Number Match Game: Frozen on Level 15 With Zero Snowfalls Left
A penguin on an ice floe, ten islands of pairs and a Frozen! screen I now know by heart. Polarzinho takes Tenguin Number Match for a spin.
By Polarzinho ·
Tenguin Number Match is a number match game that opens in a browser tab. You tap two tiles that show the same number or add up to 10, they vanish, and you keep going until the board is empty. A penguin teaches you the rules, a map of ten islands waits, and on level 15 a screen that said Frozen! showed me what a Snowfall is really worth.
Tenguin comes from Polar Games and I am the studio's panda mascot, so yes, I am biased. I still did the homework: the lesson, levels 1 to 14, an island boss and its chest, the daily challenge and Relax mode. Level 15 beat me twice, hence the opinions.
Tenguin Number Match: a number match game with a penguin host
The first screen is a sleeping penguin on an ice floe and a label: "Tap to wake Tenguin up". I tapped. Home has a big orange Play button with your current level, a blue Daily challenge button with today's date, a purple Relax mode button promising "No stars, no rush", and small tiles for the daily gift and the closet. You start with 300 coins.
PolarzinhoA penguin in a party hat is welcoming me like I just came home from war. I have never been so loved by an animal that is technically a bird.
Each island I reached has its own backdrop: an igloo at sunset on the first, a wooden pier with leaping fish on the second. Underneath sits a calm number-pair puzzle with no timer on screen and no lives.
How to play this number match game: the first lesson
Your first level is a lesson. Tenguin walks you through it in text bubbles while a white glove points at tiles. The board has 24 tiles in nine columns, and the bubbles go like this:
- "Equal numbers make a pair. Tap both 3s!"
- "4 + 6 = 10. Numbers that add up to 10 pair too!"
- "A pair can be one above the other." Diagonals count as well.
- "Empty spaces in between don't get in the way."
- "The end of a row continues at the start of the next."
- "Clear a whole row and it slides away: Avalanche!"
- "Out of pairs? Tap Snowfall!"
PolarzinhoTap both 3s. Easy. I am a panda who once lost an argument to a vending machine, and I got this one right on the first try.
In short, two tiles can meet side by side, above and below, on a diagonal, across empty cells, or from the end of a row to the start of the next. Tenguin's belly shows the number of the tile you picked.
Snowfall: the refill that copies the whole board
Snowfall answers "no pairs left", and the lesson says it best: "Snowfall copies every number left to the bottom." Ten tiles became twenty, laid out after the last tile in reading order. It does not add a few random numbers. It doubles whatever is still standing.
PolarzinhoTen became twenty. That is also what my unread messages do while I nap, and nobody gives me an Undo for those.
To see how big that is, I pressed it at the start of a level 15 attempt: 33 tiles became 66, and a second press made 132. The number on its button is your stock: 3 in the lesson, 8 on levels 2 to 5, 6 on levels 6 to 10, and 4 on island two and in the daily challenge.
It has two side effects. It resets your streak: I had ×2 with the bar half full, pressed it and dropped to ×1 with an empty bar. And Undo takes it back, with the numbers, the stock and the ×2 all returning.
Then come the stars. The little stars in the top bar carry a tooltip: "Stars still in play. Each Snowfall you need can cost one." In the boss level I had 6 Snowfalls: the first four were free, the fifth greyed out the third star and the sixth greyed out another. In the daily challenge I had 4, and the third one cost a star.
Streaks, Avalanches and coins: how scoring works
Every pair builds a streak. The tooltip says "Quick pairs build your streak: points ×2 up to ×5 (Aurora)", and it is more relaxed than it looks: I waited twelve seconds between pairs and the bar did not drain. It fills pair by pair, about a quarter at a time, then the multiplier steps up with banners like "Streak ×3", "Streak ×4" and, at the top, "Aurora ×5". A pair paid +10 at ×1 and +50 at ×5.
PolarzinhoSunglasses. He put on sunglasses. I have been cool for about four seconds in my whole life, and none of it was this cool.
Clearing a row is the other big payoff. The row slides away, the board gets shorter and the banner says "Avalanche!", or "Double Avalanche!" when two go at once. Bonus banners (Streak ×3, Avalanche!, "8 cleared!") came with jumps of 200 to 350 points on pairs that had been worth +10 or +20 a moment before.
Coins come from level rewards (+80 for three stars, +60 for two, +40 when I replayed the boss) and from tiles with a tiny orange fish: I cleared one and got 10.
Number match tips I verified by losing
Read the "cleared!" banner
When a number is gone, a banner says so: "8 cleared!" popped up in my test and two 2s were left. A 2 pairs with another 2 or an 8, so with no 8s around those two had to find each other.
Finish rows
An Avalanche pair paid +216 on a board where ordinary pairs paid +10 to +24, and the rows slide up, so far tiles end up closer.
Hold the Snowfall until the pairs run out
It resets the streak, doubles the board and every one past the free ones costs a star. I spent it early out of stubbornness, and I paid.
Keep Hint for last
A Hint takes the third star out of play, and with an empty stock it costs 90 coins.
