Matchstick Memories
Experience one of the top-rated Free games on the App Store, Matchstick Memories! Developed by the innovative team at CH Buckingham, this Word game provides a unique gaming experience like no other. With a content rating of 12+, it’s perfect for a wide range of players. Since its initial release on 3rd September 2014, the game has seen numerous updates, with the latest version launched on 15th October 2019.
Are you a fan of Word, Role Playing, games? Then Matchstick Memories is right up your alley! You won’t be able to resist its appeal.
User Ratings of Matchstick Memories
Over 37 players have rated Matchstick Memories. Join them and share your thoughts!
How Much Does Matchstick Memories Cost?
Good news! You can download Matchstick Memories on your iOS device absolutely free!
Matchstick Memories Release Date
Eager to know when Matchstick Memories first graced the App Store? It was launched on 3rd September 2014.
When Was Matchstick Memories Last Updated?
The latest version of Matchstick Memories was updated on 15th October 2019, ensuring a more enjoyable gaming experience for all players.
Where Can I Download Matchstick Memories?
To get started with Matchstick Memories, head over to the official Apple App Store.
A Glimpse into Matchstick Memories
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"If you enjoyed A Dark Room, this game is absolutely for you." -PocketTactics.com
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"an existential journey" -Gamezebo.com
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"a great example of what can be done with the match three and puzzle genres if developers think outside of the box" -MacNN.com
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"surprisingly compelling and tactile gameplay" -JayIsGames.com
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"a refreshing departure from the typical mobile puzzle game" -Continue-Play.com
You are meant to be confused. The story begins as a sparse linear narrative, but as you become familiar with the world, and as the story progresses, puzzles become more complex and entire chapters eventually become meta-puzzles that must be completed in order to move forward, but even then, this story is as much about the journey as the struggle.
Features:
- The world dynamically adjusts the difficulty of puzzle types over time.
- The Failsafe System, which can be disabled via the pause menu, changes the puzzle type if the player appears to be unable to progress.
- 10 hours of crafted story and 12 procedural endless modes.
A hybrid of a classic streamlined ‘Zork-like’ text adventure and color based puzzle match games and minesweeper.
You navigate a world of memories, making decisions and solving puzzles as a confusing, complex, cryptic, and at times dark story unfolds in the text based world around you.
A unique iPhone, iPad (supports both portrait and landscape), or iPod color match / interactive fiction app. The first half of the story is free, the second half of the story requires a single In-App-Purchase to permanently unlock. This is the only IAP in the game.
twitter: @heavyhandedgame
What’s New in the Latest Update?
Find out what’s new in the latest version of Matchstick Memories updated on 15th October 2019:
-Changed string match logic to be less about guessing user intent, and more about precision.
-Changed some scoring logic for some of the more challenging game types.
-Made some game types less difficult.
-Hopefully fixed some threading cases that were causing instability.
-Made it much faster to navigate between some sections in the garage area.
User Reviews on Matchstick Memories
Looking for more information? Read a comprehensive review of Matchstick Memories below:
We loved playing this game. We wish we could do it again but it wont open on the newer iPhones. :-(
Gem that combines classic puzzling mechanics with an evocative text adventure. Beautifully designed and highly recommended.
Doesnt work on iPhone SE iOS 15.5, and iPad mini 4 iOS 15.4 and there is no app support. Cant give 0 stars.
Downloaded this app through the App Store twice on our ipad. It does not e en open. Please refund our money. Bel.
We would love to love this app, but it crashes every time we open it.
Game flashes to next screen and quits. Have tried to reinstall twice. IPhone X.
We want to try this game so badly!! Please update it so it works with current IPhones!!
A really nice break from explosions and tanks. We haven’t checked out A Dark Room yet, but it looks like we might have to. We’re also trying to get the young ones into it, and so far we’re surprised at the reaction. Edit: we’re on the fence, playing both games right now. Finished a dark room, heading to finish this one now, but both so interesting.
Sometimes it feels like a story, where we pass the time playing the games, though there are shiny parts where the games and the story come together in tense or emotional ways that leave us wondering if the game could really keep that level up the entire time. The touch interactions are majestic, the best we’ve played in a matching game, and it feels like youre connected to it. We think it could be harder. But this new version mentions that might happen, so maybe Ill play again. Anyways, really need, unique, not anything else like it out there.
