Cast Shark: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the Week

Here's another fish disentanglement puzzle. Try to free the shark from the jaws of a whale. Again, it's a disentanglement puzzle without wire, string or rings. And the metal is so cool.

Remember: always buy 2 or 3 copies. Keep 1 for yourself. The others you give as gifts to nieces & nephews.

Click here for the solution.

Inakube: iphone, ipad puzzle app Update

Ian McColm recently contacted me about an update to his puzzle app Inakube. Which received an honorable mention for best puzzle apps of 2011.

Here's what's particularly cool. The earth puzzle is just a simple 2x2x2 sliding cube puzzle, but there is a partial moon that rotates partially around it - not necessarily in an eliptical orbit! It depends where each continent/ocean is. Very slick.

Hexagons

Yesterday's puzzle app was a dog, so here's a good one.

Hexagons is very similar to SET, the card game of 81 cards. The object is to arrange tiles in a hexagonal circle that have either the same trait or a completely different. Right now, I'm the high scorer as evidenced in the leaderboard (that accomplishment and $2.25 gets me on the subway).

Hexagons is the sequel to Rows Free. Rows Free is awesome; Hexagons is a version that is not necessary. Still, I've played it enough and will not delete it!

Scroll down on this blog and look for Rows Free. That's the one to play.

Colorinth: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

The object is to get the red ball from the upper left corner to the bottom right corner. You can rotate the tiles.

I believe that the tiles must match colors with each other; but I'm not sure. I have not been able to solve the first level - I think it's impossible.

If you can figure this out, please contact me to explain this.
Mario Ruffolo is the author.

A Plumbers Job: free iphone ipad puzzle app

A Plumbers Job: the object is to put the given elbow pipes and complete the path. 50 levels. I did the first 15 levels and got bored. Definitely for younger puzzlers.

Number Matrix: free puzzle app for iphone ipad

Number Matrix comes from the same people who brought us Number Sweeper which I reviewed about 2 weeks ago.

The puzzle: a Number Sweeper grid has already been solved. The object is to figure out which numerical bombs go where. Not very challenging. There are times, as in minesweeper, when you must guess and cannot use logic.

Cast Seabream: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the week

I bought this puzzle about 10 years ago. It was part of a series of sea life disentanglement puzzles that do not involve wire, string or rings. Here's what the inventor said in 2008:
n the summer of 1997, I saw two mackerels that had somehow managed to get into the sardine tank at the aquarium. Watching these two fish unable to blend in with the shoal of sardines made me wonder if they were on a journey of self-discovery.
What sort of adventure will they have?
Imagining this led to the conception of six cast puzzles based on oceanographic subjects.
Subject: SeaBream
A sea bream and a mackerel enjoying themselves getting tangled up together. Take them apart, and then put them back together again.

- Yamamoto 2008 -

Click here for the solution.

D Blocks puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

The object of D Blocks is to swipe away all the blocks that have arrows within a given number of moves. Swipe the green blocks up (and away) and the blue arrows will line up nicely.

There are 25 levels - I solved them all in about 1 hour. I got stuck on some of the levels. Good fun. I'm looking forward to more levels. D Blocks was designed by Mike Singleton.

Big Ben Solitaire

When I was younger, I played many varieties of solitaire. This version is interesting. It's free, so give it a try.

Blockwick: free puzzle app for iphone ipad

Blockwick was created by Kieffer Bros, the makers of Aqueduct and Aqueduct 101, which are fabulous puzzle apps. The object of Blockwick is to slide the colored tiles so they are adjacent to each other. Then they glow and you win.

60 free levels. I've solved them all and have purchased the additional levels. Does it make the list of best puzzle apps of 2012? Not sure yet. But it's definitely quite good and challenging.

FrozeN EquilibriuM puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

My first thought when I saw Frozen Equilibrium: Lights Out with numbers. Not quite.

Like Lights Out: press on any square and that square's number decreases by 1 while the surrounding tiles increase by 1. The goal is to get all the tiles to 0.

The 3x3 grid is fairly easy. The 4x4 gets harder. It starts to get really interesting with the 5x5 grid. (I've solved all but the last one!)

