Match Cards

The rules of Match Cards

In brief

The cards are laid face down. One attempt flips two cards (pairs) or three (triplets). If they show the same image, they stay visible; otherwise they flip back and the attempt is missed. You win by finding all the groups, and you lose when missed attempts reach the game's limit.

The goal

Find all the pairs, or all the triplets, of identical images on the board, without exceeding the limit of missed attempts. A board in pairs has 12, 20, 30 or 60 cards depending on the choice made in the New game window; each image appears twice on it.

An attempt

  1. Tap a face-down card: it flips over.
  2. Tap a second face-down card (and a third in triplets).
  3. After 1.5 seconds, the app compares the cards. If they show exactly the same image, they stay visible, with a green outline and a check mark. Otherwise, they flip back face down, in the same place, and the attempt counts as missed.

You can't flip a card that has already been found, or a card already flipped in the current attempt. Example, game MM2-PAAU-AAAAAAB: the first attempt flips "giraffe" (row 1, column 1) and "donkey" (row 1, column 2): different images, so the attempt is missed.

First attempt: two different images, so they will flip back.
giraffedonkeyface-down cardface-down cardface-down card
face-down cardface-down cardface-down cardface-down cardface-down card
face-down cardface-down cardempty slotempty slotempty slot

On attempt 3, the two "giraffe" cards are found: they stay visible until the end.

Triplets

With "3 cards" in the Images to match row, each image appears three times and one attempt flips three cards. Two identical cards are not enough: you need all three. Example, game MM2-TADN-AAAAAAB: on attempt 2, two "guava" cards come up with a different third card; the attempt is missed and all three flip back.

Winning and losing

  • Win: the last group is found. The cards are collected, then the end-of-game window opens.
  • Loss: the number of missed attempts reaches the game's limit. With 12 cards in pairs, this limit goes from 20 on Easy to 11 on Hard; the full table gives all the values.

The counters, at the end of the last row of cards, show the groups found out of the total, the time, and the missed attempts out of the limit.

The comparison on the Hard level

On the Hard level, several groups show the same subject in different versions. After each attempt, a window shows the flipped cards and says "Same image" or "Different images"; the Continue button closes it, and the "Don't show again during this game" checkbox hides it until the end of the game. It changes neither the cards nor the counter.

Example, game MM2-PAAW-AAAAAAF: on attempt 1, two "cat" cards come up, but not in the same version; the app answers "Different images" and the attempt is missed.

Same subject, different versions (letters added by the site): the attempt is missed.
cat Ecat Cface-down cardface-down cardface-down card
face-down cardface-down cardface-down cardface-down cardface-down card
face-down cardface-down cardempty slotempty slotempty slot

The game code

Each game has a code in the form MM2-PAAU-AAAAAAB, visible in the New game window (Game code row). Entered or pasted in that window, it gives back the same cards in the same places, with the same number of cards, the same difficulty and the same type of cards.

6 pairs in the example above; boards drawn from the app's deal.