Tile-matching video game Tile-matching video game A tile-matching 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. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and these games are called match-three games. The core challenge of tile-matching 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". Tile-matching games were
Tile-matching video game game mechanic, rather than a distinct genre of games. The mechanism of matching game pieces to make them disappear is a feature of many non-digital games, including Mahjong solitaire and Solitaire card games. Jesper Juul traces the history of tile-matching video games back to "Tetris" and "Chain Shot!", published in 1984 and 1985. While both focus on pattern matching, they differ in important design points such as time pressure, tile manipulation and match criteria. A second generation of influential matching games – "Puzznic", "Columns", "Dr. Mario" and "Plotting" – was published in 1989 and 1990. Games building on "Dr. Mario"'s