50x50

 

Vladimir Golovnev's newest puzzle app game is 50x50.  His last one, Numbermania, is really quite excellent.
The objective of 50x50 is to transfer the middle red number to the right side or left side to hopefully create a sum of whatever the black square is.  The 8 gray spaces at the bottom are holding spaces for numbers that you can't use at the moment.


The puzzle is solved when both sides reach 50.  This game is extremely tough.  Why? Because the random red numbers that pop up get very big. Too big to work with.  Which means you must store as many small numbers as possible at the bottom.


Another thing to consider: this game takes about 30 minutes to play.
Here's what's weird: I solved the puzzle once, out of 6 or 7 times and felt that aaaaah sense of accomplishment. And yet, there's a leaderboard that records your score. In my view, solving the puzzle is the only goal. If points are going to matter, then the person with the lowest score should be on top. Having a high score indicates lots of muddling mistakes. Maybe I'm wrong on this.
https://itunes.apple.com/td/app/50x50/id881859389?mt=8

Grot Puzzle - free point scoring puzzle app

 

Description from the App Store
Grot is a fast and simple puzzle game. Practice your logical thinking skills by trying to get the highest point value possible. Play multiple rounds and keep improving your score every time! There is almost an infinite number of solutions, so you’ll never get bored. Suitable for minds of any age.

Rules of the game:
- tap any field to start chain reaction - fields will move one by one in direction shown by arrows,
- make the most valuable chains possible,
- longer chains give bonus moves,
- clear all fields in a row or in a column to get extra points,
- different colours give different points.

Collect as many points as possible. Complete epic achievements. Hit the highest score!


Tom's thoughts:
1. The scoring system is very unclear. Some colors yield more points than other colors.
2. Bonus moves are awarded. Again, no idea how and why this occurs.
3. When arrows are eliminated, all the other arrows fall down to fill the space and new random arrows fill out the top.
4. Grot Puzzle has potential, unfortunately, the 4x4 grid, in my opinion, is just too small.
5. Only 98 players are on the Leaderboard. I'm #52 at 572 points.
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/grot-puzzle/id906596745?mt=8

Pop The Lock: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Loyal Blog Follower Joel from Germany has his own puzzle app blog http://genuss-gedaddel.tumblr.com/ Perfect if you can read German!

He informed me of this terrific Test-Your-Reflexes game: Pop the Lock. Essentially, the red bar swings around the circle and you must tap when it gets to the yellow circle.


I positively love this game. I'm on level 67 or so. It's addictive, fun and quite do-able.


Great game to play while listening to music.
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/pop-the-lock/id979100082?mt=8
http://www.simplemachine.co/

Okay? puzzle app game of the week for iphone, ipad

    .

Philipp Stollenmayer has created a terrific bouncing ball puzzle app game called Okay? The object is to bounce a ball that will bump into every object.


There is a lot of guess and check or hit and miss. Also, each bump creates a different note. Some of the bumping are famous songs.


At level 20, you must make a decision: how much to pay to continue. Your options: are $.99, $1.99, $2.99, $4.99, $8.99 or $0.00. I love this concept. I've been saying this for a long time: puzzle designers need to be financially rewarded for entertaining us and stimulating our minds.


There are 100 levels and I've done 64 of them.  I was stuck on level 60, then gave up and looked at the solution on youtube. Then I found a different solution.


Okay? is definitely in the running for a PAGY Award (Puzzle App Games of the Year). Nominations: December 30.  Awards: December 31.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiyRGSMK61c&feature=player_embedded
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/okay/id962050549?mt=8

4Arrows: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  

Remember Game About Squares? It was a huge hit last summer and spawned dozens of clones.
4Arrows is very similar. The object is to tap the squares one by one and get them to their matching line home.


4Arrows is tough!  I have not solved even half the levels.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id975088601

Cicada 3301 - what is it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbSCGUPX8Sw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KobdBv8_TIg

Eat A Way - Earthworm legend - free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Eat-A Way - Earthworm legend comes from Zhang Dan. It's a topology type puzzle game app. The objective is to have the worm eat all the leaves.

  

The worm can travel in any direction, but cannot cross its own path.
There are 50 levels and I think they're pretty easy. At the moment, I've done 38 levels. I'd like to polish them off - (like finishing a book), but I really must spend my puzzling time more wisely on more worthy games.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eat-a-way-earthworm-legend/id1032643666?mt=8


Similar Games

Filling
Block Path
Snake Walk
Mortal Coil - in the Puzzle App Hall of Fame
Stroke! - largely overlooked,  adds a color matching scheme that makes it devilishly hard.
Full House Touch
Full Monster Puzzle
Berry Puzzle

Bloxorz 2 Path Finder - free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

The original Bloxorz came out 6 years ago.  A student told me about it and I rewarded him with an extra 5 points on his test.

This newest version Bloxorz 2 is not really the same thing. This game is more of a topology puzzle. The object is to roll your man over every square and end up in the red hole.


Blue squares must be rolled over twice. Purple squares don't count. Of course, there are wormholes.


There are only 24 levels and they go very quickly.


https://itunes.apple.com/it/app/bloxorz-2-path-finder/id1033024880?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2




True Bloxorz puzzles and other Rolling Cube puzzles:
Incredible Box Brainstorm
Block N Roll 3D
Simpl
Amtalee
QVoid
Cubot
ODMO
Cubler 2

Hardest chess puzzle?

http://hebdenbridgechessclub.blogspot.nl/2011/02/hardest-chess-problem-in-world.html?

SpherePuzzle〜超頭脳派ゲーム〜

   

Tatsuya Koyama is the author of Sphere Puzzle. It's a peg jumping puzzle app game.

What's different: if you jump a yellow peg, it wipes out the surrounding 3x3 square cluster.

I've only done 12 levels.

I'm confused: according to the app store, this game is 58.3 MB. But my ipad says that it's 125 MB.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id1006413788

Thermometers - a puzzle set to play on your laptop

Thermometer Puzzles are very similar to Battleships. 

What's different? The thermometers that are partly filled: they must always get filled from the bulb outward. (Perhaps there might be some young puzzlers out there who have never used a mercury thermometer; digital is much safer.)

There are 38 puzzles and after doing the first 5 online, I decided to print the rest so I could draw big X's on the squares that could not possibly be filled.

I solved almost all of the easy puzzles. Then got stuck on the medium levels!

Love these.

http://www.puzzlepicnic.com/puzzle?5043