Stickets: update on puzzle app game

If you've been reading this blog carefully, you'll remember Stickets, a point scoring puzzle app game that I really liked.

There is a fellow named Chris Pheasey who is the top scorer with 3,753 points. He's been going strong on this one game for a long time, maybe 2 or 3 months. 

Next up is OddballDave with 2,913 points. Not sure if his game ended. He hasn't played in a week. Maybe he's taking a break.

Just to put things in perspective at how great those scores are, #3 is 1735. #4 is 1655. #5 is 979. I'm at #6 with 972.

Escaple: free iphone, ipad puzzle app game

Here is the latest rip-off of Rush Hour. There are 240 levels.

Here's what's new: a 'difficulty index'. There's also a mysterious system of scoring points.  Example: when I solved level 161, I did it in 43 moves, while the least possible moves is 28.  My points earned: 962,635.

Treehouse Wars! free puzzle game for iphone, ipad

Treehouse Wars! was designed by a 9 year old kid.

An astute puzzle app follower in the Washington D.C. area alerted me to a story in the Washington Post about the kid and his game: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2013/09/03/viennas-jefferson-johnson-9-creates-treehouse-wars-gets-it-into-apples-app-store/

Aliens are walking in your backyard and you are in the treehouse throwing water balloons at them to kill them.

If you fail to kill them, they will cut your tree down.

I didn't get to the level where flying saucers are swarming around you. But you can see the image.

Major kudos to young Jefferson Johnson for creating this. I know that future versions will be better.

Break the Hex: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Break the Hex comes from http://www.dogfishapps.com/
If you've played Rush Hour or Unblock Me, then you get the idea. The object is to slide the colored bars along the hexagonal grid so that the red bar can move to the red spot on the right.

We've seen many versions of Rush Hour. We've also seen a hexagonal one too. A couple of years ago I reviewed Hex Slide 1000 and Hex Slide 10,000. Same idea. However, with Hex Slide, the red piece could be anywhere on the grid - not just on the horizontal row.

Break the Hex has 100 levels. I didn't think that I would solve them all, but I did, so it's good. The graphics are fine.

Plants Vs Zombies

Plants Vs Zombies is a classic action game.  The object is to kill the zombies as they march onto your front lawn.

You will first need to plant sunflowers, which will emit 'suns' from time to time. Collect the suns and you will gain points.  With those points, you can then plant pea-shooters that will kill the zombies.

As you progress through the 50 levels, you will be able to plant more sophisticated things like mushrooms that have their own killing properties.

Plants Vs Zombies is a genuine puzzle because as you get to the higher levels, you must strategically place things. Also, before each round, you will get to choose how to stock your arsenal.

I first played Plants Vs Zombies 2 years ago. I played 3 or 4 levels and loved it. But did not view it as a true puzzle, because it's not. I restarted it a couple of weeks ago and have now gone through all 50 levels. I thought to myself: whew!  Then I downloaded Plants Vs Zombies 2. It's more of the same.

Plants Vs Zombies is a fun game. It's truly a modern classic.

FlowDoKu: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

When I first saw FlowDoku, I thought: okay, it's another version of Sudoku.

Yes and no.

Each square region - or rectangular region, depending on the grid size - must contain the same number of blue squares, green triangles and orange circles.  The blue squares must be connected. The green triangles must be connected. The orange dots are free agents.

I cannot believe how good these puzzles are.

In the 6x6 grids, I solved 30 of them in 55 minutes.
In the 8x8 grids, I solved 50 of them in a little more than 3 hours.
In the 9x9 grids, I solved 50 of them in 4.5 hours.
All of those were either 'easy' or 'medium' levels.

I have not played the 12x12 grid sizes yet.

FlowDoku is a great concept. It's fun. And did I mention that it's a great value? Totally free.

FlowDoku is a fabulous puzzle game app! Bravo.

Flip Stones: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Andreas Riedmüller recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game Flip Stones. He and his brother made it. Andreas and his colleague (not his brother) previously made a very stupid app called Touch Me. I confess, I've played it several times and have still not deleted it. What does that say about me? Scroll down to about 10 days ago to read my blurb about that.

Back to Flip Stones. It's a topology game. You must cover all of the tiles and flip them to gold. I did the first 32 levels in about 15 minutes. Keep in mind, I've done thousands of these over the years. The key is to figure out the starting and end points.

Then I decided to pay the $.99 for the additional levels.

Look at the top of the 4th image. See the 0/2 at the top? That means you are given 2 separate continuous movements to make the flips. Some of these are really hard.