We finished it! Some of the later chapters are enough to actually move you. We read a review that mentioned the garage chapter, lol, just stick with it, it’s a bit much, and a bit repetetive. Before it and after it are fantastic…
We were in tears at one point. We can’t say enough. The pacing and story come together so perfectly. There are some chapters that we struggled with. There is a combination of colors and game and story in one place where we were sure we caught in an endless loop… Until we realized the entire point of that chapter was the endless loop. OMG love love love. We might play endless modes, maybe we’ll just sit and think about the story. We almost just want to cherish and not play again for fear of realizing I’d read into it too much.
Looking for a text adventure, is a neat mix of a few games. Less a pure text adventure and more of a story puzzle. We don’t know, it’s only been a few hours since we started and we’re still playing, so that’s good. Not much for sound and effects, but doesn’t get annoying either… At least we don’t feel as bad playing with the sound off.
An intriguing story, fascinating meta-mechanics. The gameplay is simple, but manages to evoke the movement of the story from moment to moment. Great to pick up for a moment on the bus or an hour at your desk.
The best comparison we can make to this game is Quell, with its melancholy setting. But MSM incorporates the story into the look and feel and pace of the puzzles, to enchanting effect. One of a kind!
Fun game, wish it would go somewhere sometimes.
Refreshingly original combination of genres. Flawless aesthetics. Our only complaint is that the story lacks a hook– we’re about an hour in and there’s no tension, only descriptions of locations. We expect to like it better as we find out more.
We’re so glad we downloaded this game. It blends relaxing, aesthetically lovely puzzles with a tragic/exciting story to make for a really unique and artistic experience. We’re really impressed with the writing, and the gameplay is fun. It’s fairly well varied; there are six or seven different but similar types of puzzles depending on the level/story/urgency, which makes for decent variety. Some of the gameplay is a bit tedious, which is why we took a star off, but we’ve always come back and completed the levels we’ve lost patience for. There was one level/puzzle we played over and over and over without passing, and we think the game registered this and gave us an alternate puzzle to complete. We might be wrong though! Maybe we did beat it and didn’t realize. But anyway, if the game did recognize our inability to complete a level and adjusted accordingly, we are enormously impressed!
A new, unique way to imagine a game in a genre that has produced so many dry and monotonous Candy Crush clones. The story is good, albeit difficult to follow at times. The full story unlock is placed at a good time so as to make the player have enough background of the game to want to continue. As for the gameplay, the variety of puzzles keeps the player engaged, but at certain points the player can get stuck to the point that the game becomes boring. A hint system or somewhat of an online walkthrough would be helpful to assist players in getting through the more tedious areas, especially Chapter 10. Finally, the sound effects are nicely done, but a bit of ambient music would be appreciated, as it gets a little dry at times listening to the same clicks and chimes. Overall, great game, but needs some work.
Having no discernible eye-hand coordination, we don’t get much joy from timed mini games. We should have the ability to disable the timer. Seemed fun up until that point, though.
This game is addictive and fun, but we have to take a star off because of eye strain and no epilepsy warning.
This game seems to drain the battery very rapidly. This may be because the game also seems to be sending vast amounts of data through the internet. We also do not understand why the game is using up battery while the iPad is in standby mode.
Fun puzzle adventure with a mysterious story. Graphics are sleek, sound effects are actually kind of soothing. You work your way through the story by playing different puzzles, and it’s nice and long – we’ve been playing a ton and still haven’t seen the end. So far, it’s been pretty addicting.
Edit2: we were definately stuck on a section of the game, new failsafe has let us move on. We actually wasn’t sure if we couldn’t finish the puzzle, or if we wasn’t doing something we were supposed to. Original: could go either way for us, still only an hour in, but our initial thoughts are its very interesting. Colors changing on the puzzles is something we never seen. We think we want there to be even more options, but we read some reviews that say the first part is straight. More like an introduction. Liking it so far. Edit: we’re probably halfway through from what we read on Touch Arcade, and we’re still very intrigued. At times very confused, but we manage to figure it out, we think. Edit: we’ve finished it, and we have to say, we never stopped playing. We suppose our earlier hesitation was confusion as much as anything, but maybe that was a breath of fresh air?
This is our go to game when we just want to relax. The puzzles are easy to solve, but the timed ones can be challenging.
Seriously. We can’t stop. We’re obsessed with this game to the point of intervention; at least, that’s what our friends say. Tantalizing bits of story keep us saying ‘just one more section, then we’ll stop’ and puzzles so hard they make us whimper then shout with joy when we solve them. Thank you for such a marvelous game. Please don’t make any more – we need to sleep someday.
