Milo and the Magpies by Second Maze Studio $1.99

• The good people at  Rusty Lake have been promoting Milo and the Magpies.  These are the same people who brought us Mitoza which I played last year.

In this game, the object is to get your cat home by crossing the backyards of various neighbors.

It's a relatively fast game. Maybe 1.5 hours.  Charming.  I liked it.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/milo-and-the-magpies/id1529462789

Sliding Edge by Haraldur Dadi Thorvaldsson FREE

Happy New Year Puzzle App Players.

Sliding Edge: Total Sliding Madness comes from Haraldur Dadi Thorvaldsson.   The object is to get Your Man, the white cure, to the yellow cube.

However, the red cubes slide back and forth and will kill you.  The red cubes move horizontally, vertically and sometimes diagonally.

Definitely not a hard game. But some levels are hard.  I paid $.99 for the extra 100 levels. But only 25 are ready at the moment.

I think it's fun!

 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sliding-edge/id1586881466

mf8 Fish-shaped Skewb $10

 

The 3rd image shows a normal Skewb puzzle.  The first image shows the 'Fish-shaped' Skewb.

The second image shows some kind of modern art when it gets scrambled.

This puzzle is extremely disorienting and I can't imagine anyone solving it without having solved the regular skewb many times. 

The 6 big squares on a regular skewb correspond to the 6 big corners on the Fish-Shaped.  The 8 corners on the regular skewb correspond to the 6 equilateral triangles plus the 2 small corners.

This puzzle is terrific.

Moyu Skewb Box cube $2.00

 

Above is a normal Skewb Puzzle.  Below is a skewb variation.

This rectangular shaped skewb leads to very disorienting shapes.  

How to solve: Look at a normal skewb and notice that there are 8 corners.  They correspond to the 8 equilateral triangles in the Box cube.

A normal skewb as 6 big squares or centers.  They correspond to the 4 big double triangles plus the 2 big squares at the end.  

https://www.ziicube.com/MY-Skewb-Box

If you've never solved a regular skewb before, don't start with this!

This puzzle is also known as The Container and it was invented in 1998 by the great Tony Fisher: https://twistypuzzles.com/museum/museum_showitem.php?pkey=887

This puzzle is a little gem.

Chessformer by Nam Nguyen Sy FREE

 

Chessformer is free and simply must be played!

Chessformer comes from Nam Nguyen Sy. 

From the App Store: Chessformer is a puzzle game . Having the best qualities of chess, Chessformer offers a grid-based board game experience using the familiar chess pieces you know and love. These pieces move as expected, but they fall down after moving and can't move again until they have stopped falling. The goal in each level is to capture the opposing king. But don't worry about losing your pieces to the king, who is lazy and never makes a move. Are you ready to be the latest chess prodigy?

There are 24 levels and I've done 23.  Stuck on #24!

Seriously, Chessformer is FUN. Lots of 'aha' moments.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chessformer/id1579290587

Other Chess Apps

Really Bad Chess 

Colour Chess

Chessumo - point scoring game

Solitaire Chess - my favorite from this list
Overgrown
Pirate Ring
Board: Chess Puzzle
Blip Blurp
Knight Trade
Troyis
Mate in 3? Ok!
Chess Puzzle of the Day
Chess Free 
Ruby Capture
ChessQuest
Blind Knights
Intersection
Chess Light - very good
No More Kings
March Simple Chess
Knights

Erno Rubik interview via The Financial Times

 

https://www.ft.com/content/0f642371-42fd-4c74-aebe-51810fd82fc8?fbclid=IwAR20Q2RNUifdonChyVafXljTkw2RxrV_uc6ej_OlUdbQz8fmnzA-_FXDiOI

Not a great article but definitely a good photo-shopped image.  The interviewer seems more interested in the restaurant and food.

Parks Cantica ∞ by Andrea Sabbatini

 

Andrea Sabbatini recently contacted me about his new game Parks Cantica.  I've been playing his puzzle games since 2014. That's a long time in the puzzle app world.

In this game, the object is to place 1 tree in each park so that no tree is touching another in any direction and that each row & column has exactly 1 tree. For the larger grids, each park, row & column should have 2 trees.

The concept for this game is old. Twin Beams was an app that had some 5000 levels. Sadly, it's no longer available.