Boosters: Hint, Undo, Peck and Wild
Five buttons sit under the board and three of them unlock as you climb, each with a "New booster!" pop-up and a gift of two.
- Hint (key H): two tiles glow. In the levels I tested, the first one I used took the third star out of play.
- Undo (level 3, key Z): "Undo takes back your last move. One free undo every level." After the free one it spends your stock, then 60 coins.
- Peck (level 8): "Tenguin pecks away any tile you choose." A banner asks you to tap the tile. It took the third star too, and a Hint right after it took nothing more.
- Wild (level 12): "turns a tile into a flake that pairs with any number." I paired one with a 9 and both vanished, and the third star went grey.
Snowfall answers to Space or Enter, and Esc pauses. Since the first Hint, Peck or Wild takes a star, I treat them as an emergency parachute.
The island map, the boss level and its chest
Levels live on a map of ten islands, ten levels each, counting up to 100. They run from Frozen Numbers Isle to Polar Crown Castle, with Leaping Fish Bay and Aurora Fjord along the way. Each island shows how many of its 30 stars you hold. Mine said 28 after ten levels: level 2 and the boss gave me two stars each.
PolarzinhoTwenty-eight of thirty. Two missing stars. I can see them on the map from here, and they are looking back.
Level 10 is the boss, and it plays like any other level: 26 tiles and 6 Snowfalls. I used five, got two stars and +60 coins, and a "Chapter 1 chest" popped up with an Open button, which I never pressed because I closed the game. The replay, with three Snowfalls, gave three stars and the chest again. Prize: +190 coins, one Hint, one Undo and one Peck.
PolarzinhoA chest with a hint, an undo and a peck. Finally someone understands that I need help in three different ways.
On the map, island two waited with confetti and a beam of light over level 11, and there the boards stop being tidy rectangles: the top row had three tiles and there were gaps inside. Tap any stop to replay it.
The closet: scarves, hats, colors and effects
Customize has four tabs: seven scarves, seven hats, six body colors and seven effects. Prices run from 150 to 600 coins, with a "Buy & wear" button. I bought Mint Stripes, Party Cone and Sunny Dots. Three items wear a padlock with a counter instead of a price: 1/7, 1/14 and 1/21. The first level even gifted an effect: "New look: Aurora Halo!"
Daily challenge, missions and Relax mode
The Daily challenge shows a calendar and a "Monthly trophy": "Get every star this month to win the October trophy." My board was four rows tall with 4 Snowfalls. I used 3, got two stars and +60 coins. Each day also brings three missions: win 3 levels (60 coins), win a level without Snowfall (80) and reach Streak ×3 (50).
Relax mode is the gentle cousin. The title bar says "Relax", the Snowfall button shows an infinity sign, there are no stars, and a cleared board shows "Board cleared!" with +15 coins and a Next board button.
PolarzinhoNo stars, no timer, infinite Snowfalls. This is where I go when a Frozen! screen has hurt my feelings.
My Tenguin diary: easy levels and one frozen panda
Levels 1 to 9 were a sleigh ride: three stars nearly every time, with a Snowfall or two spent on a lonely last tile. The boss cost me five of six. Island two arrived with four per level, and level 15 is where I met my maker. Twice I used my four Snowfalls, ran out of pairs, and the game said the thing I now see in my sleep: "Frozen!", "No pairs and no Snowfall left", and a menu with one more Snowfall for 250 coins, Undo or Try again.
My friend Tally, who counts everything including bathroom tiles, watched me and said: "You are one tile short of a plan." She was right.
Who Tenguin is for, and what slowed me down
If you like quiet puzzles you can drop into for a few minutes, you will be happy here. Settings offer Calm mode, Big tiles, High contrast (black digits on white tiles) and Classic colors (another digit palette), and the game comes in 14 languages.
- The Snowfall stock shrinks from 8 to 6 to 4 as you climb, so island two feels much tighter.
- The first Hint, Peck or Wild you use takes your third star, and I only noticed by watching the star bar.
- Spend your coins on hats first and the Frozen! screen has no rescue for you.
FAQ
What counts as a pair in Tenguin?
Two tiles with the same number, or two that add up to 10, like 4 and 6. They can touch, sit on a diagonal, have only empty cells between them, or wrap from the end of a row to the next.
Does Tenguin run in the browser?
Yes. I opened the page and the penguin was asleep on the first screen. I never needed an account.
How do I get three stars?
Keep your stars in play: the first Hint, Peck or Wild I used took the third star, and Snowfall costs stars after the free ones (the fifth in the boss level, the third in the daily challenge).
What does Snowfall do?
It copies every number left on the board and adds the copies at the bottom. Undo takes it back.
Is there a mode without pressure?
Relax mode: no stars, an infinite Snowfall and a "Board cleared!" screen at the end.
Tenguin Number Match pros and cons
Ready to make ten?
Tenguin Number Match is on Polar Games, ready in your browser. Wake the penguin, finish the lesson, save your Snowfalls, and if the board ever says Frozen!, tell Tenguin I said hello.