About Pair Up
Pair Up is a card matching game for training short-term memory. All cards start face down. You flip two at a time; if they show the same picture they stay up, and if they don’t they turn back over. The round ends when every pair is found.
We drew every card face ourselves as simple vector pictures: an apple, cherries, a pear, a lemon, a banana, a watermelon slice, a hammer, a wrench, a key, a light bulb, a pencil, a fish, a cat, a bird, a snail and a mushroom. That is sixteen designs, and each game picks a random set from them, so the pictures you see and where they sit change every round.
There are three board sizes:
| Size | Grid | Pairs | 3 stars | 2 stars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 4 x 3 | 6 | 10 moves or fewer | 14 or fewer |
| Medium | 4 x 4 | 8 | 13 or fewer | 18 or fewer |
| Large | 6 x 5 | 15 | 24 or fewer | 35 or fewer |
Anything above the two-star mark still earns one star, because finishing a board is always worth something. On a phone held upright the grid turns itself on its side (a 6 x 5 board becomes 5 columns by 6 rows) so the cards stay as big as possible.
How to play
- Choose a board size. Small is a good warm-up, Large is a real test.
- Tap a card to flip it, then tap a second card.
- If the two pictures match, both cards turn green and stay face up.
- If they don’t match, they wobble and flip back after one second. You don’t have to wait: tapping a new card flips the mismatched pair back right away and starts your next turn.
- Every pair of flips counts as one move, whether it was a match or not.
- The clock starts on your very first flip, not when the board appears, so you can take a breath first.
- Find every pair to finish. You’ll see your moves, your time and a star rating.
The game keeps two separate records for each board size: your fastest time and your fewest moves. A new record on either one counts as a personal best. If you switch tabs mid-game, the clock stops and the cards are hidden until you press Resume, so nobody gets a free peek.
Strategy tips
The perfect score on any board is one move per pair, which only happens with lucky guesses. A realistic goal is to never waste a flip on information you already have. Here’s how.
1. Flip an unknown card first
Start each turn by flipping a card you have never seen. If its partner is already known, you now have a guaranteed match for your second flip.
2. If you don’t know the partner, flip another unknown
When the first card is new and you haven’t seen its twin, don’t flip a card you already know. A known card can’t match (you’d have remembered) and it tells you nothing new. Another unknown card might match by luck, and if not, you have learned one more location.
3. Collect the “free” matches right away
Sometimes your second flip reveals a card whose twin you saw earlier. It won’t match this turn, but on your next turn flip those two known cards together for a guaranteed pair. Don’t let known pairs pile up; each one you delay is one more thing to hold in your head.
4. Work in a pattern
Flip unknown cards in a fixed order, row by row from the top left. Your memory will store positions as “third card in row two” much more reliably than as scattered spots.
5. Name the pictures
Say the picture and its place quietly to yourself: “key, top right.” Pairing a word with a location is easier to recall than a picture alone. The fruits, tools and animals are drawn to be easy to name for exactly this reason.
6. Use color as a second clue
Every picture has a strong main color: red apple, yellow lemon, blue fish, orange cat. Even when you forget the exact picture, you might remember “there was something yellow near the middle,” which narrows your search.
7. Play for moves first, speed second
Stars are based on moves, not time. Once you can reliably earn three stars, start pushing your time down without letting your move count slip.
FAQ
What counts as a move?
Flipping two cards is one move. It doesn’t matter whether they matched.
How are the stars calculated?
Stars depend only on moves. The thresholds scale with the number of pairs on the board and are listed in the table above. Time is tracked separately for your personal records.
Are my best scores saved?
Yes. Your best time, fewest moves and highest stars for each board size are saved in your browser and shown on the size menu. Clearing your browser’s site data resets them.
Is the board different every time?
Yes. Each game picks a random selection of the sixteen card designs and shuffles their positions, so memorizing a layout from a previous round won’t help.
Can I play with a keyboard?
Yes. Use the arrow keys to move the highlight between cards and press Enter or Space to flip the highlighted card.
