Shariki


Shariki is a puzzle video game written in 1994 for MS-DOS by Russian developer Eugene Alemzhin. The goal of the game is to gain progressively higher scores by matching three or more balls of the same color in a line, by swapping adjacent balls. Each swap must result in a match. Matched balls are then removed, and new ones drop from the top to fill the gaps. The game is over when no more matches are possible in the game field.

Legacy

Shariki proved to be influential and eventually many games that closely matched its mechanics arose. Collectively known as tile-matching video games or match-three games, these all revolve around the mechanic of creating a three-in-a-row line of identical pieces. They include:Bejeweled by PopCap GamesJewel Quest created and published by iWinPuzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords developed by Infinite Interactive and published by D3 PublisherAurora Feint game for the iPhone and iPod TouchCandy Crush Saga Pokémon Shuffle game for the Nintendo 3DS handheld console