Perfect Paths: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

 

My puzzle app colleague Nicola Salmoria sent me a few emails to try Perfect Paths. I always follow his advice. But the price was $3.99 and the images looked like another topology game.


A few days ago, the price dropped to $.99 and I pounced. Yes Perfect Paths is a topology game, but not really. Your task is to move the colored tiles to the dots. However, whatever path you draw will not be continuous. Strange, I know. There is a metronomic device that says, Up, Down, Right, Left. Then it repeats.


Every tile on an Up square must move up just once. Then every tile on a Down square, must move down once. Etc.  You may think that the paths you draw will not lead to crashes, but they will.
See the paper clips at the bottom? You will need to connect squares and disconnect them too.


Right now there are 56 levels, which include 6 tutorials. Supposedly, more levels are being added every week. I cannot confirm this. Right now I have solved 47 of them.  The vast majority are difficult. Hard. Seemingly impossible.  Lots of trial and error. Frustrating. But I keep playing. While watching hours of Breaking Bad, which I never got around too.
There is a point scoring system. Efficient paths score more points. I'm honestly happy enough to have solved a level. Cause for a house party. But if you want to get high up on the Leader Board, you should check out Nicola's tips.


Perfect Paths is definitely one of the Best Puzzle Apps of 2014.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/perfect-paths/id856029362?mt=8

Puralax: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Puralax is color painting game by Luis Bricker.  It's hard to describe.  Look at the first image. See how the very top is red? The objective is to paint all the tiles red.  See the green square with the white dot? That means you can drag that color onto the yellow squares. All contiguous yellow squares will then turn green.  The red square has 2 dots. One dot allows it to be moved next to the green group. The other dot allows you to paint the green group red.

I've completed all 20 levels of Stage 1. Almost done with Stage 2. There are 6 Stages, so presumably there are 120 levels.

You can play online for free!

Puralax reminds me a bit of Zen Color. Read my review from last summer on that.

Puralax has some easy puzzles, but they get tough pretty quick. Definitely a winner.

http://www.puralax.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puralax/id781705529?mt=8


Update 6/30/14: I've been playing Puralax more and have now solved 93 levels.

Titanic By SmartGames: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Raf Peeters recently contacted me about an update to Titanic. The original game came out in 2012. (Click here to read my review back then.) It was judged as one of the best puzzle apps of that year, by yours truly. The objective remains the same: move the lifeboats to pick up the passengers to rescue them. Be a hero with your puzzling skills.


There is no time element. Take your time. Your boats can travel forward and back and even sideways. If an empty bench gets next to a survivor, he will stop the boat and climb on. (Nice graphics.) If 2 passengers are adjacent to the same bench, you get to decide which one to take. Once a boat is full, it cannot move.


So here's the update: this new version has icebergs. The lifeboats can push the icebergs NOT in a sokoban type way. Your boat can push multiple bergs at the same time. Forward, back and sideways.


Of course there are 4 levels of difficulty, but now that's doubled. The Deep Blue levels are the same as the original Titanic.  The new ones are called Iceberg.  204 levels - should keep you busy for a while. I skipped the Beginner Iceberg levels and jumped into the junior levels. I did all 24 of those, but must confess, I struggled on some of them.  On the Expert Iceberg levels, I've done 7 of the 24. I'd like to think that they are impossible, but that's what makes it very good, right!
Titanic By SmartGames is one of the best puzzle game apps of 2014.  Bravo Raf!


By the way, there's an old silent film called Way Down East that's got an incredible scene of a woman jumping among ice floes before she gets to a waterfall.


Titanic is the only puzzle app that I can think of that that stems from an historical event.
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/titanic-lite-by-smartgames/id520097116

Stop Crows: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Vasile Dediu is one of 10 people in the last week to contact me about their new puzzle game apps. That's right, this blog is becoming a job - an unpaid one.


You may recall that I reviewed his pure puzzle app Amid Worlds. I really liked it.

His latest is called Stop Crows. It's an arcade type game. All the birds will fly into the bird houses. Your job is to whack the Crows out by pressing the corresponding number at the bottom. You must time it accordingly, because if you're a bit early and whack an okay bird, game's over.