Flip Stones has 99 levels and I've completed 71 of them.  I'm stuck! I've spent a lot of time on these hard ones and have made minimal progress. Flip Stones is very challenging and fun. Definitely a winner, after you get through the easy ones.

Oh, I should mention this. As you are casually pondering your strategy, various creepy-crawlies will meander on your screen. Try not to drop your ipad.

Spin Dots: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Spin Dots is a very good sequential movement puzzle app from Spooky Cat: http://spookycat.net/contact/

The object is to get the 4 green dots to the upper right corner. The blue dots to the bottom right corner, etc.

See the red triangle in the top left corner? Tap on that and those 8 dots will rotate in a loop.  Tap on one of the bottom triangles and those rectangular loops will rotate.

Spin Dots is hard! I've solved it twice.

There is a mechanical version that is similar: The Orb, which I really like.

Spin Dots is a free puzzle app game. Can you do it?

Color Cubes: free puzzle game app for iphone, ipad

Color Cubes is a topology puzzle game app. Tap on any square and then drag your finger over all of the others once and only once.

We have seen many topology puzzle apps lately. This one has 30 free levels. I did them in about 10 minutes. Not very hard. You just have to know where to start!

The graphics are fine.

Next week I'll be commenting on a very interesting topology puzzle app game.

Combinations: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Look at the image. What do you see?

Here's what I see: a total copy of the card game SET.  If you haven't played SET, get the deck of 81 cards and get playing!

This free puzzle app version offers clues and keeps track of your score.

Worms*: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

If you have been following my blog the past 3 or 4 years, then you know the game Lights Out.

Worms* is basically the same thing. Except the worms either stick their heads out or crawl back into their holes.

59 levels.  I did 5 or 6.  I've got more interesting puzzle apps to play. But I like the theme.

Brain Catalyst: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Brain Catalyst is a round version of Rubik's Cube.

No other explanation needed.

Tertiary!

Tertiary! is an unusual, unique puzzle app.
I had to read the directions twice before I really understood them.

You are given a grid of gray triangles. Tap them one at a time. You must tap on them in this order: a triangle pointing up, followed by a triangle pointing down - any where in the grid.

Try not to tap on the ones that are 'tertiary'. You can figure out some of them. But there is an element of guessing.

I've solved it twice. I cannot say that I'm a fan. However, this is an interesting concept and I challenge anybody to determine if luck is not needed at all.

Weekend update: I've investigated this more and have solved it 10 more times - all without luck. I have figured out a system.

Tertiary is definitely intriguing, but once you've figured out a system, it then becomes a 'how fast can you solve this' puzzle.

Tertiary is a free puzzle app, give it a shot.

http://www.tertiaryapp.com/

Neon Connect: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

I recently played Neon Connect on a long plane ride.  It's similar to a laser puzzle, but different.

There are 60 free levels. I've done them all.

I think this is a good set of puzzles.

Touch Me Lite: free game app for iphone, ipad

Andreas Riedmüller recently contacted me about his company's old and new game.  The old game is Touch Me Lite.

Tap on the 'Touch Me' bar. Keep doing it as it darts up and down the screen. As Andreas wrote to me: it's a stupid one button game that was number one in Germany for several days.

I played this and got a score of 106.  I checked the Leaderboard. My score is not exceptional, but I was amazed to see that over 45,000 people have played this.

Is it worth your time? Not really. But there's a Touch Me Pro version for $.99 where you can customize things.

Their other puzzle app is much more interesting. More about that next week.

Hexic Flow: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Hexic Flow uses a hexagonal grid for Flow.

I'm not crazy about Hexic Flow. For one thing, I have solved the hardest advanced levels without using all the hexes. Which means there are multiple solutions for these.

I should mention that Hexic Flow is a free puzzle app and young puzzlers should enjoy this.

Dizzy Squares: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Dizzy Squares is a very simple puzzle. Rotate any 3x3 square grid to match the pattern on the bottom.

There are 10 levels and I'm stuck on level 6. And they only get harder!

I'm wondering: can any permutation of random colored tiles be solved?

 

Did I mention that Dizzy Squares is a free puzzle app?
http://dizzysquares.com/

Labor Day Holiday

Here in the US, it's Labor Day - an official holiday of rest and the unofficial end of summer.

Recently I got a nice note from a puzzle app developer - thanking me for my labor. Ignacio's game is Tuptap: https://itunes.apple.com/app/tuptap/id574335567?mt=8#

Hi Tom,

 

 

I was about to write you in order to give you BIG THANKS for your kind review.

 

It's been the first time I've had feedback from someone outside my personal circle so It's been very important to me that you liked my game and you considered it interesting.

