7 Squares - free puzzle app for iphone, ipad

 

Georgy Sarkisyan's 7 Squares looks very familiar to other puzzle games where the objective is to place stones in the grid to match the numbers at the top of each column and to the left of each row.


What's different? The very bottom shows the number of adjacent stones.  Look at the first image. 4 green dots are connected and above it says 1/1. This means that there should be only 1 set of 4, and it's been made.


Is this original? I'm not sure.  Georgy has another game called Block by_Block which is a clone of an older game called Magic Bricks. Therefore, I must assume that all of his games are clones of others.


Another issue: Why must I have to solve all the 5x5 levels to get to the 6x6?  Annoying.
https://itunes.apple.com/ao/app/7-squares/id977266066?mt=8

Five Nights in Prison: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Five Nights in Prison is one of many, many 'Escape the Room' type puzzle apps.  I downloaded it because I thought the title was interesting.


There are 15 rooms to escape from.  Each room has all the clues you need to escape that room only. So that made it kind of easy.


What I didn't like: when picking up an item, I could not zoom in to get a good look at the object.
Also, the first 8 rooms are free. After that, it's $1.99.  I played the next 7 rooms over 2 days. Each time I started the program, I had to tap 'restore purchase' to access those rooms. Annoying.


In room 14, I figured out the combination to the lock without finding all the blue clue.


Five Nights in Prison is an okay 'escape the room' adventure. It's good for first timers..


Hey!  If you've played other Escape the Room puzzle apps and liked them, please tell us in the comment box.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/five-nights-in-prison/id960689440

Orb-It!: Dexterity puzzle game for iphone, ipad

 

Orb-It! comes from Three Simians Lab. It's very similar to 'aa' which is simple and powerfully addictive. Orb-It! is superior.


The objective is to shoot balls from the bottom onto the spinning rings.  Black balls always land on the outer ring, purple on the inner ring. Can you shoot them in without colliding?


There are 125 levels and I've done 32 of them.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orb-it!/id963857186?mt=8

100 Spots: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Jean-Michal Batty recently contacted me about his puzzle app game 100 Spots. The objective is to fill the grid with spots. Start anywhere. The next dot can move horizontally or vertically by skipping 2 dots.  Alternatively, your next spot can move diagonally, but this time only 1 dot is skipped.


The objective is to fill the grid!


We've seen these game rules before in other puzzle apps. But the titles have long vanished from our memory. I remember getting to 100 back then.  On this game, I got as high as 98.
These types of games are good for anybody who enjoyed the Knight's Tour puzzle.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/100-spots/id975226674

Tiny Aliens Escape

 

Tiny Aliens Escape comes from Cir Az. The object is to get the red tiles onto the red stars at the same time and in the correct sequence. When that happens, the aliens escape. On harder levels, there are yellow & green tiles & stars.


Look at the blue squares. Tap once on  a blue square and all the tiles in its column and row will shoot out to the perimeter.   Tap it a second time and they will shoot inward toward the blue square. You will need to tap some blue squares 3 or 4 times.


I've never seen this concept before and it made me want to complete all 60 levels. And I did solve them all. The puzzles are not terribly hard, but that's fine.  A future edition might include wormholes.


Miscellaneous: I especially liked the fact that this game is not counting my moves and awarding me 1, 2 or 3 stars.


Also: when I opened the program with the screen horizontally, the banner ads were stuck in the middle. So only turn it on with your screen vertically.


I like the concept of aliens because they're fun. But there should be some story background. Perhaps the aliens could make a joke when they're free.


These are minor complaints.  Tiny Aliens Escape is free and fun.
https://www.facebook.com/NapaApps
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-aliens-escape/id983901107?mt=8

This is good advice

Developing a good puzzle app?  Read this article. 


http://pepperstormapps.com/six-secrets-of-successful-gaming-apps/?utm_source=All+Subscribers&utm_campaign=83e5769bb5-Pepperstorm_Apps_Welcome_Blog_Email4_13_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d7be0cbfdc-83e5769bb5-259090085

More Rush Hour Clones

A couple of months ago I was thinking to myself: haven't seen a clone of Rush Hour in a while. 




Last week I found 3 free clones.  Each one was worse than the next.




The free ones are called Unblock Car, Woblox Puzzle and Gold Fever. 




I believe I saw 2 or 3 other clones - but they cost money.  The whole situation is enough to put me in a bad mood.





Speaking of clones, do watch the tv show Orphan Black, from the beginning. The lead actress plays 5 or 6 clones of herself, each with a completely different personality. Tatiana Maslany is the name of the actress and she's phenomenal.

Pinball Sniper: dexterity app for iphone, ipad

 

The folks who made 2 Cars (my high score is 211!) have come up with something very simple: Pinball Sniper.  The object is to hit the red diamond, which is randomly placed.




The game starts slowly with 1 target.  After you've hit it 10 times, a bumper is added near the top. 


Once you score 20 points, things change very rapidly. Multi-ball starts. Then multi-targets.  My high score went from 16 to 131, just like that.  My current high score is 191.


There is a time element. If you do not hit the target within 10 seconds, the game ends.


Lets talk about the colors. As you can see, the game starts with blue & red. Those change every 5 points.  That's fine. Except when the color scheme turns to white and black. I find it very hard to keep track of the gray ball and flippers.




Pinball Sniper is FUN. Perfect game to play while listening to stories from The Moth.  If you haven't listened to The Moth, you simply must.  Note to ESL folks: the stories are spoken slowly & clearly. And the stories are all great.




We should all be playing these games every so often to keep our reflexes sharp.
I really have to delete Pinball Sniper because it's very addictive, once you get the hang of it.


https://itunes.apple.com/app/pinball-sniper/id975778386


Update 4/29/15: My high score is now 251 which places me at #42 out of 410,000.  I'm guessing the other 41 are teenagers.

One Line: Circle & Conquer

As you can see, I solved all the levels of One Line: Circle & Conquer. It's a really set of puzzles. Unfortunately, I had to delete it because the file size is gigantic.  I must also confess that I used hints for about 10 of the 250 puzzles.


Read more about this awesome puzzle app.