Right now, only 18 people are playing it via the Game Center. I'm #2 with a score of 99. The #1 player's score is over 300.  I should also point out that the birds fly slowly and gradually speed up.


Everybody should try this game: it's good hand/eye coordination. We all want to ward off Alzheimer's. Most importantly, it's fun for a few hours.
http://youtu.be/16fx7B6UP-E Watch Vasile get a score of 295.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stop-crows/id887610103?mt=8

TRUpuzzlE: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Vladimir Semenko came out with TRUpuzzlE in 2011. But I just noticed it. TRUpuzzlE is the perfect example of how very good puzzle app games can get buried under the avalanche of new stuff.


TRUpuzzlE is very similar to Wriggle and Snake Slider. The object is to slide the chains around so that the green chain gets to the green squares.  The puzzles are very well designed. The order of difficulty is not sequential. Level 25 was much harder for me than some later levels. That's a minor complaint.


The steampunk art is only in the one image.


There are 56 levels and I solved them all in about 2-3 hours over two days.


Note: this game is temporarily free, so get it right now.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trupuzzle/id430437507?mt=8

Escape the Room NYC

Seems like yesterday when I did Escape from the Werewolf Village.


On Saturday I participated in Escape The Room NYC with 10 other people.  This was much more interesting/interactive than Escape from the Werewolf Village. Lots of moving around in a tiny apt to find clues, open locks etc. Our group was headed by Brett Kuehner. He's done a bunch of these room escapes before. Because of him, our group escaped in 38 minutes. Which broke the record.


$30 is a bit steep, but you'll never forget the experience.


http://escapetheroomnyc.com/

Zen Triangle: free puzzle app game

Sanmoy Ray recently contacted me about his puzzle app game Zen Triangle.  The objective is to fit the pieces into the tray.


I've done a couple thousand of these over the years. They're classified as packing puzzles. I'm not a big fan of the genre. At least anymore.


Zen Triangle has over 350 levels. I have no internal need to solve them all.  I did the first dozen which are really easy. Even for a beginner, I think they're too easy. I was not able to access the harder puzzle levels because I didn't upgrade.


I can definitely see some young puzzlers liking Zen Triangle. The graphics are good and it's easy to rotate and flip pieces.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zentriangle/id823755270?ls=1&mt=8
http://www.nascentsoftware.com/

TwoDots: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Lots of people are playing TwoDots. The objective is to solve each level by achieving various goals. Essentially, it's a lot like Candy Crush. When you run out of lives, you can purchase more. This game is making boatloads of money. Unlike this blog.

Here's what's better: if you can get a square of the same color and swipe them out, all of those colors will be removed from the board. That becomes the essential strategy for pretty much every level.

There are 85 levels, of which I've solved 42. When I run out of lives, I switch back to FOLT, until I run out of lives there.



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/twodots/id880178264?mt=8
http://weplaydots.com/


Update:By coincidence, the New York Post has a story about this app today!  http://nypost.com/2014/06/11/nycs-twodots-gaming-app-crushes-competition/

Blokkology: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Blokkology is a free puzzle app game from http://www.blokkology.com/. You can play it on any device - even a regular old fashioned computer. You are the bright blue square. Your task is to move to the square with the tiny black and white checkerboard inside. See the numbers on top: 33945?


Blokkology is really a maze puzzle. You must figure out in which direction to travel those first 3 steps, then the next 3 steps, and 9 steps....you get the idea.


Blokkology has green portals. There are also bombs that might spoil your day.


Altogether, there are 250 levels. The first 100 are free.  Of those, I've solved 99. For some reason I could not access 100 but was urged to get the full version. Unfortunately, the full version is not available right now. Nor can one do an in-app purchase.
I have some qualms: the graphics could be better. The info on the right of the screen should be smaller and make the board larger. Why can't I undo a move if I swipe in the wrong direction accidentally? The first 100 levels should have 5 & 6 steps to really whet my appetite for more.
Nevertheless, Blokkology has a certain appeal to many puzzlers: novice and pro



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blokkology-lite/id879955651?mt=8

Watch this couple assemble the 17x17x17 Cube

Want to buy one for yourself? It will cost you $1599.73
http://www.shapeways.com/model/64058/over-the-top-17x17x17-read-instructions.html

2 puzzle stories from this weekend

There are 643,817 people playing FOLT according to the Game Center. In terms of 'levels completed', I'm ranked 41.

