Norinori
Shade two per region so every shaded cell forms a domino.
How to play Norinori
The grid is split into bold outlined regions. Your job is to shade exactly two cells inside every region. On top of that, each shaded cell must be joined to exactly one other shaded cell, so all the shaded cells break down cleanly into dominoes of two. A domino can straddle the border between two regions, so the two shaded cells of a region do not have to be next to each other. Click a cell to cycle it: empty → shaded → a dot you place to mark a cell as “keep empty” → empty again (right-click jumps straight to the dot). A shaded cell with the wrong number of shaded neighbours is highlighted so you can spot mistakes. Toggle that aid with the Errors button. Stuck? Hint reveals one correct cell, up to three times per puzzle. Race your best time.
Two per region, always in pairs
Norinori pulls in two directions at once, and holding both in mind is the whole game. Rule one: shade exactly two cells inside every bold region. Rule two: every shaded cell on the board must pair with exactly one other shaded cell as a domino, a single horizontal or vertical pair. The twist that makes it interesting is that a domino can straddle the border between two regions, so a region's two shaded cells don't have to be next to each other. One might pair with a neighbor across the line while the other pairs with a different region entirely.
How to find the shaded cells
Work from regions pinned down by shape. A region only two cells big must have both of them shaded, and that pair immediately becomes a domino, which then tells you the cells around it can't be shaded, because a shaded cell gets exactly one shaded partner. Thin regions and cells wedged in corners give up their answers fast. Click a cell to cycle it: empty, then shaded, then a dot that marks it as keep-empty, then back to empty; right-click jumps straight to the dot. Lean on the error aid while you learn: any shaded cell with the wrong number of shaded neighbors gets highlighted, and you can toggle the aid with the Errors button. Hint reveals one correct cell up to three times per puzzle, and the board tracks your best time, so a puzzle you know becomes a race.
A worked corner
Watch how one small region cracks a whole corner. Suppose the top-left region is just two cells side by side. Both must be shaded, and since they touch, they pair with each other. That domino is now complete, so every other cell touching it must stay empty; a shaded cell there would hand one of the pair a second partner, which is illegal. Dot those neighbors. Now say the region to the right had four cells, and two of them just got dotted. It still owes two shaded cells, and only two candidates remain, so both shade. If they happen to touch, they form their own domino and the ripple spreads again. If they don't touch, each must reach across a border for its partner, and that forces cells in the next region over. One two-cell region can settle a quarter of a small board this way, which is why the opening move in Norinori is always the same: hunt the tiny regions first.
Counting tricks and common slips
A little arithmetic keeps you honest. Every region contributes exactly two shaded cells, so a puzzle with ten regions has exactly twenty shaded cells arranged in exactly ten dominoes. If you've placed nine dominoes and two regions still look empty, something upstream is wrong. Remember too that three shaded cells can never stand in a row, because the middle one would have two partners. The moment any two shaded cells touch, ring the whole pair with dots. Doing that immediately, every time, is the single habit that separates clean solves from tangled ones. The common slips are all versions of forgetting that the two rules pull apart: assuming a region's pair must sit together (it doesn't), assuming a domino must stay inside one region (it needn't), and shading a third cell in a region because it looks balanced (it never is). When the error aid flags a cell, resist the urge to fix that cell itself; the real mistake is often two moves back.
A Nikoli shading puzzle
Norinori comes from Nikoli, the Tokyo publisher whose magazine, Puzzle Communication Nikoli, has been feeding Japan hand-made logic puzzles since 1980. This is the company that found, named and popularised Sudoku, and its late founder Maki Kaji was called the godfather of Sudoku for it; the firm itself is named after a racehorse that won big the year the magazine launched. Norinori's own name is usually explained as a play on nori, the pressed sheets of seaweed the black dominoes resemble scattered across the grid. Its charm is how two plain constraints, two per region and everything in dominoes, knot together into something that needs real planning. There are no number clues at all; the regions themselves carry every bit of the information you need.
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Norinori: frequently asked questions
How many cells do I shade per region?
Exactly two in every region: never one, never three. Getting the count right in each region is the core of the puzzle.
What is the domino rule?
Every shaded cell must touch exactly one other shaded cell orthogonally, so shaded cells always come in connected pairs (dominoes). A shaded cell touching zero or two other shaded cells is illegal.
Can a domino cross a region border?
Yes. A domino may span two different regions, so a region’s two shaded cells are sometimes each half of a different cross-border domino.
Is every level solvable by logic?
Yes. Every board is generated from a real domino solution, so a valid answer always exists: you shade until both rules hold across the whole grid, no guessing required.
How many cells do I shade per region?
Exactly two, no more and no less, in every bold region on the grid. That count never changes, whatever size or shape the region happens to be.
Do a region's two shaded cells have to touch?
No. Each shaded cell only needs one shaded partner, and a domino can cross the border into a neighboring region, so the two cells of one region can sit apart.
Can three shaded cells ever stand in a row?
No. Every shaded cell must have exactly one shaded neighbor, and the middle cell of a row of three would have two. Shaded cells always come in clean pairs, so the instant two touch, everything around that pair is empty.
How do I mark a cell I know stays empty?
Cycle it to a dot by clicking through empty and shaded, or right-click to jump straight to the dot. The dot is just a reminder and doesn't affect the solution.
What does the Errors button do?
It highlights shaded cells that have the wrong number of shaded neighbors, flagging any cell with no partner or with too many. Toggle it off once you want a clean board.
How many hints can I use?
Hint reveals one correct cell up to three times per puzzle, so save it for the spots where you're genuinely stuck rather than spending it early.
Is Norinori free to play?
Yes. Norinori is completely free on Inkplay, with no download, no sign-up, and no in-game purchases. Open the page and play instantly on desktop or mobile.
Can I play Norinori unblocked?
Yes. Norinori runs entirely in your browser with no download, install, or plugins, so it loads instantly and keeps working even on school or work networks where bigger game sites get blocked.
More games to play
In the mood for more? Try 2048, Memory Match, Lights Out, Minesweeper, or browse all puzzle games and the full games list on Inkplay. Norinori also appears in Logic Puzzles.