Tricky variation not found in Lights Out: tap a square and that affects all the other tiles in that row & column.

Definitely worth your time.

100,000th visitor is it you?

Loyal viewers, this blog will soon have been visited 100,000 times. If it's you, send me a screen shot and I'll send you a prize.

Cast Radix: Hanayama Puzzle of the week

Okay everybody, I have a confession: I can't solve this puzzle. I have played with it numerous times over the past 4 years and keep hitting a roadblock. I know I'm close.

Here is the solution page, but I refuse to look at it!

Sunk!: free iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Sunk! is a terrific puzzle app where the object is to sink all the enemy submarines while keeping friendly submarines from harm.

Place the red bomb first in the grid. This sets up an area - the surrounding 8 squares - for the grey bombs to explode. The free version has 12 levles. The paid version has 75 levels. All difficulties. I have solved about 35 levels. Challenging and fun!

Matt Carroll is the puzzle game designer. (I have a cousin with the same name!)

Easily, Sunk! makes its way onto the list of best puzzle apps of 2012

Car Valet: yet another version of Rush Hour

Car Valet is yet another version of Rush Hour. This version is free. I played maybe 20 levels. Then realized I just cannot play this game anymore! The graphics are nice. And it's a free puzzle app.

Geeky laptop humor

Click here for some geeky laptop humor.

Sun Stones

Simon Strange recently contacted us about his new puzzle app Sun Stones. The rules and objectives are not posted on the app, so I won't spoil it. Suffice it to say, you have to figure out a series of puzzles. There is an overall mystic, American Indian feel, which is interesting, but I've ignored it to focus on the puzzles.

There are about 50 free levels. Not difficult. A few of them, I had no idea what to do, or how to do it. But managed.

Bottom Line: I've bought the next 3 sets of puzzles.

Pattern Puzzle: great puzzle app for ipad iphone Review

Pattern Puzzle by Hwang Gyu Sung is a topology based puzzle app with many levels of all difficulty ranges.

Each big dot has a number which indicates the number of times your path must pass over that dot. What makes this very interesting is that each path between dots can be used twice - one in each direction.

Fun, addictive, intelligent. Definitely one of the best puzzle apps of 2012

Cast Armour: Hanayama Puzzle of the Week

The object of Cast Armour is to disentangle the 3 pieces. Valentine's day has passed, nevertheless, you can give this to the one you may or may not love. If they can solve it, proceed! If not......you make the call.

Here's the solution.

Cubler 2: great free puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Cubler 2 is a rolling cube maze puzzle. The object is to roll your cube so the yellow face matches the face on the plane. Notice in the other pictures that the plane is not always a plane.

There are 15 levels. I've solved them all in about 73 minutes. Right now, Cubler 2 is a fantastic free puzzle app for the iphone/ipad. Even if Steven Delrue, the author, starts charging $1.99, it's well worth it.

Definitely one of the best puzzle apps of 2012

Rows Free: iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Fans of Tripevo and SET: you will love Rows Free by Nickolaos Kechagias. The object is to score points by aligning 4 tiles in a row that have all the same properties or different properties.

You are given 4 tiles at a time and can place them anywhere in the grid. Each tile has one of 5 colors, one of 5 shapes and one of 5 numbers. Therefore there are a total of 125 different tiles that can be generated randomly.

Rows Free cannot be played quickly. My high score right now is around 22,000 points, which took me 2 hours to accomplish. (That was one game.) The person with the highest score is 'Chunky1948' with 125,676 points. In 2nd place is 'Joy1127' with 107,790 points. These are incredible scores. If either of you ever read this, let us know how many hours that one game took.

The paid version of Rows is .99. That's cheap and you'll never have to look at those annoying ads.

Easily one of the best puzzle apps of 2012.

Rows Free easily makes its way onto the list of best free puzzle apps of 2012. Bravo Nickolaos!

Red Mix: great free puzzle app Review

Red Mix comes from Ivan Vassilev, who also made the terrific puzzle app: Tjam.

The object of Red Mix is to get the red dot to the red circle. This is a tile maze where all dots can move up, down, right, left as far as possible. Red Mix has 200 levels - this will keep you busy for a solid year. These are tough.

