The Best iphone, ipad Puzzle Apps and Mechanical Puzzles: December 2019

All the levels are split into 9 Acts. So I got to sample the various elements.

If you're a Ribbon Puzzle fan, add this to your device.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/colorfold-2/id1439018385

Other Ribbon Puzzles
Ribbons Puzzle Game
The Weaver
Ribbon Puzzle
TAPES - similar to Colorbind. Excellent
Woven - easy
Colorbind - the first of its kind. Genius
Twisted Lines - very hard
Spreadset Easy til you get to level 7 or 8

Solitaire Logic by Mark Mainwood FREE

Solitaire Logic comes from Mark Mainwood, The object is to place the 9 cards in the grid above by using the clues at the bottom. It's very similar to ThinkFun's Chocolate Fix.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/solitaire-logic/id1481885506

Friday, December 27, 2019

Parks Landscapes - Logic Game by Andrea Sabbatini FREE

Parks Landscapes - Logic Game comes from Andrea Sabbatini. Andrea has a long history of publishing very good puzzle apps.

In this game, the object is to place 1 tree in each park, each row and each column.

On the harder levels, each park, row & column will have 2 trees. This concept was expertly done in Twin Beams from 2012. Sadly, that game is no longer available (But it's still on my ipad!)

Parks Landscapes has 1000 new levels spread out over different landscapes. I prefer the desert landscape.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parks-landscapes-logic-game/id1479179864

Also by Andrea:
Park Seasons Hedgehog Gardens Park Seasons

100²

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Frog Tactics by Guillaume Danel

Frog Tactics comes from Guillaume Danel. The object is to place arrows and jumping points to make the frog hit every square and then land on the red spot.

We've seen this type of game many times before. But I do like this game. Level 12 was challenging because even though the grid was small, there were 3 sets of wormholes.

Of the 60 regular levels, I've solved 45. The game allows all users to create their own levels and share them. At the moment, there are 360 of those.

Very interesting: you must place directional arrows or a jumping icon on various tiles. There is also a 'go back 3 steps' move.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/frog-tactics/id1485651048

Wednesday, December 25, 2019

inbento by Lukasz Spierewka $2.99

inbento comes from by Lukasz Spierewka. It's a food puzzle. I believe that every mother has said to every young child: Don't Play With Your Food!

The object in this game is to lay the tiles at the bottom onto the grid to match the image above.

Look at the tiles on the bottom right for both images. Those arrows show that some pieces will have to shift.

I've solved 76 of the 108 levels.

Lukasz: good game!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/inbento/id1468115950

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

SNIKS by Shelly Alon $2.99

SNIKS comes from Shelly Alon. It's another snake game. It's fantastic.

The object is to wriggle the snakes around until their body rests on the colored targets.

Features:
1. Wormholes. We've seen this many times before. Maybe the first time in a snake game.
2.Combining Colors: 2 snakes with different colors must overlap on the targets.
3. The Plus Sign increases your snake by 1 unit.
4. Snakes are sometimes monochrome, sometimes not.
5. Snakes usually travel 1 unit at a time. Unless you're near the end, and don't stop until they hit a wall.

There are 110 levels. I've solved about 85 levels. Stuck on #57

Shelly: fantastic job.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sniks/id1425793639

Other Snake Puzzles: all winners.
Snaky Snake
Snakes Minimal Board Fill Puzzle
Snakebird
Eat A Way
Twisted Snake
Quetzalcoatl
Truepuzzle
Hyper Snake
Snake Slider
Wriggle
Snakekans

Monday, December 23, 2019

Bloku by Abdullah Firat FREE

Loyal Blog Follower David Cole sent me an alert about Bloku. The object is to swipe rows piece by piece off the screen. This brings stray cubes down. When a cube hits the top of the board - it's game over.

I did not want to like this game! I've never been a fan of Tetris. However, this point-scoring game is much better than it appears.

One night, my score was about 8500, when I went to bed mid-game.. In the morning.....my game was erased. Ever since, I have not been able to crack 7000. I've become a little obsessed.

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

Colorzam
Color 6
Sticks.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bloku/id1488095399?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Friday, December 6, 2019

Embergram by the Gillespie Brothers FREE

Embergram comes from Matthew, Bryan and Jacob Gillespie. Their game is very very similar to Thermometer puzzles. (More Thermometer Puzzles).

The object is to burn the matches so that the number of embers in each row/column matches the numbers on the sides.

Each section has relatively easy levels with straight matches only. As the matches get curvy, they get more interesting.

What could be better: there should be an element that marks squares that cannot be burnt!

There are 12 levels for each grid size: 4x4 to 12x12. I've spent a lot of time on this game. The 12x12 levels take about 20 minutes.

Gillespie clan: you guys rocked this.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/embergram/id1471800563
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.umvirate.embergram&hl=en
Developer website: http://umvirate.com/

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Sudoku Octangles: Numbers Game by Amr Hassan FREE

Sudoku Octangles: Numbers Game comes from Amr Hassan. The object is to place the numbers in the spaces to form a Latin Square (very similar to sudoku).

There are two game: Sum and multiplication. The little numbers in the grid are either the sum of the surrounding 4 numbers or the product.

The grid sizes go from 3x3 to 9x9.

According to the Leaderboard......practically nobody has played this game. I think it's pretty good.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sudoku-octangles-numbers-game/id1480851707

Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Chromoblox by Dan Bravender FREE

Chromoblox comes from Dan Bravender. This game is very similar to the card game SET. The object is to clear the board by selecting 3 tiles that are all different or are all the same.

Important: the selected pieces can only come from the bottom of the columns.

Look at the first image. Legal move: the green heart from bottom of column 1, then the blue triangle from column 1, then the red circle from column 5.

I don't know how many levels there are. I'm guessing I've done about 25.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chromoblox/id1480608922

Monday, December 2, 2019

Thinking Putty Puzzles from ThinkFun

Thinking Putty Puzzles is a finalist for Toy of the Year Award in the Specialty Category.

ThinkFun is one of the best puzzle companies in the world. I was asked to create the challenge puzzles for their new game Thinking Putty Puzzles. The concept is easy: connect the two yellow points, and the two blue points, etc, without crossing lines. Previously, I made similar puzzles for Mindware.com under the titles Lab Mice Puzzles and Find Your Way Gnome.

However, in this version, there are bridges, which allow for some crossing of lines.
When's the last time you played with putty? The putty was re-invented by Crazy Aaron.

Reasons to buy:
1. It's fun.
2. Makes for a great gift for nieces/nephews/grandkids.
3. My royalty checks will increase with your purchase.

Amazon: buy it here and/or read customer reviews

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Casual Game Revolution

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https://www.thinkfun.com/products/thinking-putty-puzzle/

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