We liked the storytelling aspect of the game. It makes it interesting and keeps us wanting to play more and more. It’s especially reminiscent of games we used to play as a kid with a modern twist.
We had not noticed until we sat down to review the game here, and tried to think about what to say good and bad, that the most impressive aspect for us is how clean the interaction all is. Even just sliding blocks feels more natural than some of the puzzle games we play. And you can slide blocks, or make matches, while the rest of the grid is still animating the previous match. We specifically went and loaded up Bejewelled to see if you could do that, and you can’t. So there you go. The story is sparse and leaves a lot to your own mind. We think if we play again, which is a pretty big commitment mind you, that we might piece even more together. But we did the same thing in A Dark Room. Just played some sections mindlessly.
We’ve played a bunch of swipe clearing games before, but never one that had a text adventure built into it. We have to say, this was just a nifty idea for a game that actually got us craving the text games from when we were younger.
At the airport, had an hour lay over. This looked interesting and playable without swinging the phone around like a fool. Its good enough that we decided to review it. Thanks.
This is a pretty cool puzzle game with an interesting story that is mixed in. We played this game for hours and still didn’t manage to end it. The graphics are simple but nice and clean and also the music.
We really enjoyed this game. We already have 6 matchboxes and the story keeps us wondering where the rest are. Very polished actions and puzzle requirements.
The most frustrating thing about this game is that we want to like it so much more. You don’t have to look hard to find reviews that tell you how much of a joy the interface is to use in this game: it’s clean, it’s responsive, it feels great. … Too bad the game itself isn’t as good. MSM is, for the most part, a series of minigames ranging from minesweeper to match-3 and more. Frequently these games have move limits or challenges to get a certain number of points for matching one type of tile before you match another type. The primary problem is that these challenges are rarely actually challenging. The minesweeper game is played on a ridiculously small field with a small number of mines. The match-3 games only give you points when you match sets of 4 or more, so you can actually match as many of the "bad" tile as you want as long as you only match small sets. The swiping game just requires that you look for the largest single swipe or two on the screen. When the games aren’t laughably easy they’re completely unfair: "make 80 points of sets. Move tiles only 100 total spaces." The matchstick abilities are neat, but almost completely superfluous. The only time we ended up using them was on the "turn the lights on" game, where we ended up using them almost every single time because the game has a ridiculously low move count that prohibits you from being able to try multiple approaches without failing out over and over. The plot is incomprehensible. Worse, it’s intentionally incomprehensible. The premise is that you’re wandering alone through the hazy mists of your own memories, looking at room after field, after bedroom, after music box, after hallway, after drawers, etc. Oh, and every time you clear a puzzle in one of these locations it disappears from your memory. … So you’re erasing your own memories. The game also drags on and on and on. You get to the last matchbox in the row to find that now you’re going to find a SECOND matchbox of each color. We really love the engine, the idea of multiple games that are rotated through, the idea that the outcome of those games influences your choices in the story, etc. We just couldn’t handle either the games that were supposed to be the core mechanic or the story that was, at best, nonsensical.
We’re enjoying this game a great deal. We’re particularly fond of the creative way in which our experience changes to keep us engaged. Highly recommended!
This matchstick game delivers enjoyable gameplay. We like how there are both visual and sound clues. The story is really cool, too.
Update: just finished the game. We’ll be honest: we didn’t expect to be so affected by a story with so few words, but at some point, we really became swept up in the journey. Addictive boards, fantastic story. Bravo.
Thats not to say they really have anything in common, but we needed a story fix and this was a great change of pace. Well, is a great change of pace. But its been good for 5 or 6 hours so far. Thwres a section a few hours in that was annoyingly confusing, but we figured it out after getting our wife to help. :-D.
We’ve played nonstop. Pretty addicting.
We’re a huge fan of the old Infocom text adventures. This game combines those with pretty much every quick time-waster game of the last two decades other than Tetris and Solitaire. And while that sounds like a very strange combination, it works out masterfully. It’s great to play while stuck in lines or waiting rooms, because none of the puzzles take too long to complete–some are even timed. It’s both easy and difficult to put down, which is the sign of a truly entertaining app game. Great work!
A thoughtful blend of puzzle game and old school text adventure. While it does not browbeat you with instructions which sometimes makes it confusing, the elements of joy when you realize what you’re doing gives great moments of discovery. Don’t expect there to be many clones out there because the copycats won’t be able to capture the beautiful storytelling and feeling.
Great game. Was fun and engaging. We love this one.
Long game with lots of scenarios. Very engaging.