Right now I've solved about 10 levels. Terrific job Ivan!

Cosmic Tiles: free puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Cosmic Tiles is an action puzzle game. I played this for about 20 minutes. It's a little too Star Wars-y for my taste. Kids will like it.

Cast Medallion: Mechanical puzzle of the week

Cast Medallion comes from Oskar van Deventer. It is a double sided maze made from 4 discs. The object is to dismantle the puzzle into 4 pieces. Cast medallion was originally made in 2003 in plastic. It was prototyped by George Miller. The plastic version is more colorful; however it is more fragile. It is one of those puzzles that I won't let other people play with.

This metal version is indestructible. This one, I'll let guests play with.

Click here for more details.

Number Sweeper: free puzzle app for iphone ipad

Number Sweeper is very similar to Mine Sweeper. But better.(If you don't know about Mine Sweeper, find out about it.)

The directions posted for the app itself, are not clear. Look at the image above. Look at the cell near the top left corner. Notice it says 1 with (2) underneath. The 1 means that 1 bomb is nearby. The 2 means that the sum of all the bombs near it add up to 2. So, each bomb has a numerical value.

Mine Sweeper has a feature for speeding up the solution; Number Sweeper would be better if it had this feature. Still, Number Sweeper is worthy of your time.

Is it one of the best puzzle apps of 2012? Probably not. But it'll be a runner-up.

iWoodPuzzle: free iphone ipad puzzle app Review

iWoodPuzzle is yet another version of Rush Hour. However, this time the red rectangle can move up and down, as well as side to side. The objective for all of the levels: move it to the bottom right corner - notice the checkerboard image there. One of the best free puzzle apps of 2012? Not sure yet, since I only played the easy & medium levels and have not paid for the harder levels.

Quartzic: great free iphone ipad puzzle app

The object of Quartzic is to color the map (squares and rectangles) with only 4 colors such that, no 2 adjacent countries have the same color. This is based on a classic math theorem, which may or may not have been proved, I'm not sure.

There are 60 puzzles. Some puzzle levels require using blue or red a limited number of times; this complicates things! I am stuck on level 15. Without a doubt, this a challenging, fun game and is one of the best puzzle apps of 2012! Martin Roberts is the author - excellent job!

Doodle Shape: iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Doodle Shape is an action puzzle game. Tap on the correct shape and color that matches the top line. It changes every 5 seconds or so.

Vincenzo Chianese is the author. One of the best puzzle apps of 2012? No, but hey, it's free. Kids will like it.

Fan Mail

It's nice to know that my efforts are appreciated. This from a new follower:

"My friend Bashi mentioned your blog, so I took a look at it. And I'm totally loving it. I've downloaded more paid apps in the past 30 minutes than I have in the past 2 months. Your analysis is spot-on, and you seem to go right to the issues that I actually care about - is the puzzle original? Is it good value? how elegant is the solution? How fair is the process needed to get there? Anyway, you're clearly someone who knows his puzzles."

Isis: Mechanical Puzzle of the Week: Review

Isis is a magnificent metal puzzle. The object is to open it. Inside, you will find a code. Enter the code on the company's website to get a hint that leads to a prize.

I wrote about Isis for Games Magazine in the May 2007 issue. I met with the principal designer and public relations manager for several hours. About a year later Isis was being sold at the store The Sharper Image. It was $250. The Sharper Image later went bankrupt because their air purifiers were deemed to be harmful. I wandered in one of their stores and bought the last Isis for just $50. Oh yeah!

The Isis is very difficult! Buy 3 copies: one for yourself, one as a gift, and one as an investment. I predict that these will be worth $500 each in 10 years when they are no longer in production.

Click here for more information.

Snake Slider: iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Snake Slider looks a lot like Wriggle, which is one of the best puzzle apps of all time. The object of Snake Slider: wriggle the snakes around so that only the green snake can escape.

125 levels. Here's how Snake Slider is different from Wriggle: eating an apple increases the length of that snake. Eating a mushroom decreases that snake's length. Keys must be eaten to unlock the exit. Finally, there is a sokoban element: push the gray squares & rectangles to move more freely.

