Hanoi Stack by Sergii Nagin FREE

Hanoi Stack comes from Sergii Nagin. Th object is to flip rings and stacks of rings to eventually land on the pole is size order - largest on the bottom.

I did the first 25 levels in about 15 minutes.  They start getting interesting around level 50, as more rings are added to the grid.

Interesting:
1. Multiple rings of the same size are frequent.
2. When a stack joins another ring, it will invert completely.  Look at the last image. The green ring on top - that whole stack will flip onto the light blue ring.  That will leave the red, largest ring, on top. 

I have no idea how many levels there are.  I've done about 120.  The last 25 took about 20 minutes.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hanoi-stack/id1478998981

Rope Rescue! - Unique Puzzle by Coda Platform Limited

Rope Rescue! - Unique Puzzle comes from Coda Platform Limited.  The object is to get Your People from the top to the bottom safely while avoiding the red wheels and the lasers and various other obstacles.

This game came out in July and has 39,000 reviews.

This puzzle play pretty fast. I've solved about 90 levels over 2 days.  No idea how many levels there are. 

Important: you must turn off your wifi or you'll be bombarded with ads.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/rope-rescue-unique-puzzle/id1474676263
https://coda.xyz/

Sandwich Sudoku by Nick Carney $4.99

Sandwich Sudoku comes from Nick Carney. This game was popularized in the spring by Alex Bellos via his puzzle column in The Guardian. 

It's a standard sudoku with one significant difference: the numbers above the grid, and to the side of the grid, are the sums of the numbers that separate the 1 and the 9 in that column or row.

Puzzlers who have played Killer Sudoku (see link below) and Kakuro should be able to jump right in.

The game has only 40 levels, but that's okay! These games have been taking me a long time to solve.  At the moment I've solved 13 levels totaling about 6 hours of fun.  By that measure, $5 is cheap.

This game is fantastic.

My Solving Times
Level   Time
1          14:07
2          31:04
3          26:32
4          26:05
5          11:40
6          44:40
7          23:07
10        26:50
11        31:23
13        28:44
14        23:36
16        21:50
17        24:22

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sandwich-sudoku/id1476116705

Other Innovative Sudoku Puzzle Apps
Kropk'i Sudoku  This is really a Latin Square with a couple of innovative ideas. It plays fast.
Quindoku Same as Logi5Puzz
Logi5Puzz  Same as NumDom. But NumDom has larger grid sizes.
Spindoku is totally different, but still very cool.
Hi-Lo Sudoku is one of my favorite variations.
Cryptdoku I played it so long ago, but it's cool. Long gone from the App Store.
Stimko Gold - outstanding version of squiggly Sudoku.  Handcrafted puzzles.
Kakooma - interesting for about 3 levels
RollDoku - never even solved 1 level, so hard
Cohabit- played this on my ipod touch - before ipad was invented
FlowDoKu - one of my favorites. Will not delete this.
Sudoku Mine combines Sudoku with Minesweeper
Sudoku Killer  combines Sudoku with Kakuro. I've spent a lot of time on this one. I can do the easy levels in about 10 minutes.
3Doku - a cubic version of Sudoku
Pokergreen Puzzles - a poker version of Sudoku
Star Sudoku
Sudoku Maze
Sudoku Spin
Sudoku Sweeper
Joint Number Place
Futoshiki
SudoCubed
Rotadoku

Path of Giants $3.99

Andrew Farrell  from Journey Bound Games sent me a promo code for Path of Giants. The object is to get Your 3 Men, to their targets.  About 50 times. 

Each level is a 3D maze filled with ladders, portals and all sorts of contraptions including pulley elevators various buttons that activate random stairs.  Sometimes paths rotate.

The key element to Path of Giants is that Your Men must rely on each other.  Mr Yellow has to activate his button in order for Mr. Blue to get going.  Throughout the levels, each character will need to climb on the shoulders of the others in order to ascend to a higher step.

The puzzles are not too hard. Though I did have to restart some because I was in an impossible position. (The program told me!)

The graphics are charming and well done.  This game must be played on a large screen.

I did the first half of the game while watching 2 programs on C-SPAN.  I finished the game in 3 days.

If you like Monument Valley, you'll like Paths of Giants.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/path-of-giants/id1475781647

Flow Fit: Sudoku by Big Duck Games LLC FREE

Flow Fit: Sudoku comes from Big Duck Games LLC  The object is to place the numbered pieces into the grid to form a Latin Square. (Technically, this game should be called Flow Fit: Latin Square.)

This game has over 2000 levels.  Many are easy.  Many are tough.

I particularly like the levels that have a question mark on one square.  It means that the value is not the same for both the horizontal and vertical.

This game is strangely addictive.  I think it's because the graphics are so good.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flow-fit-sudoku/id1475678781

.Connect. by Kishor Berde FREE

.Connect. comes from Kishor Berde.  Recently I blogged about Kishor's other game SARKWO. I liked it so much I thought I'd try his other game.

The object is to swap adjacent marbles one at a time until similar colored marbles are all grouped together within a certain # of moves.

The first 20 levels were so easy and I wondered why I was still playing.  But gradually, new elements were being added and things got more interesting. 

The black squares with a marble: they're fixed.
The black squares with multiple colors (see the third image) can be rotated.
The connecting lines have their own button not attached: tap on it and the corresponding buttons will swap.

There are 170 levels and at the moment I've done 87 levels. I did these all on my phone while killing time. 

Advice to all puzzle app developers: Don't publish more than 100 levels.  
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/connect/id1416467796

SARKWO by Kishor Berde $.99

 SARKWO comes from Kishor Berde. The object is to slide the colored tiles to get to their targets.

It reminded me at first of an old java game that was a multi-ball maze.  This game goes pretty fast.  And then things get more interesting with wormholes.

The very last level took me a long time. I kept finding my pieces in the same unsolvable situation.  

My only regret is that I played this game on my tiny phone.  I would like to see some more levels similar to that last one!

(Hey!  You've probably noticed that I've slowed down my review of puzzle apps these past 2 months.  All is good. I'll try to post more frequently.)

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sarkwo/id1462867280