What happens when you cross a pile of dominoes with a slot machine? Frankly, nothing good, as most slot machines have the ability to shoot dominoes at speeds up to 120 mph (193 kph), so it's best to stay away from a domino-toting slot machine if you see one, unless it's under careful professional supervision and in a Plexiglas box. But in case you never get the opportunity to stumble over a friendly slot machine, Tonypa (Pushori, Twibik) has a perfect alternative.
Pariboro is Tonypa's latest endeavor into the world of tile-based games of skill and luck. Forty tiles of three colors lie on the grid before you, and your job is to clear as many tiles as you can. On the right, a slot machine of sorts will automatically spin and stop on a pair of tiles. Find a pair of adjacent tiles like that on the board, and click them to remove them from play. If you clear an entire row, their empty placeholders will disappear, allowing more tiles to fall in from the top, and you get a nice score bonus. However, if the slot machine ever produces a pair of tiles that can't be cleared from the board, the game ends. It's as simple as that; keep clearing lines to stay alive and rack up more points.
In the long run, your goal is two-fold. The longer you can last, the higher your score is. Scores are automatically uploaded onto the high score server for instant comparison against the other Pariboroers of the world. Your highest score is always saved, so don't worry about losing your slot because of a bad game. But wait, there's more! If you're signed in at this delightful Casual Gameplay website, the game automatically detects your username and submits that as your high score identity. (Not logged in, or need to sign up for an account? Click the "Sign in" link at the very top right of the page.)
Also, as you finish games and reach higher scores, you'll notice that a piece of a mysterious jigsaw puzzle is revealed when you finish a game. If you can reach a certain threshold of points in a game, you'll be rewarded with a step towards a scoring bonus in future levels. Thus, the more you play, the greater chance you have of reaching a higher score!
Analysis: Pariboro is yet another classic casual game from Tonypa that exhibits his simple-yet-unique style of graphics and sounds. Perhaps Wikipedia should have a link to Tonypa's games on its page explaining "elegant simplicity".
Along with the simplicity, you will notice the fine balance between luck and strategy that you'll need to play this game. There is a one-in-six chance of any given pair of tiles coming up (if I calculated that correctly), but there is no easy way to take advantage of this. You can remove tiles in an ordered fashion to clear six consecutive rows with three turns, but getting the right domino to spin up is the tricky part. As fail proof as a plan might seem, the randomizer still somehow finds a way to get the best of you eventually.
If you're looking to find the best strategy for not losing as quickly, try playing a few games where your goal is to get the lowest score possible. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it helps you to realize what not to do in order to stay alive. Low-scoring games will happen eventually, and sometimes you will never even see it coming. I actually managed to (inadvertently) end a game with a score of 9. I have no doubt that it's possible for lower scores to happen, with an unlucky board setup and an unlucky set of spins. If you learn how to avoid these scenarios, you can become a high score king.
Bonus! Are you a fan of those snazzy fonts Tonypa uses in his games? Would you like to be able to type in all-caps glory? Tonypa has created and released several fonts used in his games on FontStruct, available for download!
"Elegant simplicity" is a very apt description of Tonypa's style. This game is really neat and I can see myself enjoying it for quite awhile.
It's surprisingly good fun once you get the hang of it.
Some tips:
Start from the bottom and work your way up.
Try to eliminate tiles systematically instead of leaving lots of small gaps everywhere.
Continuously create opportunities to eliminate rows. If a row has three tiles left, it's usually a good idea to eliminate two of those tiles as soon as you can, leaving the remaining tile connected to another one vertically.
Some thoughts on luck:
If you're using a good strategy, it seems like you only lose when the random tile generator gives you a series of awkward tile combinations. It seems as if your skill at the game isn't the main factor which determines how long you survive.
One minor complaint (not related to game mechanics)
I don't understand why tonypa decided to make the BONUS reward a score booster. It undermines the purpose of the high score table, (1) because your score no longer represents how long you survived - you could play for a long time and have a lower score than someone who is not very good at the game but played a lot more games; and consequently (2) because of this you can't tell how well you're doing compared to the high scorers.
Perhaps a better reward would be different tile designs or sound effects.
