Golden Stripe

Golden Stripe - a tile-clearing puzzle played on a board of eight columns and ten rows filled with themed symbols: golden coins, paws, ingots, lanterns, pavilions, medallions and flowers. A tap on any group of three or more identical symbols that touch each other side by side removes the whole group, the tiles above fall down into the freed cells, and columns that become empty close up towards the left edge of the board. Points grow with the size of the cleared group, so a group of five gives far more than a group of three, and clearing the board completely adds a large extra amount to the total. The round ends as soon as no group of three identical neighbours is left, and a final panel then shows the points of that round next to the best result kept on the device. Difficulty is chosen before a new round and changes how many symbol types are dealt onto the board - five, six or seven - which makes matching groups harder to spot at the higher settings. The settings panel also shows the best result with a control that clears it, a switch for screen effects such as the burst animation and the short shake on large groups, and a control that clears the stored progress. A separate panel lists six goals tied to real events of play: the first finished round, ten finished rounds, a total of one thousand and of five thousand points in a single round, one group of seven symbols and a fully cleared board, and each line stays dim until its condition is met. The rules panel describes the same flow in a few short lines. The best result, the counters behind the goals and both settings are stored on the device and survive a restart, the whole game runs in portrait, and no sound is used anywhere.