Home » Apps with tag 'puzzler'
Best iOS games to help you chill out after your GCSE results
We know it's been a hell of a stressful period with exam after exam to go through and (what feels like) the world resting on your shoulders, but breathe! GSCE results day is here at last and whatever you got and however happy you are with it, at least you don't have to wonder anymore. Of course it sucks if you didn't get the results you wanted, but it's not the end of the world. Whatever way you're feeling about them today, here are some brilliant mobile games to help you mellow the hell out. If you're not getting your GCSE results but are feeling particularly stressed at the moment, this one's for you too. Flower - download for £4.99/$4.99 Off the bat I'll say this is a game that…
flowerBreak apart increasingly complex jigsaw grids in relaxing puzzler Unpuzzle
Reminiscent of games like Hook and the recent Up Left Out, Unpuzzle takes the block-sliding puzzler and challenges you to unmake each mess of blocks while managing a number of different mechanics. Unpuzzle starts simply, asking you only to slingshot blocks off the main jigsaw structure. The initial rules means you can’t release blocks if their path is...blocked or if they‘re connected to more than one piece. But Unpuzzle quickily begins introducing new mechanics that build upon that early ruleset. Soon you’re dealing with blocks that require a certain amount of pieces to be removed before you can interact with them, blocks that can only slide in certain directions, bloc…
Solve tricky logic puzzles in The Sequence 2, releasing on iOS next month
The Sequence 2 is an abstract logic-based puzzler in the vein of games like SpaceChem and Perfect Paths, challenging you to construct elaborite Rube Goldberg-esque mechanisms that work in harmony to transport inputs to a waiting output. Your goal is simple: manuever a red circles across the hexagonal grid to an exit tile. But that's not so easy when you need to do so by synchronizing numerous nodes to work together to move those circles through the tight map, not just once but in repeatable cycles that don't stall mid-loop. The nodes you place have various functions, from pushing or pulling circles to rotating their position. Combining those functions allow you to methodically…
Squirgle turns arithmetic into a hectic and hypnotic fast-paced puzzle game
When you think of a math puzzler, you're probably thinking of game revolving around adding, substracting, multiplying, or maybe constructing geometric shaoes. Squirgle's approach is both familiar and abstract: combining arithemtic with a kaleidoscopic aesthetic, number bases, color matching, and a ticking clock. Squirgle looks complex at the first glance - and it does have a number of mechanics to manage - but it's simpler to imagine the shapes along the bottoms of its screen instead as numbers. A point equals 1, a line has two points and so equals 2, a triangle has three points and equals 3, and so on until looping back to the point, depending on the number base you're playing with. Your…
Match cheese and smiling shapes in quirky colorful puzzler Dr Meep [Review]
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Hidden Gem of the Week: Blockwick 2
Blockwick 2 is a clever puzzler that takes the familiar block-sliding gameplay and wrings myriad mechanics and clever challenges from that design. Every stage in Blockick presents the same challenge: manuever like-colored blocks around tight levels so they all connect in a single group. That task might be simple, perhaps even solvable through trial and error, but it's the additional objectives and mechanics that elevate Blockwick 2 to something special. Each stage has special runes hidden on the ground, presenting you with the extra challenge of discovering the specific solution that covers all the markings with the blocks. Those elements alone would make Blockwick 2 a difficult puzzler,…
Hidden Gem of the Week: Puzzlepops!