I, too, work from the bottom up. This game feeds right into mild OCD tendencies I have. xD
I have to agree with Tom, though, on the Bonus rationale. Probably not the best reward considering his argument. And yet, those out for high scores are usually those who play over and over and over again anyways.
Perhaps a work around would be to have multiple high score boards? One for each Bonus level?
once i had a 0 score. it's nice to see the board flash up just after everything falls into place.
Multiple score boards would work, but then the purpose of the bonus is defeated - you would still be competing against people on the same "bonus level" as you. It would be simpler to have no bonuses and everyone on the same level playing field.
The only real difference would be that your score would be numerically bigger the more times you played. (Perhaps good for one's ego :D)
Some more thoughts on strategy:
The goal of Pariboro is to survive as long as possible. The game ends when you can't make another move.
Therefore, you need to maximise the number of different combinations of two tiles, that you have in the playing area. In other words, you need all of your tiles to be as "connected" to each other as possible. You also need as many tiles on-screen as possible.
So you have to avoid:
* Leaving lots of gaps everywhere, and leaving rows with a single tile not connected to any others. These rows will eventually accumulate and reduce the number of tiles on-screen, which is bad. You should re-connect these single tiles by skilful play.
* Leaving lots of rows that are *almost* removed. Try to work on the bottom three rows of the grid. Use the rows above for awkward tile combinations that can't be placed in the bottom rows. For the same reason, you should preferably remove two tiles horizontally from one row instead of one tile each from two rows.
* Large areas made up of one single type of tile (although there's not a lot you can do, so this isn't very important).
The reason you should start at the bottom of the screen is that new tiles come in from the top, and if you leave them in a solid block of tiles there will be a maximal number of combinations that you can rely on when you get awkward tile combinations.
You should work from the edges inwards (instead of the middle outwards to left and right). This is because tiles at the edge of the board have fewer connections to other tiles than tiles in the middle of the board, and you want to maximise the number of connections all the time.
Wow, I just scored a three which is the lowest score I've heard of yet. I had decided to not care where I picked the pairs from when my starting board was very checkerboard'ed. It asked me to get an identical pair twice in a row and I couldn't do it the second time, lol.
Hah, fantastic! My terrible score has been wiped off the board by new players! My shame is now a secret!
. . .
. . . I meeeeeeaaan . . . I'm awesome! Seriously!
*shifty look*
I'm not thinking into this too much, but it is getting rather addictive (or I just really don't want to do work).
I like the different coloured sets of tiles for each game, which stops it getting too samey.
The only problem is I'm getting to the point where I think the randomizer doesn't like me, as it has a good habit of bringing up the pair that I just accidentally removed the last one of, either by mistake or because my hand was forced...
Anyway, thanks! It's great!
I hereby and with all of my being scorn any game for having links in or around it that open in the same tab.
as a huge puzzle game fun, i must say that i REALLY enjoy this game. so simple yet so much fun. the random generator is a beautiful idea to me. i've started off a game with 0 points and have gone all the way up to around 550. now that i'm getting the strategy i'm averaging around 400 per game, but i am a bit confused as to what everyone is talking about in terms of the point system. i've played enough games to where i've unlocked the 'one' puzzle and am pretty sure the next one says 'two'. one i unlock that does that mean that my score is doubled?
if this is the case i have an idea on how to (maybe) fix this. instead of revealing one tile per game, how about making the points you made for that game reveal tiles on the original board - i.e. everyone starts out at the first 'one' board, and THEN start to remove tiles. so, if you play and score 20, then a few tiles are removed, or if you play and score 600 then you would move through a few different sets of tiles, thereby multiplying your score and rewarding those who last longer. it would create hug discrepancies, but i think the ones at the top would eventually even out, as it seems that around 650 your luck will run out.
just an idea, and maybe i am unsure of the exact system in terms of the 'bonus'. any thoughts?
I only played once after getting the first bonus, but this is my understanding:
If you're working on "one", every match is worth 1 point and clearing a row is worth 5.
If you're working on "two", every match is worth 2 points and clearing a row is still worth 5.
Does it continue in that same vein?
