The World Cup: along with the Olympics, it’s one of the rare sporting occasions that finds the US remembering that the rest of the world exists, even if the land of the free rousing itself from its introverted slumber often only serves to reinforce the rest of the world’s stereotypes about it.
Of course, not all Americans are like Sir Charles or the TV reporter who made the news earlier this week for proclaiming proudly that she “doesn’t know the first thing about [the USA’s round-of-32 opponent] Bosnia [and Herzegovina], and doesn’t want to know.” So if you’re one of the “good ones”—and/or you’re just a national flag nerd with time to kill—here’s a chance to prove it: a surprisingly addictive daily online puzzle game called Flagdoku, which involves flaunting your knowledge of national flags to the world (well, OK, to a small corner of the internet, but we all have to start somewhere).
Flagdoku presents as a three-by-three grid, with each column and row providing one of the two criteria that the flag in a given cell needs to fit. Here’s a semi-completed grid from today’s puzzle to demonstrate, and yes, I’m showing off, too:
The top left box requires a flag from Europe whose first band is blue: France. The middle box wants a flag with vertical bands, with the middle band being white: Ireland fits the bill. And the bottom left wants a flag with only bands (no crests etc), with the last one being red: Russia. You’ll notice that France is highlighted in yellow; that’s because it’s the Flag of the Day, which means that it would be a valid answer for any of the nine boxes.
This puzzle is fairly easy, but others are significantly more difficult. Take this head-scratcher from a few days ago: off the top of your head, can you think of three flags that fit these criteria: each includes star(s), and the three flags feature the color combinations black and red, black and yellow, and black and green, respectively? And if you’re really good, can you name the country that satisfies all these criteria? (Answer below, if you want it.)
Like all the best examples of these sorts of five-minutes-to-kill puzzle games—and god knows there are gazillion to choose from these days—Flagdoku is a) easy to understand and b) designed to tickle a specific part of your ego. Of course I know national flags! Of course I can find a five-letter word in five attempts! Of course I can find my way around this silly little maze and… dear god, what am I even doing on LinkedIn?
The game’s creators are clearly all-in on carving themselves a piece of the online puzzle pie, and they’re also pushing multiple other games, including a national flag-themed take on the Connections genre, a couple of variations on the Flagdoku format featuring soccer players and songs, etc. None of these quite hit the same mark as Flagdoku, though. There are just too many different ways flags can be grouped for the whole Connections idea to work, and the soccer player sudoku is too easy if you’re a fan (and impossible if you’re not), and so on.
Flagdoku hits the mark pretty much perfectly, though, so if you have five minutes to spare…
The answer: Papua New Guinea, Angola and Libya is one combination that’ll get it done. And the flag that ticks all the boxes: Ghana!
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