The Endless Mode part of the game - only 4707 people paid $.99 for that. Saturday night I got a score of 594. Which puts me at 1. Sunday, Fridgeman1874 came close to defeating me, but he died at 590. This is why my parents sent me to college.


Something different. I ran into a puzzler friend at the juggling festival at Barnard College. Hadn't seen him in about a year. He told me that he had gotten cancer, lymphoma to be precise. He had 4 rounds of chemo therapy. And now he's completely cured. He looks very healthy.  Each round of chemo zonked him out for 2 weeks. Ready for this? He thanked me for recommending good puzzle apps to play during those 8 weeks. It's nice to know that my efforts are making the world a little better.

Oskar van Deventer's Gear Fold

I got my first Oskar puzzle back in 1988.  At my first IPP (International Puzzle Party) in 2000, he was the one I wanted to meet.  On the day of the puzzle party (buying and selling) there was a long line for another famous puzzle designer. I went straight to Oskar's table to buy almost everything he had.


Puzzle collectors specialize in their collection: sequential movement, wood, metal, entanglements etc. My collection: I once tried to specialize in Oskar puzzles.  That was before 3D printing came to be and he started cranking out 50 puzzles per year with an average cost of, I'm guessing, $150.


Gear Fold seems very similar to Rubik's Clock. I positively loved that puzzle for its ingenious mechanism. It wasn't too hard to figure out.  The principles from that can be applied to Gear Fold, which is $89.40.   If I win the lottery, I'll buy all of his puzzles.


http://www.shapeways.com/model/1619880/gear-fold.html?modelId=1619880&materialId=62

Folt: free puzzle game app for iphone, ipad

 
I found my cure from Threes! This past weekend I downloaded Folt from Daniel Lutz. He has an outstanding track record of producing terrific puzzle apps. But it's been a while since his last one.


Your task is to unfold your man from the square with the white circle on it and either stay alive or score points by creating groups of 3.  The game is similar to Stickets, one of my all-time favorites.


Last night I became the 2nd highest scorer in the 'Endless Mode'. When I woke up this morning, I was bumped down to number 5. My score is 436.  Daniel told me that his high score is only 300. The key in Endless Mode: patience!


Issues: everybody can see the next 3 tiles. If you pay some money, you get the right to see a 4th tile. But that does not apply to Endless Mode.


Folt definitely has a Candy Crush feel to it. You can't stop playing it. You are aggravated by the sequence of tiles. Yet you still keep playing. When you run out of lives, you must pay $.99 to keep playing, or wait a certain amount of time. Note: on Endless Play, you must pay $.99 to play, but you will never run out of lives.


Here's what I do: I play the levels until I run out of lives, then shift to Endless Mode. At the moment, I've completed 71 levels.


Miscellaneous: each time you play, the colors change. I really dislike the black/gray/orange group. Daniel told me that he's thinking of giving users the option to choose the colors.


I know there will be puzzle app fans who will hate this game. Folt is definitely one of the best puzzle apps of 2014. It's closer to Stickets than Candy Crush.

 



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/folt/id823039529?mt=8


http://www.nonverbal.ch/folt/

Escape From the Werewolf Village

This weekend I went to Webster hall with 5 puzzle friends to play Escape From the Werewolf Village.


You are locked in a room and must solve a bunch of puzzles of all types in 1 hour.  Clues were scattered throughout the room.


1. There is no way you could solve all the puzzles by yourself in the given time.
2. The clues around the room: interesting. But gimmicky. I've played some 'escape the room' puzzle apps where you have to go back and forth in the room. In this case, you copied down the clues only once and then solved everything at a table.
3. Types of puzzles: be prepared to solve word puzzles and just 1 mechanical packing puzzle.
4. Heavy emphasis on word puzzles.
5. Every 10 minutes, the room went dark and another villager was killed. Using deductive reasoning, you can figure out where the werewolves are.
6. This concept/event is gaining in popularity. The company has numerous other games going on in other cities. Here's what I noticed: 10 tables were full at 6 per table. The price was $25/person. Good business.
7. I noticed that other tables were just random people. So the event is a good way to meet like minded brainy people.

