How to play SameGame
SameGame is a falling-block puzzle about patience. Click any group of two or more touching blocks of the same kind to remove it. The blocks above fall into the gap, and when a column empties, everything to its right slides over.
Big groups are worth far more than small ones, so the trick is to clear the clutter and let one kind gather into a single huge group before you take it.
Rules
- A group is two or more blocks of the same kind joined edge to edge (not diagonally). A lone block can’t be removed.
- Removing a group of n blocks scores (n − 2)² points: 2 blocks score 0, 3 score 1, 5 score 9, 10 score 64, 20 score 324.
- After each move, blocks fall straight down to fill the gaps, and empty columns close up to the left.
- Clear every block for a 1,000-point bonus. The game ends when no group of two or more is left.
- Classic is 15 × 10 with four kinds of block; Quick is 10 × 8 with three kinds, and a full clear is far more likely.
- Undo takes back your last move only. A game that used undo is still saved locally but is not ranked on the tops.
Controls
- Hover + click
- Highlight a group and its points, click to remove it
- Tap, tap again
- On touch screens the first tap shows the group and its points, the second removes it
- Arrows / WASD + Space
- Move the cursor and remove the group under it
- Z
- Undo the last move
- N · 1 2
- New game · switch board size
Tips
- Pick one kind to save and clear the others around it. Each block you add to a group adds more points than the last.
- Work from the bottom up when you can: removing low blocks drops whole stacks and makes new groups appear.
- Pairs score nothing, but they’re how you dig a big group free. Don’t be afraid to spend them.
- Watch the left edge: when a column empties, everything shifts over, and that can join or split groups across the board.
SameGame strategy
One big group beats many small
Because a group of n scores (n − 2)², size matters more than anything. Twenty blocks in one group score 324; the same twenty taken as two groups of ten score 128. On Classic there are 150 blocks across four kinds, about 37 of each on average, and a single group of 37 would score 1,225. Pick the kind you will save early, and treat every other move as tidying up around it.
Which kind to save
Choose a kind that is already well represented near the bottom and towards the left. Gravity pulls blocks down and empty columns close up to the left, so the board shrinks towards the bottom-left corner and blocks there are the least likely to be cut off. Avoid a kind scattered across the top of the right-hand columns; it will be split by column shifts as the board narrows.
Weigh the clear bonus
Clearing the board adds 1,000, about the value of a single group of 34. On Classic, one huge group often matters as much as the bonus, so do not wreck it chasing a full clear. On Quick there are only 80 blocks across three kinds, so even one full group of a kind is worth less than the bonus. There, play to empty the board and take your big groups along the way.
Endgame and the single undo
Near the end, count the blocks of each kind left. A kind with only one block left can never be removed, so the clear is already gone and the rest is about points. Before any move that splits your saved group or strands a block, use the hover preview to check the score and, if it goes wrong, the one undo you have. Undo removes the game from the tops, so use it sparingly.
About SameGame
SameGame was written by Kuniaki Moribe in 1985 as Chain Shot! for the Fujitsu FM-8 and FM-7, and was soon ported to Unix and other systems under the name SameGame. It travelled widely in the nineties: as Clickomania on Windows and the web, as Jawbreaker on Pocket PCs and as part of the KDE and GNOME desktop game collections.
This is an original browser version with the classic rules: gravity down, columns close to the left, (n − 2)² points per group and a bonus for an empty board. Colour is the whole mechanic here, so each kind of block also has its own shape and stays readable without colour vision.
Questions
How is the score calculated?
Each group of n blocks scores (n − 2)² points, so a group of 12 is worth 100 while six pairs are worth nothing. Clearing the whole board adds 1,000.
Is SameGame the same as Clickomania?
Yes, the same game under another name. It started in 1985 as Chain Shot! and spread as SameGame, Clickomania and Jawbreaker, with small differences in board size and scoring.
Can every board be cleared?
No. Boards are random, and many can’t be emptied completely. Quick (10 × 8, three kinds) gets cleared far more often than Classic.
Can I undo a move?
You can take back your last move, one step back, until the game ends. Games that used undo are saved in your history but don’t count for the tops.