4Stack #17 — answers & breakdown
Thursday, July 30, 2026
A Nintendo board where the purple group is built entirely out of things the other groups also have a claim to.
The sixteen cards in this puzzle were: Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Paper Mario, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Super Metroid, Fusion, Dread, Prime, Navi, Cappy, Tails, Clank.
The four stacks
Mario spin-offs
Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Paper Mario
Mario spin-offs — the sports and party entries rather than the platformers. Paper Mario is the RPG line and the odd one structurally.
3D Zelda games
Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword
The 3D Zelda games that follow Ocarina of Time's template, before Breath of the Wild threw it out.
Metroid games
Super Metroid, Fusion, Dread, Prime
Metroid. Prime is the first-person outlier and the one that convinced everyone a Texas studio could handle a Japanese icon.
Video game sidekicks
Navi, Cappy, Tails, Clank
Sidekicks — and here is the trick. Navi belongs to Zelda and Cappy to Mario, both of which already have groups above. Tails and Clank are the two with no other home on the board, and they are what resolve it.
Want to try it yourself? Play puzzle #17 — archive plays don't affect your streak. Or jump into today's puzzle.