 

Definitely downloads experienced a significant increase after the publication of your review, so I can see your blog is being followed by a lot of people!!!!

I really wanna thank your honest work in my name and in the name of other developers that appear in your blog for free, not like other review sites do.

 

I am now working on another app, which will be a free board game, exclusively multiplayer. As soon as it's ready I'll let you know, though I don't know if you're interested only on puzzle games, or perhaps on board games too.

 

Congratulations for your good work and thanks again, I hope you keep doing well in the future.

 

 

Best regards,

Ignacio.

Block Path: free puzzle app game for ipad, iphone

Block Path is one of many topology puzzle apps that have been made over the past couple of years. It's hard to keep track of them!

You are given the starting square - blue and must draw a continuous loop that covers the whole grid.  Orange squares are obstacles. If you have ever studied topology, you should first identify which square must be last. From there, it's a lot easier.

There are 35 free levels. I got stuck on a few of them, but prevailed!  Each World of 35 costs $.99. There are 5 Worlds.

I then downloaded BlockPath Pro which only cost $.99.  (Thanks for the promo code Richard!)  I did the 165 puzzles in about 90 minutes while cooking, watching tv etc. I've done thousands of these, so I've become really fast.

Still, some of them had me stumped.

If you're looking for more of these, try Numeric Paranoia, Chemin and Mortal Coil. Mortal Coil is most similar to Block Path. It is more difficult because the grid sizes are huge and it does not give the starting square.

Still, I think Block Path Pro is a very good game and will look forward to updates.

Color Contagious: free puzzle app game

Color Contagious is exactly like Flood It! which I wrote about ages ago. Look at diagram #2. See the tiny red square in the upper left corner? That's you at the start. You are adjacent to a green tile. Turn yourself green and you will absorb your neighbor. Keep doing this until you have absorbed everything. Like the Borg. Hopefully within a limited number of moves.

Look at the third and fourth images. When you select a new color, there is a very cool flipping. Try it just for that.

PipeBomb: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad.

PipeBomb is a free puzzle app game from http://woowaa.net/
It's like Flow but with 2 distinctions. First, look at the top left corner of the image. It indicates how many squares each color will occupy.

If you don't solve the puzzle in the given time......booooooom.

Stay away from Pipe Bomb. It's not terribly interesting or original. And besides, if you do a search in the App Store, the NSA will probably record that and you may never be allowed to fly again. Ha!

Super Bubble Crush: free point scoring puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Super Bubble Crush comes from Tom Chen and Yuanyuan Dong. They contacted me about 2 months ago, and I'm just now getting around to it. The immense pile of new puzzle app games is overwhelming!

Super Bubble Crush is a point scoring puzzle app similar to Bee Cells, a game I spent many hours on - to much frustration.

The object is to score points by lining up 5 or more balls in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line.   You are allowed to move 1 ball at a time. After that, 3 new random balls appear.  Each ball is worth 10 points. There doesn't seem to be a Leaderboard for this game.

My first game: 1440 points.  2nd game: 3310 points. This game could be addictive. Give it a shot and tell me what you think.       

Loops: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

You have 60 seconds to make as many loops as possible. The bigger the string, the more points you score.

If you are able to connect a string into a square loop, you get 2 extra seconds.  If the rectangle is bigger, you can get 4 extra seconds.

This game was formerly known as Dots Dots Dots!    

https://www.facebook.com/loopsgame
       

Fields: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Fields is a puzzle app game from Kevin Langdon. He's got a sense of humor: 'WARNING: This game is so addicting that you may never leave the toilet again!'

The object of the game is to fill all of the grid with colored crops.

 The Fields do not have to be rectangles.  Some squares have rocks - no crops can grow. One more thing, a yellow field can never be next to another yellow field.

In the 'Original Release' there are 100 levels. The grid sizes range from 4x5 to 8x11. Of those 100, I've done 60 levels. Since I originally downloaded Fields, Kevin added another 100 free levels. He's also added a 'Time Trial' for those who like speed contests.

Fields is a winner!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aPyqJiWdUM

http://www.buzzershot.com/fields/   

TupTap: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad

TupTap is a puzzle app game that's similar to the 15 puzzle. But it's different!  The object is to get the numbers in order. Blue #s on top, green #s on the bottom - in the correct order.

Tap on 2 adjacent numbers and they will switch.  Tap on 2 numbers not next to each other, and they will shift.in this way: Look at the blue 1.  Tap on it first, then tap on the yellow 6. All the numbers in that row will shift to the left - except for the blue 6. And the blue 1 will be just to the left of the blue six and to the right of the yellow 6.

