than a one-shot flap, so this is the one place your wings actually do something — which is still not flying.
Yes, Lawn Dart is completely free to play in your browser. No download, no signup, no paywall.
Three ways, all on one button. Tapping NECK whips it in an arc in front of you, which knocks out grubs. Holding UP and pressing NECK hooks a wooden crossbar overhead and you swing from it like a pendulum — left and right pump the swing, and jump lets go. Pressing DOWN and JUMP in mid-air drives your beak straight down so you dive faster and bounce off whatever you hit.
No, and that is the joke. Pressing jump a second time in mid-air flaps your wings, but flapping only caps how fast you fall for a moment — it never gains you any height. You are a lawn ornament. Use it as a mid-air correction when you have mistimed a jump, not as a second jump.
You swing. A plain jump covers about five tiles and a jump with a flap chained onto it reaches roughly six, but the big gap is nine — it is deliberately built to defeat both, and there is always a crossbar above it. Hook it, pump the swing with left and right, and let go as you come up out of the bottom of the arc — that is where you are moving fastest, and the release carries your swing speed plus a boost. At the very ends of the arc you are barely moving.
You score 100 points per grub, 25 per pink collected, 1500 for reaching a level exit, plus a time bonus that decays as the run goes on and a further 1000 for clearing a level without taking a hit. The leaderboard entry is your CAMPAIGN total across all six levels, not a single level score, so a deep run always beats a good first level.
Yes. The joystick runs and aims the neck up or down, the JUMP button jumps and flaps, and the NECK button whips or — with the joystick held up — fires the grapple.