tile a version of tetris an early tilematching game tiles drop from above and the matching criterion is filling a horizontal line a tilematching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion the core challenge of tilematching games is the identification of patterns on a seemingly chaotic board their origins lie in late 1980s games such as tetris chain shot samegame and puzznic tilematching games were made popular in the 2000s in the form of casual games distributed or played over the internet notably the bejeweled series of games tilematching games cover a broad range of design elements mechanics and gameplay experiences they include purely turnbased games but may also feature arcadestyle action elements such as time pressure shooting or handeye coordination the tile matching mechanic is also a minor feature in some larger games video game researcher jesper juul therefore considers tile matching to be a game mechanic rather than a distinct genre of games history the mechanism of matching game pieces to make them disappear is a feature of many nondigital games including mahjong solitaire and solitaire card games games building on dr marios mechanics include puyo puyo 1991 baku baku animal 1995 and puzzle fighter 1996 building on the shooting mechanic introduced in plotting dr mario also influenced puzzle bobble 1994 which in turn inspired puzz loop 1998 hexic and zuma 2004 and luxor 2005 columns was the basis of a line of development of tile matching games based on shifting or swapping tiles it includes yoshis cookie 1992 and panel de pon 1995 which introduced the swapping mechanic the first of what eventually became known as match three games where the goal is to create clusters of three or more identical items on a grid was shariki 1994 many casual tile matching games continue to be published their development is characterized by gradual evolution where new games makes only small changes if any to a formula known from previous games features tilematching games that are set in a fictional background are normally based in a bright and positive fiction as opposed to the warlike background of strategy games or the fantasy background of massively multiplayer games tile matching game mechanics have been combined with other mechanics to produce a great variety of puzzle game experiences this section discusses a number of these mechanics timing many tilematching games are timed that is new tiles are continuously added and the player is under pressure to make matches before the board fills up untimed turnbased games in which new tiles are added only after the player has made a move used to be the exception although the 1985 game chain shot already had an untimed mode the addition of an untimed mode to bejeweled was integral to that games success as well as one of its most important influences on subsequent games as it made the game more accessible to less skilled players tile arrangement manipulation and matching tiles may be arranged on a horizontal surface or vertically that is stacked atop one another and dropping down when tiles below are removed in the latter case some games allow moving or rotating new tiles as they fall down from the top of the playing area as in tetris or dr mario or they may allow only the manipulation of tiles that have already fallen as in yoshis cookie panel de pon introduced and bejeweled popularized the mechanism of tile swapping in which tiles may be moved by exchanging the position of two adjacent tiles another frequently used tile manipulation method is having the player shoot the tiles onto the board such as in plotting and its descendants including zuma the first method which allows only moves that create a match results in a more strategic thoughtful style of play whereas the second method requires handeye coordination in addition to pattern recognition skills and makes for a more hectic style of play tetris and its derivatives are somewhat unusual in that they feature irregularly shaped tiles composed of squares which match with all other tiles no matter what their color is in other games the tiles are most often uniformly square or round and are distinguished for the purpose of matching by color or some other decoration this shifts the games focus towards pattern recognition and away from the act of manipulating the tiles tetriss matching criterion of filling a full line on the board has not been taken up by most other tilematching games in most games a match occurs when a given number often three or more tiles of the same type adjoin each other at that time they are removed from the board a great number of gameplay variations are possible by introducing special tiles that behave differently such as by being indestructible or by destroying surrounding tiles when involved in a match scoring in most tilematching games players obtain points for each match higher scores are awarded for more difficult matches such as those involving a greater number of similar tiles victory and loss in most tilematching games new tiles are randomly added to the board continuously either turn by turn or in real time this may continue indefinitely or for a given period of time or number of turns the player must continuously remove the newly added tiles through matching the game may end with a loss when the board is filled with tiles or if there are no more possible matches it may end with a victory when the player clears the board or reaches a given score significance among downloadable casual video games according to a survey referred to by juul tilematching games were the second most popular game type in 2004 and by far the most popular in 2005 after that their popularity declined they were the fourth most popular of several genres in 2006 and 2007 and in 2008 a games publisher referred to them as a niche genre despite their commercial popularity tilematching games are among the games with the lowest status among video game enthusiasts to the point where reviewers have advised gamers not to be ashamed of playing them this may be because critics consider that there are too many of these games which differ only slightly from each other it may also be because as casual games tilematching games are designed to be easily accessible and easy to play which conflicts with a traditional video gaming ethos that demands games to be challenging and punishing computational complexity matchthree games are nphard when generalized to an n n playfield and played such that the player knows in advance all the tiles that will appear with no random chance involved in particular it is nphard to determine is there a sequence of moves that allows the player to match a specific tile can the player get a score of at least x can the player get a score of at least x in less than k moves can the player cause at least x tiles to match can the player play for at least x turns bibliography juul jesper 2009 a casual revolution reinventing video games and their players mit press isbn9780262013376 juul jesper 1 december 2007 swap adjacent gems to make sets of three a history of matching tile games artifact 1 4 205216 doi10108017493460601173366 retrieved 29 january 2012 vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 