You are given a limited number of moves to sort everything.

The Lite version has 5 easy, 10 hard and 20 pro levels. The easy ones are way too easy. The hard ones have 96 cells. One minor problem with it: the colors are not quite distinguishable.

Still, I like the concept and think this is very good.   

'Draw Line: Cross' - free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 'Draw Line: Cross' is a free puzzle app game from BitMango: http://m.bitmango.com/

If you're a fan of Flow, you should like this. There is a Cross in each level. In the first diagram, you can see the blue goes straight through the cross.

In the second diagram, blue makes a right angle turn in the cross.

I'm not a fan of Flow because I can often make all the connections without using all the squares in the grid.  The same happens in Draw Line: Cross.  I did 'Regular Pack 6'. It has 150 levels with grid sizes from 5x5 to 9x9.  I was forced to do all the 5x5s before moving on to the 6x6s.  The small sized grids are way too easy.

I was looking forward to the 9x9s. Unfortunately, they were too easy too.  The whole set of 150 probably took about 1 hour which includes a snack break.

Still, young puzzle fans should really like this. Serious puzzle fans: skip it.   

Rubik's Block: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Rubik's Block is a free puzzle app game. The object is to slide the rows and columns to group the colors into square regions.

We've seen this type of puzzle many times.  This version has 8 levels. I solved them all in about 10 minutes.

Young puzzlers should like this.       

Color LInes! - free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Color Lines! comes from Anton Gladkikh. It's a point scoring puzzle game. The object is to move the balls to form lines of 4, then they disappear. The concept is not new or original. But it is fun.

The small grid sizes are way too easy. You might never get stuck.  I played the 10x10 grid and scored 1099 which took at least an hour. This puts me at #11 out of 533 players on the Leaderboard.

If you like this, try Bee Cells.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Color-Lines-iphoneipad-game/445102132215139

Light Cross: free puzzle app game for ipad, iphone

Light Cross comes from http://keaton.com/apps/lightcross/en/

This type of puzzle has been done many times before under different names: Akari, Lighthouse, to name a couple.

Look at the first image. See the 2? you must place 2 lights on the adjacent sides. All cells must be illuminated. A light bulb cannot be in the path of another light bulb.

There are 40 free levels. I've done them all, very quickly. I particularly like the design of the boards: they are not necessarily squares.

I tried to purchase the 'Green Pack' of puzzle levels. But I don't think they're available yet.

'Can You Connect the Dots?' - free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

'Can You Connect the Dots?' is the name of this point scoring free puzzle app game. Pradeep Chelani is the author.

To pass each level, you must score a certain number of points within a certain time.  The pink bar below keeps moving to the right as you score. The green bar keeps moving to the left as time expires.

On the Leaderboard, out of 2050 players, I'm at #16. However, I took a break after level 61. When I tried to continue, I had to restart. Had I not taken a break, who knows what my position would be?

Can You Connect the Dots? is not a totally original concept. But I was entertained.

Win at Sudoku

Caro Eardley recently contacted me about her book which teaches you how to solve Sudoku puzzles.

(I became a Sudoku fanatic back in 2001 when I went to Japan for the first time.  However, my enthusiasm has waned.)

Caro was kind enough to send me her book in pdf form. The diagrams are excellent. I have not read it yet, but I have skimmed it.

It's serious, thorough and could be the definitive text on the subject.  I plan to read it cover to cover next month.

http://www.amazon.com/Win-At-Sudoku-Christmas-ebook/dp/B004QX08FE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376221840&sr=8-1&keywords=Caro+Eardley

Colorooh comes from http://colorooh.digidingo.com/. They made Grooh last year, which I really liked.

Colorooh has 4 distinct puzzle games. The best one is Match-3. I don't like the title because it implies that it's similar to other 'match 3' point scoring puzzle apps.

Match -3: your objective is to swap 2 adjacent men so that: each Grooh-man is in a group of 3 or more. Look at the diagram: the yellow men must all be next to each other, because there are only 5 of them.

Now look at the red men: there are 9 of them. So, you can have them in 1 large cluster, or 2 or 3 clusters.

Each level: you are given 10 moves to make. If you win, the Grooh-men jump and dance with joy. If you lose, they weep and moan; and you realize you're a bad, mean puzzler.

Colorooh, has 3 other puzzle modes. The Shift Mode - this is not original. The Puzzle Mode - I have not explored this enough. It's a challenging set of topology problems. Too difficult to describe.  The Memory Mode tests your memory.

Without a doubt, the Match -3 Mode is the best and is an excellent, original concept.

Download Colorooh now!