Level: A Simple Puzzle Game by Starch Inc. Free!

  

Starch is short for Stacie Archer, who recently contacted me about Level: A Simple Puzzle Game.
The object is to level off the rectangles by transferring the circles, squares & triangles from beam to beam.

  

1 triangle = 2 circles.  1 Square = 1 triangle + 1 circle.  I think!  The black shapes never move.  The white shapes with the blank centers are negative valued.

There are 80 levels and I've done about 25.  They go pretty quickly, then get tricky.
The graphics are very good.  Give it a try.  Add your thoughts to the comments down below.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/level-a-simple-puzzle-game/id982255287?ls=1&mt=8

Colored Path by Santiago Castroman $.99

  

Colored Path comes from Santiago Castroman.  The object is to draw a single path to match the colored pattern on top. If a square is hit only once, it will be light blue.  Twice - dark blue. Then purple, then red.

  

There are so many other puzzle apps that are like this.
What I particularly like is that there are only 54 levels and I solved all but 3. So close.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/colored-path/id1171396624?mt=8

Tomb of the Brain is a very similar puzzle, but not as colorful.

Circles Galaxy by Miroslaw Zielinski Free

  

Circles Galaxy comes from Miroslaw Zielinski.  Not too long ago I wrote about his other game Tomb of the Brain.    In this game, the object is to score points by placing colored rings onto the pegs.  Get 3 in a row and you score points and those rings come off the board to make room for other rings.

  

I've only played the game once.  It took a while to play.  Then, gradually, more colors were added. I don't know how many I ended up with.

Circles Galaxy is not bad. But it's competing with a slew of other point scoring puzzle app games. See list below.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/circles-galaxy/id1155824530?mt=8

Other Point Scoring Games Worthy of Your Time
NumberMania
Four Straight Lines
Pushopolous
Stickets
Folt
Nineout
Nineout II
BeeCells Lite
Kindly Colors
HexAgony
Domino Drop
Put Number
Tripevo
Triple Town         
Kindly  Colors   
COLORswipe    
SubaraCity
Virus Pop Smash
+1 Number
4 Way Puzzle
Merged!
Enso

Politaire

Treple

Flud. By Appsolute Games LLC $.99

  

Dmitry Chalovskiy contacted me - months ago!- about his puzzle app game FLUD.  It's a topology game.  The object is to flood (FLUD) the board.

  

Look at the first image. The 3 white dots at the top indicate how many moves are left.  The 2 white dots on the top right indicate how many arrows you may place.


Once you've placed your arrows, you can tap on any square and swipe in any direction.


Dmitry sent me a promo code to download his game. (Thanks Dmitry.) (I didn't realize it was a beta version. For the record, I try not to play-test beta versions only because it's too time consuming.)

The graphics are good. FLUD is HARD. I don't remember how many levels I solved, maybe 20?

https://itunes.apple.com/app/flud./id1146177222?mt=8

Kubic By Appsolute Games LLC $1.99

 

Kubic has been on my mind for a while.  Description from the App Store:
kubic is a unique optical illusion puzzle game based on M.C. Escher's art, impossible objects and other geometric designs. The object is to construct the goal configuration from a number of pieces.

Presented in a simple, clean design and minimalistic art, kubic is a premium game with 60 escher-esque puzzles.

When you click on a piece, it pops to the front-most layer, and may overlap other pieces. When you combine the pieces, they do not merge. If there are extra pieces, you may hide them behind the others. If you are stuck on a puzzle you can simply skip it and re-visit at a later time. Rest assured, all puzzles can be solved.

If you truly get stuck, there is a in-game hint system. You can use it to get started or even get the whole puzzle solved.

  

I'm not sure how many levels I solved. I played this during the summer. I'm guessing about one-third.  They get pretty tough!

https://itunes.apple.com/app/kubic/id1115010672?ls=1&mt=8

Sun or Moon by Yuki Fujimoto Free

  

Yuki Fujimoto has produced a lot of pencil puzzle apps recently.  Sun or Moon is also known as 月か太陽. 

  

1. The object is to create a single loop that will pass through every country. The yellow lines are the borders of those countries.