I have solved all 125 levels - because I needed to. It's fun! Definitely one of the best puzzle apps of 2012. Bas de Reuver is the author. Excellent job!

Help Out: another puzzle app version of Rush Hour

How many versions of Rush Hour do we need? This is identical to the famous Rush Hour produced by ThinkFun. Help Out does have one nice feature: instead of cars, you are moving sushi, or cool neon rectangles.

Digitron: puzzle app for iphone and ipad

Digitron: basic mathematics meets Tetris. Numbers fall down to the grid. Basic math symbols also fall down. Arrange them strategically to make true equations and score points.

Hog Frog: free puzzle app for iphone ipad

The objective of Hog Frog is to catch all the flies in 3 flicks of the tongue. The tongue will have to ricochet off the wood to bend around objects.

There's definitely a mathematical puzzling element to Hog Frog. It's worth a free download and testing.

Cast Loop: mechanical puzzle of the week

Cast Loop was designed by my Finnish Puzzle friend Vesa Timonen. Object #1: take apart the 2 pieces - not hard. Object #2: restore them - harder than you think!

Click here for the solution.

Last summer I bought 2 extra copies to give away as gifts.

Triple Town: iphone ipad puzzle app

Triple Town is very similar to one of my all-time favorites: Tripevo. Triple Town has received a couple thousand ratings so far on the app store. My guess is that Apple listed it as What's Hot.

Place 3 grass tiles together and they turn into a bush. 3 bushes turn into a house. You get the idea. This is a very good game, one of the best puzzle apps of 2012. However, for my money, Tripevo is the better game.

Word BullsEye

Word BullsEye is similar to Mastermind. The object is to guess the correct 4 letter word. Suppose you guess B-L-U-E. If the bull says you got 1 bullseye, then one letter is correct. 1 star means that the letter is correct, but in the wrong location.

Why this is better than Mastermind: 1. You cannot guess AAAA, because that's not a word. 2. Your list of guesses is not on display, which means you have to work your memory.

My first success was after 5 tries. Easy I thought. My next one took 18 guesses. This is definitely one of the best word puzzle apps of 2012. Saba Kazi is the author.

Rubik's Cube in the News

Click here for the NY Times article which mentions our friend Jerry Slocum.

Photon: puzzle app?

Photon is listed as a puzzle app, but it's really an arcade game. Discs fall down. Drag your finger across discs of the same color to score points and eliminate them.

Not up my alley, but you might like it.

Pipeman: free puzzle app for iphone and ipad

Pipeman is a free puzzle app where the objective is to connect the pipes so nothing leaks. I was able to do 2 levels, but the controls were not very smooth. So I gave up.

Not one of the best puzzle apps of 2012. Sorry

Cast Plate: mechanical puzzle of the week

The object of Cast Plate is to remove the ring. Swivel it around from hole to hole until it escapes. This is actually a maze puzzle: with dead ends and unending loops. It's difficult to see the path. Hint: think about equilateral triangles.

Click here for the solution.

Pudding Battle: free puzzle ap for iphone ipad

Pudding Battle is similar to Bejeweled. Switch adjacent colors to get 3 or more in a row or in a column.

There is a time limit, so hurry up and score points!

Does this make the list of best puzzle apps of 2012? Not really.

Games Magazine: March 2012

The March 2012 issue is now on the newsstands. Read my review of what's new in the world of mechanical puzzles.

Games Magazine does not have an on-line presence. It is sold in Barnes & Noble, Target and various well-stocked magazine/newsstands. For some reason, my local supermarket carries it.

Addictive Puzzle SquarO: puzzle app for ipad iphone

The title of this puzzle is 'Addictive Puzzle: SquareO'. The number in each square indicates how many corners should be lit. Your task: figure out which corners to tap on.

There are 4 levels of difficulty. The Evil level: the number in the square represents the number of halves in each corner. I have not solved one of these levels yet.

Good mathematical logic puzzle. Good smattering of easy, medium & evil-hard puzzles. One of the best puzzle apps of 2012? Quite possibly!