About Flag Memory
Flag Memory is the classic pairs card game played with world flags. Sixteen face-down cards hide eight flags, two of each, and you turn them over two at a time until every pair is found. Your score rewards both few moves and a quick finish.
How to play
- The board is a 4 by 4 grid of 16 cards holding 8 different flags, two cards per flag, chosen at random from 195 countries.
- Turn over two cards. If they show the same flag they stay face up and turn green; if not, they flip back after a moment.
- Every pair of cards you turn over counts as one move, whether or not it matches.
- The timer starts after your first move and stops when the last pair is found.
- Your score is 1,000 minus 40 for every move beyond the minimum of 8, minus 2 for every second taken, and never goes below 0.
- A perfect memory game takes exactly 8 moves, which is only possible with some luck on the first flips.
Controls
- Click or tap a card to turn it over.
- You cannot turn a third card while two unmatched cards are still showing; wait for them to flip back.
- On a computer, hovering over a face-up card shows the country's name as a tooltip.
Tips and strategy
- Moves cost far more than seconds: one extra move costs 40 points, the same as 20 seconds. Slow down enough to remember what you saw.
- Work through the grid in a fixed order, such as row by row, so you remember positions rather than random flips.
- When you turn a card whose partner you have already seen, go straight to that partner for a guaranteed match.
- Say the country name to yourself as each card is revealed. A name is often easier to remember than a pattern of stripes, especially for similar tricolours.
- Use the tooltip on face-up cards to learn flags you did not recognise for next time.
Background
Pairs-matching card games, sometimes called Concentration or Pelmanism, are traditional games played with an ordinary deck laid face down. Flags make a good deck because many look alike at a glance. The Nordic cross, an off-centre cross on a plain field, is shared by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and Denmark's version is often described as the oldest national flag still in continuous use. Simple three-stripe tricolours are even more common, which is why Belgium, Chad, Romania and others are easy to mix up in a memory game.
Questions
- Is there a time limit?
- No. The timer only counts up, and each second takes 2 points off your score, but you can take as long as you need.
- What is the best possible score?
- 1,000, for finishing in 8 moves with no time on the clock. In practice a strong game is a few moves over the minimum.
- Where is my best score saved?
- In your browser's local storage on this device. It stays until you clear site data.