Parks Cantica has 120,000 levels!  At the moment, I've solved 89 levels. I know! At this rate I might finish in 2041.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/parks-cantica/id1568502080

Also by Andrea:

100 x 3 Logic Games
Park SeasonsHedgehog GardensPark Seasons
Parks and Landscapes

100²

Lines on Sides by Michal Barszczewski $.99

 

Michal Barszczewski contacted me a while back about his new game Lines on Sides. You may recall that I reviewed Michal's other game Cubether which I reviewed in April last year. Seriously great puzzle.

Lines on Sides is a 'minimalist' puzzle. That means that the rules are never spelled out. When new elements are added, there's an easy level where the user gets to discover the new rule.

At first, I saw this as just a simple edge-matching puzzle.  And the first 10 levels or so are just that.

But then things got interesting!  I was stuck on level 29 for about a week. Then level 39 I was stuck for about 10 days.

The graphics are great.

There are 51 levels. It took me a while, but I got through them all.  Michal: great game!  Looking forward to your next one.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1555093399

http://www.mandigondo.com/

WoL: Way of Looking by Adem KAYIRCI $.99

Adem Kayirci has a long history of publishing interesting 'minimalist' puzzle app games. 'Minimalist' is used to mean: the rules & mechanisms will be explained/discovered as you play through the levels.

My favorite games from Adem: cohex and maze cube gravity. See links below.

Way of Looking: The object is to roll the red cube to the green spot. This is done be flattening the 3d situation to a 2D image. For each level, you will have to unflatten to 3D, then rotate the iamge to another perspective and then flatten again.

There are 72 levels. I'm stuck on #17 right now.

 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wol-way-of-looking/id1506189068

Adem's other games

Drop Drop!

eceo

block dock!

turn

maze cube gravity

cohex

Squares - impossible puzzl‪e by Christopher Hermann FREE

Squares - impossible puzzl‪e comes from Christopher Hermann. This game is GREAT.

The object is for the Pink Man to pick up the pink stars and the Green man to pick up the green stars etc. However: the Pink Man cannot travel on the pink squares. But when he travels over the green or blue squares, those squares become pink.  Similar rules apply to the Green Man and the Blue Man.

There are only 40 levels, but that's perfect. I've solved all but 5 levels.

This game reminds me of two other gems that were previously publishing on this puzzle app blog. But I don't recall their names!

Christopher: you hit a home run.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/squares-impossible-puzzle/id1551995757

The Mind by Wolfgang Warsch $13

There's a new trend in the gaming industry: cooperating so that everybody either wins or loses.

The rules of The Mind are very simple: each player has the same number of cards. Cards are numbered from 1-100 with no duplicates.

Suppose there are 3 people and it's Round 5. Therefore, each person is dealt 5 cards and together, without talking or making any sign language, the group must discard their cards in ascending order.

No spoilers here!  This game is absolutely fun.  

The company is Pandasaurus Games. I have not seen them at the NY Toy Fair. Hopefully, I'll run into them there in February. The company is based in Austin, TX - one of the coolest cities in the US, except for the summer months.

https://pandasaurusgames.com/collections/shop/products/the-mind

Threes - Update

Alan Hazelden recently tweeted about the game Threes! It's now on Apple's 'Arcade'. 

Threes! truly is an exceptional point scoring puzzle app.  It's terribly addictive. Multiple times, I've had to delete it, to get my life back.

After it came out, a slew of clones emerged, almost all of them called 2048.  Many had slightly different rules. But none could match Threes! The graphics were far superior.

When it first came out the rules of Threes! were slightly different. Back then, the next card was either blue, red or a 3 or a 6.  Now, sometimes the next card can be much higher. I believe it can be as high as 1/8th of your highest card on the board.

My review from 2004

Alan's games:

A Good Snowman is Hard to Find.  2015.

Cosmic Express  2018

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/threes-freeplay/id976851174 Free version with ads

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/threes/id779157948  $5.99 (I'm guessing this high price is to entice users to do the Apple Arcade monthly deal.)

Hexa Slitherlin‪k by FTSix Studios FREE

Hexa Slitherlink is the hexagonal version of Slitherlink. The object is to create one closed loop so that each number indicates how many links are adjacent to it.

There are 300 levels. I've done 50.  It's fun and it's free.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hexa-slitherlink/id1551532019

Slitherlink - Classi‪c by FTSix Studios FREE

FTSix Studios has produced a slew of puzzle apps recently.  Slitherlink - Classic is an old game. The concept is at least 20 years old.  The object is to create one chain link so that each number in the grid indicates how many links touch that particular square.

