Shadow Matching Game: Shadow Show
A shadow appears on a little theater screen. Somewhere in the crowd, one Oopsie has exactly that shape. Find it. Shadow Show is a world of Oopsies, a free seek-and-find game, and you can play two of its levels right here.
Drag to move the flashlight 0:00 Free, nothing to download. Tap Find to start: the timer runs, and a wrong Oopsie adds 10 seconds, like in the app.
How the shadow matching game works
Before each level, the start screen shows a dark shape: the shadow of the Oopsie you're looking for. Tap Find and the crowd appears, in full color. Look at the outline only: a pointy hat, a tuft of hair, two round ears, an antenna. The colors and faces won't help you here.
- Level 1 keeps it easy: a few Oopsies, and every other shadow is clearly different.
- The next levels add more Oopsies, shadows that look closer, and Oopsies that lean to the side.
- Level 5 flips the rule. Now the whole scene is shadows, and the start screen shows the Oopsie in color. You have to find its shadow. Tap a shadow and it shows who it really was.
- A wrong tap adds 10 seconds to the timer. There's no game over: every level ends with an Oopsie saved.
Only Oopsies with a shadow you can recognize play in this world. Square, plain outlines were left out, so finding the right one is never a coin toss.
What Shadow Show trains
Matching a colored picture to its shadow means recognizing a shape without the details that usually help: color, eyes, the smile. Occupational therapists call this form constancy, knowing a shape is the same even when it looks different. The shadow scene of level 5 works the other way around, and asks kids to tell apart shapes that are all the same dark color: that's visual discrimination.
It's the same skill as the shadow matching worksheets used in preschool, except that the shapes are characters, the crowd changes every time, and there's a card to win at the end.
- Main skill Form constancy
- Also Visual discrimination
- All skills Visual skills, explained
Tips for parents
- Trace the outline with a finger first. Before tapping Find, ask your child to describe the shadow: "It has a pointy bit on top." Naming the shape makes it easier to spot.
- Look at the top of the heads. Hats, hair and antennas make most of the difference between two shadows. The Oopsies are drawn so that the one in front never hides the head of the one behind.
- Play it for real, too. A desk lamp and a few toys make a shadow theater: one person picks a toy in secret, the others guess from its shadow on the wall.
- Too fast, too stressful? The stopwatch button on the app's home screen hides the timer and the +10 s.
The Shadow Show cards
Each level of Shadow Show frees one Oopsie, and every Oopsie you free becomes a collector card in the app. Here are the cards of this world, the same as in the game. Point at a card, or drag it, to tilt it.
Good to know
- Free, for real. No ads, no in-app purchases, nothing to unlock with money.
- Rated 4+ on the App Store. Simple enough for preschoolers, tricky enough for grown-ups in later levels.
- iPhone, iPad, Mac (M1 or later) and Apple Vision Pro.
- Works in airplane mode. Levels play offline; progress and leaderboard times sync when you're back online.
- Rather no timer? The stopwatch button on the app's home screen hides the timer and the "+10 s" for a wrong Oopsie.
More worlds to play
Every world in Oopsies bends the rules a different way. Each one has a level you can play right here.
- Frosti Floops Seek and find game
- Starry Zoooooop Space seek and find game
- Odd Ones Odd one out game
- Lights Out Flashlight hidden object game
- Tiny Titans Big and small game
- Double Trouble Find the same game
- Peekaboo Guess the picture game
- Family Reunion Sorting game
- Foggy Window Wipe to reveal game
- Whoosh! Moving objects game
- Bubble Pop Bubble pop game
All the worlds on one page: Oopsies games. Looking for something calmer or for younger kids? See games for preschoolers and games with no ads.
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