At a glance, Puzzlepops might be quick to dismiss. It seems much too sweet and charming to be a tricky and challenging puzzle game. But while it may be all familiar concepts and puzzle design, Puzzlepops delivers a bevy of satisfyingly difficult and clever brain-teasers. Along a structure of nodes and path, you need to maneuver candy pieces into the properly colored and sized spots. That last part - size - is crucial, as like candies can combine into larger chunks. On these increasingly claustrophobic grids, where space is a premium and there are different candy types clogging up paths, figuring how and where candies need to be so they can meld never ceases to a challenging aspect o…
Slice shapes with precision in puzzler sequel Ultra Sharp
1Button's history is one of cleverly minimalist puzzle games and challenging arcade games; Ultra Sharp, the sequel to the oriignal Super Sharp, adds another round of physics-based challenges to that roster of titles. Much like its predecessor, Ultra Sharp presents you with dozens of stages constructed from colorful shapes, precisely placed for you to slice apart and have collapse, tumble, and fall in ways that solve puzzles. You may have to cut shapes in the best way so the pieces touch hard-to-reach stars or drop a cube into a specific area, among other objectives, but each level is a test of predicting the domino effect of shapes in motion. SImply planning your slices so shapes fall as…
Make Squares offers a clever twist on classic Tetris, available on iOS and Android
You know how to play Tetris: tetromino pieces falling from above, fitting them together to make rows, and so on. Make Squares takes those familiar pieces and delivers a unique variant that turns your understanding of the pieces and their relationship on its head. As you've probably guessed from the title, Make Squares tasks you with combining pieces into squares, and manipulating your growing central structure to catch falling tetrominoes. Most importantly, instead of rotating pieces, you rotate the larger structure, forcing you to consider orientation and how future pieces will dovetail with different sides. This change turns the familiar feeling of Tetris into a new spatial ch…
Minesweeper Genius combines the logical challenges of Picross and Minesweeper, available on iOS and Android
Minesweeper and Picross (and Picross-inspired games) have more than a few variants on mobile, but Minesweeper Genius blends elements of the two to create a charming and clever puzzle hybrid. Reminiscent of how Swap Sword had you navigating a character through a match-3 grid, Minesweeper Genius turns each stage into a maze of mines to manuver through, guiding broom-wielding genius Aristotle through a gauntlet of science experiments step-by-step. Similar to Picross games, numbers on the rows and colums allow you to logically deduce which tiles are either rigged to blow or safe to walk along; Minesweeper-style markers also provide additional information as the randomly-generated puzzles…
Kontrast turns minimalist drawings into short intriguing puzzles
Kontrast is a short and unusual puzzle game available now on iOS and Android, eschewing traditional design to present you with stylish illustrations and simple challenges focused on playful experimentation. Each of Kontrast's seven stages is a monochrome abstract illustration, moving in a subtle rhythm; a light fixture swings to and fro, cloaking areas in shadow, a geometric constructure rotates and tumbles, among other elements. Your goal is to guide a ball through these odd drawings, but the challenge is figuring out how to actually accomplish that goal; tapping and dragging on parts of each drawing reveals parts that can be moved and manipulated to create a path. Discovering the secret…
Tiny Bubbles turns popping bubbles into a brain-teasing color-matching challenge
At first glance, Tiny Bubbles might seem like a predictable game: bright colors, bubbles to pop, matches to make. But don't be fooled by that cute and colorful presentation; Tiny Bubbles offers cleverly-designed challenges and surprisingly nuanced mechanics, available now on iOS. Built on a foundation of accurate soap-bubble physics, Tiny Bubbles presents you with a number of objectives revolving around careful matches through precise pops. Some stages take you with shrinking bubble structures to fit within a specific areas, others ask you to remove all bubbles from the screen or match a certain number of same-colored bubbles, but all require you to understand the nuance of its simple cen…
Hidden Gem of the Week: Prune
Prune is one of those games that can easily stand alongside titles like Monument Valley, The Room, Framed, as unique puzzle games designed both to be accessible withoit being too easy and to be feel well-suited as an experience on mobile througn clever touch controls. Prune's core concept is an appealing one: grow a tree, lead it to the light and watch its flowers bloom. Swiping on the screen lets you perform the titular action, slicing away branches to steer the growing tree towards the sunlight, within narrow passages, and around obstacles. Prune's simple to grasp design doesn't preclude it from challenge though. Red spheres threaten to infect your tree, powerful winds blend branches, g…
Guide a trio of critters through forest puzzles in Woodways, available on iOS and Android
A duck, fox, and buffalo meet in the forest...that isn't the start of a joke but the concept of new puzzler Woodways, currently offering cutesy yet challenging spatial brainteasers on iOS and Android. Mechanically, Woodways will feel familiar if you've played games like Quell, Yankai's Peak, and other Sokoban-inspired games; here, you manuever an animal trio with swipes, all three moving in sync in an attempt to reach waiting exit tiles. That alone would allow for cleverly-designed challenges as you navigate past teleporting wormholes, slippery ice patches, and boulder barriers, but Woodways adds another mechanic into the mix: each animal has a unique attribute that affects where and how…
Graffiti puzzler Vandals imagines tagging as turn-based challenges when it releases on April 12th
Vandals, Cosmografik's follow-up to the puzzle platformer Type:Rider, promises a puzzler revolving around turn-based movement and carefully-planned traversal along grids of enemies, hazards, and power-ups, in the vein of the Go games. But rather than hitmen, AI defenders, or monsters, Vandals is themed around tagging urban settings with graffiti. Featuring levels in cities ranging from Paris to New York and Berlin, you travel long a grid of paths, each movement causing police and other dangers to move in turn. Guards, dogs, cameras, and alaram systems all stand between you, tagging, and escape, and success will require planning ahead, timing movements to evade security, an…
