1
Flip and match
Every level is a brand new board with its own shape, and each one is bigger and trickier than the last. How far can your memory take you?
Now available for the NES
Dr. Atoz has fired up his amazing letter machine, and Alphy is hungry for letters!
A brand-new 8-bit game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Flip the cubes, find the pairs, spell the words, and keep your letters out of Alphy's mouth.
DRM-free .nes ROM · Instant download
Plays on a real NES with a flash cartridge, and in any NES emulator. Sega Genesis, PC and Mac versions coming soon.
A brand-new 8-bit game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Flip the cubes, find the pairs, spell the words, and keep your letters out of Alphy's mouth.
How to play
Flip the cubes. Find the pairs. Win the letters! In Alpha Pairs, every matching pair you find drops a letter onto your rack. Use those letters to spell words and rack up big points!
2
Spell and score
Spell words from the letters on your rack and press PLAY. Longer words and rare letters score more points. Match pairs without a miss to build your streak all the way up to 20X!
3
Don't feed Alphy
But watch out for Alphy! Your rack only holds six letters. Win one more and Alphy gobbles up your oldest letter. Spell fast and keep your letters out of his mouth!
Feed the meter
Keep an eye on your energy meter. It drains when you take too long, when you guess a word that isn't real, and when you forget a cube you've already seen. Spell words and clear boards to fill it back up. If it runs dry, it's GAME OVER!
02
Specials
Earn tokens and spend them on powerful specials! REVEAL shows you the whole board for a few seconds. BOMB deals a brand new board when you're stuck. SUGGEST finds the best word your rack can spell. Use them wisely!
03 · BONUS ROUND
WORD
WORD
RUSH
60 seconds. Every letter counts.
Clear five boards to unlock the WORD RUSH bonus round! You have 60 seconds to spell as many words as you can while new letters keep coming. Every word earns you tokens for the road ahead!
A new board every level
Nearly 30,000 words to discover! A new board shape every level! Hand-drawn pixel art, an original soundtrack, a built-in tutorial, and a high score table that saves your best runs!
05
Starring
DR. ATOZ
The inventor of the amazing letter machine. He walks you onto the stage, cheers on every run and reads out your summary at the end.
ALPHY
Small, orange and always hungry. Fill your rack and he gobbles up your oldest letter. Leave him alone and he'll start showing off.
06
Screenshots
The instruction booklet
Every copy comes with a 24-page instruction booklet, made the way the classics were: the story, the controls, every rule, Dr. Atoz's hints and a high score log to fill in. Turn the pages right here.
Drag a corner to turn the pageIncluded with the game as a PDF
08
Inside the ROM
Alpha Pairs is a real NES game, written in 6502 assembly and tested on original hardware. Buy it once and keep it: a DRM-free ROM you can put on a flash cartridge or play in your favorite emulator.
- System
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- ROM
- MMC3 mapper · 512 KB
- Saving
- Battery-backed high score table
- Dictionary
- 29,872 words, all in the ROM
- Music
- Original chiptune soundtrack
- Players
- 1 player, standard controller
- Extras
- Built-in tutorial
- Genre
- Puzzle, Word Game
- Language
- English
- Plays on
- NES with a flash cartridge (tested on EverDrive N8 Pro), and emulators such as Mesen, FCEUX and OpenEmu
- You get
- The .nes ROM, DRM-free, and the instruction booklet (PDF)
Credits
GAME DESIGNJERRY BRACE
TASHA VACH
TASHA VACH
PROGRAMMINGJERRY BRACE
GRAPHICSJERRY BRACE
ANDERSON DA SILVA
DAVID FILUS
ANDERSON DA SILVA
DAVID FILUS
MUSICNICOLE MARIE T
QA / TESTINGJASON BRACE
TASHA VACH
TASHA VACH
Coming soon · 16-BIT
Wishlist the PC and Mac version on Steam
Alpha Pairs is coming to the Sega Genesis
Next up: a 16-bit edition with a widescreen stage, bigger sprites and richer colors. The Sega Genesis version is in development now, with PC and Mac versions to follow.
Until then, follow along for development updates:
Out now on the NES
Match the pairs. Spell the words. Feed the meter. Just don't feed Alphy.
Press kit For press and creators: the trailer, art, fact sheet and review copies.