Also, I think you must get more than 50 points to get a piece of "one" - I once got exactly 50 but didn't get a bonus piece.
Thanks for all the nice comments :)
Tom, your theory on the strategy is interesting reading to me. I like when players find more from the game then originally planned. I just made it this way because it felt right :)
As about bonus system, the idea was to give some sort of target to continue playing even when you already finished with great score once. Yes, basically it rewards playing it more times. However, I dont think the bonuses are given out too easily so you still need to be good at playing it Well, to me the bonus requirements felt pretty difficult, looking at some scores you achieve I dont know for sure anymore. It should become increasingly more difficult to get next bonus.
Thanks again for taking time to play and post your thoughts.
Now I thought that the bonus was some sort of extra game, a slider puzzle or something that just wasn't working or loading correctly ...
so much for my efforts of clicking it to death.
Had a few games that I only was able to make one move and then die.
I like it and there is a lot of strategy that can be used to keep alive longer, but sometimes luck just isn't helping.
I'm a bit late to the party, but I just wanted to add my comments as a big fan of Tonypa's games. I had some difficulty at first, and it took me a little while to figure out a decent strategy, but after I did I was able to slip into a groove. The randomization ensures that you're going to get screwed sooner or later, and although at first I was aggravated when I got the same combination six times in a row, I eventually came to see that its all part of the game.
This one is addicting and strangely mesmerizing, and it is going into my "favorite Tonypa games" file (it's a pretty big file).
@tonypa
Thanks for the mention and response :)
It does get more difficult to get the next bonus. I'm uncovering the third bonus panel now - it takes about 600+ points per game.
I wonder if you can tell us how the random tile selector works? I assume that effectively it randomly generates Tile #1 (out of 3 equally likely choices) and then randomly generates Tile #2 (out of 3 choices)? This means that the three "doubles" tiles of a single colour will come up half as often as sets of two different tiles. (If this is the case, the review needs correcting. Also, not letting double tiles block up rows becomes more important.)
Of two other possibilities, the first is the one mentioned in the review, where the six possible combinations are equally likely. A second option would be to link the probability of tiles coming up to the number of those colour tiles remaining on the board. I wonder if this option would result in a different style of gameplay. Have you tried it tony?
How does the bonus system work? Do I have to play 20 games to unlock the bonuis, or do I need to reach certain scores?
Tom, the random tile selector counts all the non-empty tiles currently on the board and then picks 2 from that list randomly. It should mean that if no tile A exist (suppose you removed all of those), it wont be offered either. Also if board is covered with mostly tile B, chance that tile B is selected in pair will increase. The random selector does not look what type is other tile in random pair.
sijapu17, you need to reach certain score for 20 times to unlock bonus.
I would like to amend my assessment of the game. It is like a lover who constantly spurns you, yet without whom you cannot survive. And so you find yourself crawling back, over and over, just to have this lover laugh and spit in your face once again.
I need help.
I'm addicted, can you PLEASE turn this into an app for the iphone??
I like the pictures!!! It's a great incentive to keep coming back.
Having achieved a low score of 0, I find this a little random. Is this one of those games that is designed to teach you a deeper lesson?
Can you PLEASE turn this into an iphone app? I'm addicted!!
You've got me hooked. And I've got high score now. wheeeee!
I love playing Pariboro. Please tell me how I can play it on the Wii? I can on the PS3 can't always get my son off of it and have to use the Wii. There are alot of other games want to know if where or how to play on the Wii. Help-Need To Play- Going Crazy ! Thanks Guys!
Please be patient with me I'm PC challenged! I'm not sure how to post my question on how can I play Pariboro and other games on the Wii? Also does anyone know how to configure a keyboard to use the space and arrow keys for flash games on the PS3? Thanks, TheMommy
I am so glad I found this site, the games are great and the instructions are spot on. Thanks
Hi TheMommy
I'm glad you found us, too. :)
As for playing games on the Wii, unfortunately the Wii browser doesn't have a version of Flash that will run many of the latest Flash games of today. So playing Pariboro is not yet possible on the Wii.
And I have no idea how to configure anything on a PS3. Sorry.
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