BoxOff: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  


Michael Gilbert has come up with a terrific puzzle app game called BoxOff. The object is to remove all the circles. See the first image - those are the rules. Essentially: connect a red circle to another circle to form a rectangle of any dimensions provided that there is no other circle - of any color - in that rectangle.
The second image is a sample puzzle of that.


See the third image? That version is called Stacks. The same rules apply except that the top circle will come off first.

There is a third version of this game! The objective is to remove all the circles under the rules, but now you must maximize the area of your rectangles.


Each version has 23 levels. I have not completed any of them. They get tough!
BoxOff easily makes its way onto the prestigious List of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/boxoff/id872829375?mt=8


http://boxoffgame.com/
Update 2/27/15: Michael Gilbert is the developer of BoxOff, but the game was invented by Steve Meyers. BoxOff was featured on the cover of Games Magazine last year.

Book Review

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Film-Novel-Marisha-Pessl/dp/140006788X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401452139&sr=8-1&keywords=night+film

Believe it or not puzzle app players, I do find time to read books. A colleague recommended Night Film by Marisha Pessl.


I'm 100 pages into it. It's a good novel. What I discovered yesterday: there are images of birds scattered throughout. If you download the app, you can access some audio/visual elements.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/night-film-decoder/id616905445?ls=1&mt=8

 

WrapSlide: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  

When I first saw WrapSlide on the app store, I immediately came to the conclusion: looks like another 'slide the rows & columns to match the pattern puzzle app. We have seen at least a dozen versions of this. I did not download it.


I was wrong. About a week ago Alewyn Burger, the author, contacted me about his game. WrapSlide is different in a significant way. See the heavy black lines that divide the shape into 4 quadrants? You cannot slide a single row or column. Instead, you will slide them all together. Meaning: you can slide only 4 things: the southern hemisphere or the northern hemisphere or the eastern or western.


You have the controls to set the level of difficulty.  See the first image? Your task is to get the yellow squares into 1 quadrant. As your understanding of the puzzle increases, you can increase the level of difficulty by making the grid larger and have more colors.


I started with the easiest level to get the feel for the game - it's more challenging than I thought. Then I jumped to 4 colors with the smallest grid. Getting the first color is relatively easy. The second color wasn't too bad. But I was not able to get the third & fourth which of course must be solved simultaneously.


WrapSlide is a serious FREE puzzle app game. Definitely, give it a shot.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wrapslide/id795712935?mt=8


On another note: this blog finally has 150 followers. It's taken 4 years to get that far. Because there are about 500 visits/day, I'm guessing that some people are not signing up as followers because they don't want junk email. Just so you know: you will never get any email from this blog. Unless you write to me.

Connect Cubes: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  

Connect Cubes is an edge matching puzzle. Red squares can be rotated, but not moved. The blue ones can move, but not rotate. The pinks can do both.


There are 200 levels. I've done about 40 of them.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connect-cubes/id870093531?mt=8

10s Challenge - Hardest Game in The World: free puzzle-y type game for iphone, ipad

10s Challenge - Hardest Game in The World may or may not be the hardest game in town. But it is tough. You must drag the red circle to pick up the 3 yellow stars while avoiding the bouncing squares and the blue lines.  I got through 12 levels. I like this game, but that's probably it for me.
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/10s-challenge-hardest-game/id852451109?mt=8

Petaminx Tutorial - 8 hour video

Nixie - Challenge Your Brain: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Nixie - Challenge Your Brain comes from Andrew Zaharek and Joshua Levesque.  It's a free puzzle app game that took me extra time to understand.  It's very similar to Akari, which is also known as Lighthouse.  I exchanged a few emails with Andrew & learned that he never knew about Akari. Weird: I solved all of the beginner levels, but didn't really understand what I was doing!

