Rules
Match & Mix is a memory game played on a sliding-tile puzzle. A 3 by 3 board holds eight tiles and one gap. Every tile carries number chips face down. Players find pairs of equal numbers, and after every turn the board shifts, so the numbers you remembered are no longer where they were.
The board
Eight tiles sit on a 3 by 3 grid with one empty space. Each tile carries four chips, 32 in all: the numbers 1 to 16, twice each. Before play starts, every chip is face up for 10 seconds.
A turn
- Flip two chips.
- If they show the same number, you keep the pair and flip two more.
- If they differ, your turn ends. Both chips stay face up for a moment while you slide one tile next to the gap into it. Then they turn back over.
- The tile that was slid last cannot slide straight back on the next turn.
Winning
Against an opponent, the first player to 9 pairs wins. Playing alone, you clear the board.
Our version
- 16 pairs on 8 tiles of four chips each (the show used 20 pairs; four chips per tile keeps every chip tappable on a phone). Each tile has a letter so you can follow it.
- One game, not the show’s best of three. The later hidden rule (no extra flip after a pair) is not used.
- vs AI: a coin flip picks who starts. 10 seconds to flip both chips, 10 seconds to slide. Time out while flipping and your turn ends; time out while sliding and a tile is slid for you. If the board runs out at 8 pairs each, the game is a draw.
- The AI has a memory, not a cheat sheet: it remembers some of the preview and most of what is flipped during play, and forgets more as the turns go by. Easy forgets a lot; hard very little.
- Solo and Daily have no turn clock. Your score is the number of misses; the time is shown too. Solo boards can be raced online on the same seed.
Strategy
Learn a corner, not the whole board. Ten seconds is not enough for 32 chips. Learn one or two tiles well and you will get early pairs.
Follow the tiles, not the squares. A number belongs to a tile, and tiles move. Remember “the 7 is on tile C, top left” rather than “the 7 is in the middle”.
Use every miss. A miss shows you two numbers, yours or the opponent’s. Remember both: their twins are now worth a pair.
Choose your slide. The slide is yours to pick. Move a tile you know well, so the chips you remember stay easy to find.
Flip the unknown first. When no pair is known, flip a chip you have never seen. If its twin is one you remember, take the pair; if not, you have learned two more numbers.