Slash Pong! by Cane.asia inc FREE

 Slash Pong! comes Cane.asia inc. It's a physics puzzle where the object is to slice the various objects/shapes in order to make the red and blue balls collide.

There are 100 levels.  I've done 18. There are numerous ads.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slash-pong/id1382525758?mt=8

0 -zero- by Simple Numerical Puzzles FREE

I like math puzzles a lot.  0 -zero- comes from Simple Numerical Puzzles.  The object is to slide the row right/left and the column up/down as fast as possible to get a Zero Value in the center.  How many Zeros can you get in the time limit.


This is a good game.  But there should be 3 specific times: 1 minute, 2 minutes & 5 minutes. There should be a Leaderboard feature too.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/0-zero/id1375419670?mt=8

Bloki by Maksymilian Michalski $.99

 Bloki comes from Maksymilian Michalski.  Yes it is a cube rolling puzzle. But it is much more.  The object is to roll Your Man so that the colors match the target/s on the board.

 There are 100 levels with many features.  Level 15 took more than 1 hour. I'm somewhere around level 20.

Your Man will have to grow & change shape in very careful strategic ways. Then it must dance all around the grid to align itself flat onto the target.


Hard, hard hard.  Elegant, cool & sophisticated.


Bravo Maksymilian!


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bloki/id1366957963?mt=8




Other Cube-Rolling puzzle apps
Cubot - really great
Dice Jockey
Qvoid - one of the best puzzle apps ever
Cubler - fantastic
ODMO - okay
Bloxie
Amtalee
Bloxorz - one of the originals
Duck Roll
Roll the Dices
Blork








Block N Roll 3D
IQube Lite
Bloxorz 2 Path Finder
Incredible Box Brainstorm

Fuse5 by Selin Caliskan FREE

Fuse5 comes from Selin Caliskan.  He mad Omino! about a year ago. I liked that game a lot.


The object of the new game is to score points and collect stars by combining tiles of the same number.  1's become a single 2.  2's become a single 3 etc.  5's become a single star.  Stars can only be collected in a group.


As point scoring games go, Fuse5 is very solid. Unfortunately, a single game can last more than 1 hour.  Omino! is better.


Both have good graphics and are well executed overall.


I've collected 375 stars and 19,000 points which puts me in the top 50 out of 16,000.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fuse5/id1356495807?mt=8




Other Point Scoring Games Worthy of Your Time (Some are no longer available.)
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

numDance

Black Boxes

o:anquan
Levels

Buckets

Hit N Run

Puppo!

Omino!

Super Swipes

Make Square

Colorzam
Color 6
Sticks.

21 Black

Chessumo

Find The Way by Kexin Jin FREE

 Find The Way comes from Kexin Jin. The object is to move Your Men, the ghosts, to the portals.  Both ghosts travel in tandem.  Along the way: pick up the stars while avoiding the deadly bats.

We've seen this type of game numerous times. See list below.  I've solved about 20 levels.  According to the leaderboard, not many are playing this game.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/find-the-way/id1351228844?mt=8


Similar games (this list is incomplete):

Movez  Pretty much the same as Block Mania but it has 1680 levels. I've solved 592 of them. That's probably enough.
Frozen Ice Cubes  What's different: there's a point of 'no return'
Escapology, reviewed by Nicola Salmoria. He told me about this game ages ago. I played it and enjoyed it, but never blogged about it.
Block Mania Similar to Movez
Move Puzzle - A Funny Strategy Game, Matching Tiles Within Finite Moves 
Zink
Vubu What's different: the vubu men have different powers. Very sophisticated, very intelligent. Possibly the very best in this genre.
Move: A Brain Shifting GameUnmind
Puzzle Dots Game
Box Home Love to play Hexagonal grid

Degboard by Hieu Nguyen FREE

 Degboard come from Hieu Nguyen.  The object is to create loops  so that all the tiles on the board are covered and each numbered square has that many paths emerging from it.

It's very straight forward.  Except for 2 things: Numbered tiles that happen to be next to each other cannot be connected.  Also, it's possible to fulfill the given parameters and not get a star because a loop is not connected to the other loops/tentacles.


I've done about 100 levels, which places me 3rd on the Leaderboard.  Out of just 28.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/degboard/id1287194211?mt=8
https://www.facebook.com/puzzliongames/

Laurie Brokenshire: puzzler

I first met Laurie Brokenshire when he attended a NY Puzzle Party and gave a presentation about puzzle vessels. He displayed a very impressive collection of those types of puzzles too.  The article below shows his collection.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1165389/Britains-biggest-puzzle-addict-built-30-000-extension-house-brainteasers--does-poor-wife-cope.html


I got to know Laurie better over the years. Nancy & I stayed at his and Ethel's house in 2014.


About 3 years ago the boys choir at my school chose this song to sing: http://chickenonaraft.com/  I wondered about the lyrics and asked Laurie for some analysis. I forwarded it to the chorus teacher who was a bit shocked.




Sadly, Laurie passed away last summer and this is his obituary in the Telegram.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/08/27/commodore-laurie-brokenshire-royal-navy-officer-puzzlist-obituary/

Unblock lights by Evgenii Polomarchuk FREE

 Unblock lights comes from Evgenii Polomarchuk.  The object is to slide the red tiles right/left and the blue tiles up/down in order to clear a path for the lights.

This is a very solid game. The solutions are not obvious.  Trying to collect stars by minimizing the moves requires me to do them twice. First to get the solution path of the lights. Second to then minimize the block moves.