2.  Within each country, the line/loop can only pass through a Sun or Moon.  When going from country to country, the sun & moon must alternate.  Also, within a single country, you can pass through multiple suns or multiple moons, but not both.

I like this game a lot.  I did all the 5x5 grids quickly, then jumped to the 10x10 levels.  And that's when I noticed a bug in the program.  No matter what loop I draw, the program says I've solved it.  Oh well.  It's still a good game and you know when you've solved it or when you're stuck.
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/yueka-tai-yang/id1175901385?mt=8

Mystery Lighthouse 2 HD by PHB Media Ltd $.99

Last week I reviewed Blackthorn Castle which was really long.  So I decided to redo Mystery Lighthouse (the original) and Mystery Lighthouse 2, which I never played. In the original, the puzzle of the alarm clock was amusing.

The story is thin, but still satisfying.  You have landed on a moon of Saturn. Your task is to find Uncle Augustus.

The graphics are charming.

One puzzle was difficult, the rest - kind of easy.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mystery-lighthouse-2-hd/id592727906?mt=8

Happy Friday!  The PAGY Awards are coming up: Nominations December 30,  Awards December 31.

2 Great videos

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XP6UrBHwPC4 I've also been to Oskar's house.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KyxP0VvQgOs  Tim is a regular attendee of the NY Puzzle Party. I have an amusing story to tell about his toy collection. Come to the next NY Puzzle Party, and I'll tell it.

Tomb of the Brain by Miroslaw Zielinski $.99

  

Tomb of the Brain comes from Miroslaw Zielinski.  It's one of those topology puzzle app games.  The objective is to pass Your Man over every square once.  If a square has two dots on it, then it must be traversed twice.

  

Features:

Each puzzle has a distinct start and endpoint.
Arrows force the direction of Your Man.
Wormholes must be used.  I found one level without using the wormholes and was perplexed as to why I didn't solve the level.
There are 90 levels and I have no idea how many I did. The menu does not allow me to go back to any previous level or even determine what level I'm on.

The title Tomb of the Brain  I'm not sure what that means.  Maybe it implies that you need to dig deep into your brain to solve these.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tomb-of-the-brain/id1116417458?mt=8

Link - Mind Bending Puzzler by Akshay Kapoor Free!

This Blog is getting its one-millionth hit today.  Woo!

  

If you've been following this blog since its inception in 2009, you know well that I like good topology type puzzle apps.

Link - Mind Bending Puzzler from Akshay Kapoor is nothing new. The object is to start at 1, pass through all the numbers and then end on the highest number.  No need to cross over every single square in the grid.

The most similar puzzle apps include Numeric Paranoia and Number Painting (see links below).

There are 200 levels and I'm somewhere around 120.  Level 100 was the hardest so far.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/link-mind-bending-puzzler/id1061486666?mt=8

Try these other Topology puzzle apps. 
Lines Numeric Fun
Space Dots
Just Routes
Dedale
SEQ
Square Time
Numeric Paranoia- Fantastic
Number Painting - Love this
Filling
Water Colors
Stroke!  - Genius
Pathle
Colors the Addictive Game
Chemin - Terrific
Patchmania 
Number Escape
Flow Draw A Line
YK Puzzle

Color Labyrinth - A Smart Puzzle Like Sokoban 激ムズ完全思考型パズル：カラーラビリンス

 

Color Labyrinth - A Smart Puzzle Like Sokoban  adds some very good elements to the old concept of sokoban. The goal in each is to move/push the blocks and get to the exit.

 

1. Blocks that are the same color will merge. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times not.
2.  The grid is white. Black squares will sometime have to be filled. If a square is marked with a green +, that means that if a green square is pushed onto it, it will be locked in place.

There's a lot more to say about this game, but I'll let you see for yourself.  It's got everything: 'aha' moments, lots of levels etc.  I have not solved all the levels.

