Guide
Corner Match: plan your route, skip the decoys, keep your item
Items are picked up the moment you step on them and delivered the moment you stand next to a corner. How that shapes your route, what blockers and power-ups do, and how Kids mode differs.
Corner Match is played in a small circus ring: an 11×11 grid with a slot in each of the four corners. Each corner shows the item it wants (a ball, a pie, a hoop, and in later levels a banana, a horn or a unicycle). You walk the grid with the on-screen arrows (or the arrow keys / WASD on a keyboard), pick items up from the floor and bring each one to the corner that wants it before the timer runs out. You can play it in your browser.
The two automatic moves
Nothing needs a button press except walking, and that is the whole trick of the game:
- Pick up happens as soon as you step on an item with empty hands. You carry one item at a time.
- Delivery happens as soon as you step on one of the three cells next to a corner while carrying something.
So your route matters more than your speed. With empty hands, walk around items no corner wants. With an item in hand, do not brush past the wrong corner on the way.
Scoring
- Right corner: +100, and that corner then asks for a different item.
- Wrong corner: −35, and you lose the item.
- Item stolen by a blocker: −25.
The level ends the moment you reach its target score, so a clean run is also a short one. There is no way to put an item down, so an unwanted item costs you points one way or another. That is why avoiding it in the first place is the best habit.
Decoys
As the levels go on, more of the floor is taken by decoys: items no corner wants right now. Before you set off, look at all four corners, find the nearest item that matches one of them, and plan a path that does not cross anything else.
Blockers
Blockers show up from level 9. Every second or so they take a step towards you. They can only steal while you are carrying something, and after a steal they need about two seconds before they can do it again. Pick up items on the far side of the blocker, and deliver to the corner it is not standing near.
Power-ups
A power-up may appear on the floor every 14 seconds; walk onto it to use it. Each lasts 9 seconds.
- Speed boost: you move about twice as fast.
- Item magnet: with empty hands, you grab the nearest item within about two cells without walking onto it.
- Blocker shield: blockers cannot steal from you.
The magnet is the one to plan around: it can also pull in a decoy, so use it when the nearest item is the one you want.
Levels and Kids mode
Normal mode has 170 levels; each one opens after you clear the previous one. The first 12 are short (45 seconds to about two minutes) and ask for 1 to 5 correct deliveries, adding one item type every two levels. Later levels give two and a half to six minutes and higher targets, and every tenth level adds an extra blocker.
Kids mode has 100 levels with only the ball, the pie and the hoop, more time, lower targets after the first 12 levels, and fewer or no blockers. It is a good way for younger players to learn the "look at the corner first" habit.
More on the Corner Match page, or step into the ring.