There are 900 levels, which is far too many.  But I definitely like this game.  Good job Evgenii!


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unblock-lights/id1373843690?mt=8

Rotated by Antonis Panoris FREE

Rotated! looks like a lot of other point scoring puzzle apps. Merged comes to mind.


The number 1 drops down after every rotation (move) that you make.  1's merge into a 2, 2's get merged into a 3 etc. 




This is a decent game, not great; a Leaderboard feature would make things more interesting. I've played it 5 or 6 times and the highest tile I got was an 8. By mistake, I rotated right instead of left.  And that totally made me lose.


I'm curious about how this game would play with a 4x4 grid and if random #s dropped down instead of just 1's.
I like the graphics. 1 tweak to improve: tapping on the right/left sides of the screen as opposed to just tapping on the curved arrows.




https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rotated/id1375259129?mt=8

Fire Up! by Voodoo FREE

Fire Up! comes from the good people at Voodoo. It's a dexterity/speed game where the object is to move your bucket in front of the smallest tile and fire at it until it disappears or Your Man crashes into it.


I saw somebody playing this on the subway. Looked like fun.  And it is. But the key thing is to quickly see which block is lowest and then shift.  I would prefer that there be a zoom out feature in order to plan ahead.


Also, I don't think this game runs well on older devices. Am deleting this now.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fire-up/id1308209088?mt=8

SiNKR: A minimalist puzzle by Wahler Digital LLC $.99

When I saw SiNKR: A minimalist puzzle from Wahler Digital, I thought to myself: looks like a clone of Maciej Targoni's Hook from 2015.



Unquestionably this game has been influenced by Hook. However, SiNKR has added the feature of snagging the balls to the holes.


My favorite feature: hooks connecting to each other in a tug of war, which is necessary for retrieving the wayward balls.


There are 60 levels and I've done 26.





https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sinkr-a-minimalist-puzzle/id1339700349?mt=8

Miscellaneous Puzzle Stuff

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2125302/how-rubiks-cube-craze-spawned-rivals-hong-kong-puzzle-career-and-why-78  Uwe Meffert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=GIAMogstbWU&app=desktop  Classic Chocolate squares

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRCzPiQCaFY&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop  Rubik's Cube coffee table

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhuaPhahHbU&t=0s&index=1&list=PLt5AfwLFPxWL_GidO6CTTlBeBLoaJeMtl  Henry Segerman gave an excellent talk at last year's New York Puzzle Party

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y7X5H1-hHkg


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1668831552/paradox-a-cube-escape-game-and-rusty-lake-short-fi  Rusty Lake is making a real film

Qroon by Yuuma Sakata FREE

 Qroon comes from Yuuma Sakata. I believe he's from Japan.  The object is to use the blue balls to align them to trap the red balls in between them to destroy the red balls.

This is a fun little game!
Some features:
1. The blue balls cannot get trapped in between the red balls.
2. The blue balls always travel together, making it a kind of double maze.
3. The red balls sometimes travel back and forth which adds a timing/dexterity element.
4. The yellow blocks with squares: they can be pushed a la sokoban.
5. The yellow blocks with cracks: the force of the magnetic balls will go through them and crush them into oblivion.
6. Starting on level 21, there is a reverse button which trades all red & blue dots.

I don't know how many levels there are.  The graphics are okay, they could be better.  What's important are the actual puzzles; some are quite clever.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qroon/id1354363903?mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tmy.jack.Qroon

Rusty Lake: Roots $2.99

 Last week was Rusty Lake's 3rd birthday and they offered Roots for $.99.  Oh yeah. But the price is back to $2.99.

 I've played almost all of their games.  Roots follows the Vanderboom family through generations - all living in the same house.  Of course, there are supernatural & horror elements and nobody lives happily ever after.

 There are 33 levels and each is a mini room-escape. Sort of.  The Rusty Lake people are still using the same elements in all of their games: the drawers that have a knife or scissors or a key.  The pieces of a puzzle that are hidden behind portraits. Yawn.


However, the story of the family is never dull. It's similar in intensity to the last half of Rosemary's Baby.

The puzzles are not too hard. I consulted a walkthrough for 3 of the rooms.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rusty-lake-roots/id1142016085?mt=8


Other Rusty Lake Games I've played/reviewed:

Cube Escape: Birthday
Cube Escape: Case 23
Cube Escape: The Mill
Cube Escape: Harvey's Room
Cube Escape: The Lake
Cube Escape: Arles
Cube Escape: Seasons
Cube Escape: Theater
Cube Escape: The Cave
Rusty Lake: Hotel

Dragonwood by Gamewright $14.99

  

Dragonwood comes from the good people at Gamewright.  Like a lot of games produced these days, the instructions are complicated and require very careful reading.

I was reluctant to 'get into it.' However, this is a game of probability and is essentially a gambling game.  It's fun and fantastic.  I've played it twice in a group of 3 players and have thought hard about good strategy.

It'll take 20-30 min to go through the directions.  Then 30 min to play 1 game.

https://gamewright.com/product/Dragonwood
https://www.amazon.com/Dragonwood-Game-Dice-Daring-Board/dp/B00UB7OV7K/ref=pd_sim_21_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00UB7OV7K&pd_rd_r=3SAP9MWHDCJY0PKYW0AC&pd_rd_w=tUKk3&pd_rd_wg=ocDIS&psc=1&refRID=3SAP9MWHDCJY0PKYW0AC