Memory Match
- Category
- Brain
- Players
- 1
- Controls
- Click / Tap
- Scored by
- Fewest moves
About this game
Memory Match lays every card face down and asks you to find the pairs. Turn over two cards: if they match they stay up, and if they do not, they flip back and you try to remember what you saw. The whole game runs on one skill, and it is the one the game is named after.
Because you are scored on moves rather than time, this is a thinking game rather than a fast one. There is no advantage to rushing, and a great deal of advantage to pausing for a moment to place a card properly in your memory before you flip the next one.
Controls
| Click or tap | Flip a card face up. |
| Start | Shuffle the deck and begin again. |
Tips & strategy
Work through the board in a fixed order on your first pass rather than flipping at random. Going left to right, row by row, gives every card a position in a sequence, and a sequence is far easier to recall than a scatter of unrelated flips.
Attach each card to its location rather than trying to memorise pictures. Most people recall spatial position better than image detail, so thinking of a card as top row, third along tends to stick better than trying to hold the symbol itself in mind.
When you turn up a card you have seen before, resolve it immediately instead of continuing your sweep. A pair you know about is worth more than one more card of new information, and leaving known pairs on the board is how move counts quietly inflate.
Group what you remember into small clusters rather than one long list. Recalling three cards in the top-left region is much easier than recalling nine cards spread across the whole grid, and the clusters combine naturally as the board empties.
Questions
How is my score calculated?
By the number of moves you take, where each pair of flips counts as one move. Lower is better, and your best result is kept in your browser.
Is this suitable for young children?
Very. There is no timer and no way to lose, so it works well for kids, and it is a standard exercise for short-term visual memory.
Are the cards shuffled every game?
Yes, the layout is randomised each time you start, so a remembered board from a previous round will not help.
What is a good move count?
Finishing near the number of pairs on the board means you have barely wasted a flip. Most players start well above that and improve quickly with practice.