Many years ago I bought a book of these puzzles in Japan.  The puzzles were fine......but this game needs a good pencil/eraser.  Therefore, a computer version is far superior.

The grids start very small.  I solved 136 levels. That's probably enough for now.

This game is FREE.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/slitherlink-classic/id1553493828

Mitoza FREE

 

Mitoza is an old game that expired.  The folks at Rusty Lake have partnered with Gal Mamalya to bring it back.

'It's not a game. It's a toy It all starts with a seed. Explore all cycles and prepare yourself to accept the inevitable effects of Mitoza. Mitoza is a surreal choose-your-own adventure game.'

That was their description.  Mine: The puzzle is to keep track of all the paths and go down each one to see every single graphic.

This is really more of an art/animation display than a puzzle.  Charming. Delightful. Fun.

You'll need about 1 hour to explore all the paths.

MultiTarget by IBA Puzzles FREE

My Puzzle friend Glenn Iba has been a regular attendee of the annual New York Puzzle Party.  The last couple of years, he has shown everybody his progress on making this game.  Finally, it’s published.

The object is to swipe up/down/left/right to get all the balls to the targets at the same time. 

There are approximately 350 levels and they get plenty hard.

Yes, some levels have just 2 or 3 balls.  Others have 5 balls. Hard stuff.

This game is free. So go for it.

Glenn’s old game Monorail from 2011.

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'.
Vubu What's different: the vubu men have different powers. Very sophisticated, very intelligent. Possibly the very best in this genre.
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

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/multitarget/id1491795156

GAN Robot solves your Rubik's Cube $55

 This robot will scramble and solve your Rubik's Cube. $55. But you must have a 'GAN' model Rubik's Cube with holes around the center squares. It has 5 spindles to grip 5 of the 6 faces. Reminds me of the record setting machine that had 6 spindles and solved the cube in under 1 second.

http://www.ziicube.com/Brand/Gan-Puzzle/GAN-Robot

Pushing Machine 3D (Original) by Rafal Roszak FREE

Rafal Roszak came out with an amazing game in 2017. See link below.  The new game is a 3D version of the same game. 

There are10,800 levels spread over 12 classifications. I'm doing the 'Experienced' levels which is only the 5th. Which means there are 7 levels that are harder.  I'm having some difficulty!

As I said about Rafal's previous game, there should be ideally about 200 levels. Total.

This game is brilliant.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pushing-machine-3d-original/id1546556110

Rafal's other game

Pushing Machine

Pushing Machine (Original) 

Arrower Puzzle - Brain Game FREE

Arrower Puzzle - Brain Game comes from 

Shanghai Youyi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.  The object is to get the arrows to the yellow targets.

The arrows will travel until they hit a wall. The red tiles will allow you to create a wall, virtually anywhere.  The blue ones will either create a wall vertically or horizontally.  There are also diagonal keys.

At first, I thought these were too easy. But I'm stuck on level 2-8, which is really level 24 out of 32.  On that particular level, there are 3 arrows and 3 targets and I can't determine which should go where.  Also, on that level there are green tiles which allow me to place a wall vertically or horizontally, but once it's placed, it's fixed.

This game has a lot of potential for many more levels. 

Happy New Year Everybody.

 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arrower-puzzle-brain-game/id1546804114

Snavi by Billy Clack FREE

Snavi comes from Billy and Mary Clack. The object is to get Your Man, the snail, to pick up the stars and keys and get to the exit.

After playing the first 5 or 6 levels, I thought: yawn, another maze game where everything slides until they hit a wall.  But no!  Snavi has many interesting elements that make for some fun and very challenging puzzle levels.

Interesting Features;

1. The board can rotate 90 degrees.  See the first image.

2. The green rectangles can fall as the board gets rotated. Your Man can get crushed/killed. Be careful. See the second image.

3. Wormholes & electric fences. See the third image.

4. Magnets lock the green blocks in place. See the sixth image.

5. The purple squares with white trim: Your Man & Green rectangles cannot cross the white line, but can traverse those squares in the 3 other directions. See the fifth image.

6. The red & blue rectangles: they toggle on/off. When the blue rectangles are active, the red ones become invisible. 

7. Lasers need to be blocked in order to get by. See the fourth image.

There are over 100 levels. I've done most of them. Many have taken repeated attempts.  Look at the first image. That's level 2-14. I've tried about 25 times and still have not solved it.

Billy & Mary: great job!  

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1540408584#?platform=iphone