You must place a circle that will light up the row and column and eventually get the whole board lit up.  Here are the key differences from Akari: a cluster of 3's means that there will be 3 circles in total that will touch them. Also, those circles can be placed diagonally to a number.  One more rule difference: no circle can be placed in a field of nothingness. A circle must be next to a number.


There are about 130 levels.  I've solved all but 10. Right now I'm stuck on the hardest category #2. It's a massive grid where one must use a certain amount of guess & check.


Something annoying: Nixie is free but there are video ads.  They pop up every 3 or 4 levels. Even more annoying, they can pop up when you want to clear the board by clicking refresh. Andrew informed me that they are going to make them less frequent. There's also a time element to them.


Without a doubt, Nixie is the best game of the week and will certainly make the list of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014. It's a pure puzzle.
Great job Andrew!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nixie-challenge-your-brain/id546520101?mt=8

Block N Roll 3D: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Rolling block mazes have been around for a while.  After one of my students showed me Bloxorz, I gave him a 10 point bonus on his next test.


Block N Roll 3D is nothing special. There are 18 levels and I solved them in about 15 minutes.


Here's what's interesting: some tiles are yellow, which means that they cannot sustain much weigh. The 2x1 block can not rest entirely on it.


Good for kids.
https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/block-n-roll-3d/id876699817?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

RubiCube: fee puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

RubiCube is another 'slide the rows & columns to match the pattern' type puzzle. We've seen at least a hundred of these.  RubiCube has 200 levels. I did the first 14 levels in about 15 minutes. I wanted to jump to the harder levels, but didn't want to pay for that privilege.


Right now I'm playing another new app that's more worthy of your time. Nevertheless, here's the link to this game.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rubicube-puzzle-game/id874704243?mt=8

Numoo: free point scoring puzzle app

Numoo is a point scoring tilt/dodge game. You are the circle and can slide up and down the rope. As the numbers slide in from the right and left, you must crash into them only if they are higher than you.
It's not terribly good but it's actually hard to put down. In terms of the Leaderboard, there are 264 players and I'm #19 at the moment.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/numboo/id848633311?mt=8

Rubik's Cube turns 40

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/05/19/rubiks-cube-google-celebrates-40th-anniversary-of-toy-puzzles-invention-with-interactive-and-addictive-doodle/

Early 1981: after playing with the cube on/off for a few weeks, I woke up on a Sunday morning and said to myself: TODAY IS THE DAY THAT I WILL SOLVE THIS. 9 hours later, it was DONE! (Halfway through my grandmother came over and she wanted ...to try it. Within seconds, she ruined whatever progress I had.) I got the corners by partial luck and then figured out the edges. I didn't fully understand my algorithms. The next day it took me only 4 hours. The day after - 2 hours. Eventually I came up with an algorithm for the corners. I know that my method is slow - my fastest time is about 2 minutes. I'm resistant to learn the faster methods because I didn't figure them out myself. Erno Rubik is a great man.

Mr. Erno Rubik could be the most influential person of the 20th century.

Square - Push Square: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Square - Push Square is a sokoban type puzzle game. The circle is supposed to push the blue squares onto the white dots.  When that happens, the squares turn red.


Here's what I like: if you wish to move the dot (not pushing anything) to any place on the grid, tap that square and it will do the rest. Skips the tedium.


There are 240 levels. I did the first 20, another 40 levels in the middle and the final 20. They go pretty fast and are not very hard. But keep in mind that I've done a few thousand of these types in other games.


Square - Push Square is pretty slick and well done. I'd just prefer to see some very challenging levels.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/square-push-square/id866485895?mt=8

EnigmOn: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

EnigmOn is a puzzle app game that is similar to 100 Floors and all of its clones.  There are 28 levels to solve.  See the key? That's level 1.

See the safe? That's where I'm currently stuck.


Right now the price is $1.99.  I got it for free because AppsGoneFree keeps track of cool apps - of all types - that become free for a limited time. About 2 weeks ago, they featured Can't Stop about a week after I paid $1.99. Oh well.