I'm not crazy about the graphics. But that's okay. The content is what's important. New elements are presented with easy levels and then things get gradually harder.
https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/color-labyrinth-cang-ku-fan/id451036454?mt=8

http://minimalie.com/


Other Good Sokoban Puzzles
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build Charming
Go to Gold - superb
Go to Gold 2 - I hope a third version comes out.
Pepe Porcupine
Sokoban Cargo
Push Box Sokoban
Push Around
Boxed In - loved this. First in a series of 4.
Pengu Push
BoxWorld - awesome. I still remember struggling through levels 26 and 35 for days.
Fireman Arcade
Paper & Light
Square Push Square
Professor Max
Puzzling Cubes
DJ Mole
Sokoban Evolution
Test Chamber - brilliant
Duck Roll surprisingly very good

Leonard Cohen died yesterday. My favorite version of his song Sisters of Mercy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNlfvO_1V5w

Blackthorn Castle by Lone Wolf Games, LLC $1.99

Recently Blackthorn Castle was listed as free.  It's similar to the famous Myst.

Your task to to wander around, pick up things, utilize them in other places and solve random puzzles.

There didn't seem to be much of a plot.  And the puzzles themselves weren't too hard.  No need to consult a walkthrough.

Interesting: there are about 65 different scenes.  At any time, you can ask for a clue and it will reveal which scene to go to.  The map on the bottom right lists the location for each scene which is very helpful.  If you pick up a horseshoe, you could wander around and around and try to remember exactly where you might use it. Or you could save all that time with a clue to the location. The game still takes at least 2 or 3 hours to play.

The artwork is good. Navigation is a bit awkward in some locations: tap on the bottom center to reverse.

At the very end, I was surprised because solving a certain puzzle and getting the object inside was no different from 20 other puzzles.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackthorn-castle/id966038711?mt=8

Mystery Lighthouse is very similar. There is a bit more plot. The ending is wonderful.

Pinout! by Mediocre AB Free!

Puzzlers: obviously the election in the USA has upset many of you. Perhaps some of you are pleased.  Either way: it's time to veg out on a game that will hopefully calm you down.

  

Pinout is a very fun pinball challenge.  The object is to constantly shoot the ball up ramps to the next level.  There is a time limit.  Ramps that have the glowing dots will add to your time.

  

When your ball goes straight down the middle - you're in serious trouble because it may fall through multiple levels and you will lose major time.

(Within this game there are 3 classic video games.  Since they neither add nor subtract time to my score, I try to lose at them as quickly as possible because my objective is to play pinball.)

The overall graphics remind me of the ones from the film Tron. My high score is 7300 and that took a solid 15 to 20 minutes.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinout!/id1108417718?mt=8

Pinball Sniper is another great game. Very different.

Miscellaneous Puzzling

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=tLksISrKtO8&app=desktop A new world record for solving Rubik's Cube.  Why doesn't the New York Times Report this?
2. This Puzzle App Blog is about to get its 1 millionth hit soon.  If you're The One, please take a screen shot and send it to me for a prize.  The hit counter does not show up on mobile devices.
3. The 2016 PAGY Awards will be awarded on December 31.  The Nominees - December 30.  If you would like to be on the Committee, just let me know.  The only qualification: you have to have played a lot of puzzle apps this year. Or some.  Even just 1 that you really like.
4. Hocus, great puzzle app, is temporarily free, again.
5. It's election night in America.  In the spirit of this historic day, do 'watch' the returns while playing puzzle apps. No need to look at the tv screen.

Sevens Up by Lisa Burns Free!

   

Do you remember the game Merged!? It's a great point scoring game.

Sevens Up by Lisa Burns is essentially the same thing, but with an addition.

But let's go over the objectives first.  Score points by getting 3 of the same number together.  Three 4's will merge to form a single 5.  When three 7's merge, all the surrounding tiles disappear.

In the original Merged! playing 1 game could take an hour or more.  Sevens Up offers the opportunity to extend the game practically forever.  Look at the third image. In the bottom right corner is a tile with 2 arrows.  Placing this on the board will eliminate the tiles in that column.  How do you get those tiles? By merging three 7's.

I played this game for about 30 minutes without using any of these special tiles.  After 45 minutes, I realized I needed to intentionally lose the game.

Sevens Up offers a nice twist on a great game. The graphics are nice.
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/sevens-up/id1168679329?l=en&mt=8