MIRAGE (Optical Illusion Game)

MIRAGE is a two-choice game where you pick the objectively correct option while your eyes are being fooled. Ebbinghaus (size), Müller-Lyer (length), simultaneous contrast (darkness), plus count, area and vertical-horizontal illusions appear at random — if your brain loses to the illusion, you're wrong.

There's always a real answer (one really is bigger / longer / darker), but context warps your perception. You're fighting the gap between what you see and what is true. Each round shrinks the real difference, strengthens the illusion and cuts the time limit. It's language-free, so anyone worldwide can compete.

How to play

1. Enter a username and pick MIRAGE
2. Read the question (Which is bigger? longer? …)
3. Compare the two and tap the correct one, ignoring the illusion
4. Correct answers advance you. Two lives, answer within the time limit

Difficulty

Each round shrinks the real difference from 30% down to 3.5%, strengthens the illusion, and cuts the timer from 4.2s to 1.8s. Obvious at first, but late rounds pit illusion against fact until intuition fails.

Real play data

Aggregated from 114 play records stored on MIKIRI's own servers (as of 2026-10-04; each completed run counts once, so repeat plays by the same person are included; flagged runs excluded). The sample is still small, so read this as where runs tend to stop rather than a settled trend.

The median is ROUND 11. Only 40% of runs get past ROUND 13 (advanced).

See distributions for every mode →

These figures aggregate in-game records measured in browsers worldwide. They are not medical or academic measurements.

Tips

• Distrust your first impression — illusions are built to look wrong at a glance
• For size/length, line up the edges directly and ignore the surrounding decoration
• For darkness, flick your gaze back and forth; staring lets your eyes adapt and hides the difference

What MIRAGE actually tests

MIRAGE deliberately builds situations where the eye goes wrong, then asks what is actually there. Background motion, local contrast and apparent movement all pull against the correct answer.

Illusions do not go away once you know about them — you still see them. So the question here is not whether you can avoid being fooled, but whether you have a procedure for checking your first impression.

Where people get stuck

Judging the whole scene. Contrast illusions are strongest when you take in a wide area. Narrowing to just the two things you are comparing can reveal the difference.

Being dragged by the background. When the background moves, stationary objects appear to move too. Anchor your judgement to the screen edge.

Overthinking. Lives are limited: banking the next clear answer beats grinding on one you are unsure about.

FAQ

Q. Is MIRAGE free?

A. Completely free, no signup, plays in any browser.

Q. Which illusions appear?

A. Six at random: size (Ebbinghaus), length (Müller-Lyer), darkness (simultaneous contrast), count, area, and vertical-horizontal.

Q. Is there really a correct answer?

A. Yes — every question has one objective answer. The illusion only makes it hard to see.

Q. What counts as good?

A. Late rounds narrow the real gap to a few percent. Reaching round 10+ means eyes that resist illusions well.

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