On another note, looking at newly published puzzle apps - there is a deluge of clones of Threes! and 2048! There must be at least 100 of these. What's disappointing is that it's harder to find the real gems under the rubble.  If you find something good, do send me an email.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/enigmon/id459892261?mt=8

Good article on puzzle apps for classrooms

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/game-apps-in-math-class-patrick-feeney#comment-186746

Jewel Keeper: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad



Jewel Keeper is a sokoban type puzzle app. Your task is to push the jewels onto the green spots.


I first came upon the sokoban type puzzles from boxworld back in 1994. I love the genre.  However, Jewel Keeper is not terribly interesting. I suppose it's good for young puzzlers.  What's up with the young woman in the black dress?


https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/jewel-keeper/id856235884?mt=8

Threes! Update

Hello loyal puzzle app blog readers,

above is the game that I'm obsessed over. I told myself that I would stop when I got to the 1536 tile.  After playing for 3 months, I finally got it and got a score of 62,000.  However, I'm still playing it. I got another 1536 tile. Now I'm gunning for the 3072 tile.  Crazy!

This blog will get its 500,000 hit today!  If it's you, take a screen shot and email it to me. My last name AT Hotmail.com Mobile computer users: sometimes the hit counter does not show up on your device. Oh well.

Nino: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

The object of Nino is to get your man, the puffy white cloud, from one side to the other without being attacked by the dark clouds. Good & evil theme.
Your man can move 2 squares at a time, while the black clouds can only move 1 square at a time.
The first set of challenges - that's about it. Then there are a whole slew of elements. See the windmills? Land on one of them and you can move another square. See the drooping sunflower? You will need to land on the fish tank to pick up some water, then land on the sunflower. Other elements you will face: smoke stacks and electrical grids. There could be more that I haven't seen yet. There are 200 levels. I've solved only 37 - because they get hard!
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id838156285?mt=8

Frozen Ice Cubes Fall Strategy Challenge: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Frozen Ice Cubes Fall Strategy Challenge is a deceptively good set of puzzles.  The object is to move one ice cube to one pail. The ice cubes can drop into the pails from the top or sideways - okay that's a bit weird.  Ice cubes travel together - right, left, down, but never up. 


Frozen Ice Cubes Fall Strategy Challenge reminds me of another outstanding puzzle app game: Vubu: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2012/09/vubu-puzzle-app-for-iphone-ipad-review.html


This is the second time in recent memory that ice cubes have been used as a puzzle element: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/02/puzzle-retreat-puzzle-game-app-for.html




Great feature of this game: each level can be solved at 3 modes: easy, medium, hard. Essentially, the easy modes allow you to solve the same puzzles with more moves.  Regardless, some of the puzzles are hard with an unlimited number of moves. Tricky is a better word.

There are 120 levels & I've done 63 so far.


Undone Panda has done a great job here with this puzzle game app.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/frozen-ice-cubes-fall-strategy/id864197998?mt=8

OverColor: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

OverColor is an interesting puzzle app game.  The object is to match the shape in the left square by placing the various shapes in a certain sequence.

Look at the example. See all the blue-ish shapes? It appears that they will not all be used.

There are 100 levels. I've solved 8 levels. I like this game. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/overcolor/id695133496?mt=8

500,000 visitors!

Want to win a prize? This blog is about to get its 500,000th visitor. If it's you, take a screen shot & mail it to me: Mylastname@hotmail.com to receive a small prize.

WonderCube: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

WonderCube is a free puzzle app game that's surprisingly difficult. The object is to score a certain number of points within a certain number of moves to advance to the next level.


The point scoring system is not explained anywhere.  Tap on a group of 1's and you will score that number of points and they will turn into a single 2 - at the spot where you tapped them out.


Suppose you tap on seven 3's.  You will score 21 points. Straight forward. But now we come to scoring with a chain. First tap on some 1's. They will become a single 2. If that 2 is part of a group of 2's, then you will get double the points. If that group of 2's becomes a 3 that forms a group of 3's, then you will get triple for that.


However, suppose you start your chain with the 2's. When you tap on the 3's you will only get double the points.

Strategy: you definitely want to build up to get a chain of 5's. But your moves are limited.


WonderCube is all about building successive chains.


See the row below the grid? You can swap those tiles when necessary. However, doing so will break the chain scoring.


Regarding the graphics - yeah, they're geared to the youngsters. There are numerous opportunities to buy your way out of a level.


Bottom Line: WonderCube is actually quite serious. There are 50 levels and I'm stuck on 11. Why? Because after level 10 there's an 'energy' level. I only got 1 star on that and cannot try again for another 7 hours. Unless I buy some energy for $.99.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wondercube/id793022723?mt=8

Don't Click Me: free point scoring game for brain speed

Don't Click Me is a great game for folks worrying about Alzheimer's.  The directions are so poorly written!


See the green squares: don't click on them. Or the white squares. Only click on the black squares, starting at the bottom and working your way up. The screen will become like a treadmill. You must tap on the black tiles as they scroll down. 


I like this game a lot. When things speed up and I'm going back and forth to get all the tiles, my brain is exercising. Then suddenly the goal is achieved and the scrolling comes to an immediate halt. It feels like a jolt and I'm a bit dizzy.


Don't Click Me may be a clone of something else. I've seen 2 other people playing this on the subway. One was called Piano Tiles.


Question: is it better to use one hand or two hands for this.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dont-click-me/id861238914?mt=8

Grid Puzzle the Brain Training Game: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Maiaz Rahman recently contacted me about his puzzle app game: Grid Puzzle the Brain Training Game.




It is a Nonogram type puzzle, which we've seen many times before.  One nice feature: you can get a hint about where one of the pieces goes. Another nice feature, which I believe is unique among the Nonogram type puzzles: a randomizer. If you're stuck, you can push the randomizer button and that will scramble the tiles while preserving the ones that are correctly marked. It's very cool.


I played/solved about 20 levels. On more than 1 occasion, there were multiple solutions. There's a lot of interesting graphics & bells & whistles. If you've been following this blog, you know that I always deem that as secondary to the actual puzzles.  In this case, it takes too much time to go from 1 puzzle to another. But I understand and appreciate that others would like that. The credits show that a lot of people worked on this.


Did I mention that Grid Puzzle the Brain Training Game is free?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grid-puzzle-brain-training/id845110271?mt=8

Magic Hexagon Ultimate: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

There's a mechanical puzzle called Mad Triad. The object is to swivel the center circles to rotate the triangles around.


Magic Hexagon Ultimate is from Pham Quang Viet and does exactly what Mad Triad does.  Mad Triad was a commercial failure because it broke too often and stores got too many returns.


This app has another challenge mode where you must solve the puzzle within a given number of moves.
https://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/id866163788?mt=8

The Impossible Dodging Game: free point scoring game for iphone, ipad

Diego Acevedo is the author of The Impossible Dodging Game. The object is to place your man, a small square, anywhere on the board and then dodge the oncoming traffic of rectangles that fall from above. You can slide your man side to side & up and down.


I like this game a lot because things start off nice and slow and very gradually speed up.  My high score so far is 279.


This is the kind of game where I say I'll play it a few times, but end up playing it for a month.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-impossible-dodging-game/id864264318?mt=8




Diego also created the Impossible Cube Maze Game, http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-impossible-cube-maze-game-free.html

Percepto: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Recently I discovered Percepto which came out 2 or 3 years ago. Percepto is very difficult to describe. Here goes: your task is to get your man to the exit (the white door). You can perceive the blocks from 4 directions as you rotate the room.  Tap to shrink the room to a 2-D space and if the blocks line up, your man can travel to another block. You will have to go back to a 3D perspective, check all 4 different views, and shrink it back to 2D again. Essentially, Percepto is a very sophisticated series of mazes. Major kudos to Daniel Hooper for this excellent puzzle game design.






The staircases are self explanatory. The red buttons turn on and off blocks that will travel up, down & diagonally.


I'm guessing that Daniel Hooper must have seen another puzzle app game called Monospace. See my review from about 4 years ago. In Monospace the room can be rotated from all 6 perspectives. It is a masterpiece. I've solved 59 out of the 60 levels. (Grrrr)


Back to Perspecto: right now I've completed 38 level and I'm stuck on #39. Altogether there are about 40 levels; Daniel's not sure. I really like Perspecto!




http://danielhooper.tumblr.com/post/18736849461/percepto
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/percepto/id419502225?mt=8