Pushopolus: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

               

Pushopolus is a terrific point scoring puzzle app game for the iphone, ipad. The blue arrows indicate that a pair of identical symbols can be combined/stacked.  When that happens, you score points.
Scoring: let's say you've got 5 hearts in a row. Only 2 symbols will combine/stack when you tap a blue arrow. The new heart stack will now say 2. The others will not move/stack.
If you combine a green 2 with a green 3, obviously you'll get 5 points.  There is a distinct strategy to maximize your points when you have the option of stacking up/down. The direction you choose can matter, but not always. 
Let's say you've got 3 blue diamonds next to each other. Left to right, their values are 1, 1, 12.  If you tap left, the 1 & 1 will combine. Then the new 2 piece will combine with 12 for a total of 14 points.
However, if you tap the right arrow, the 12 & 1 combine for 13 points, then the new 13 piece will combine with the other 1 for 14 points - yielding a total of 27 points.
The game ends when you have no more identical pairs to match.
Pushopolus has a healthy element of randomness/luck and is extremely fun. I'm very impressed.
My first game: I scored only 21 points.  My second game, something like 85.  The next day and a half, my high score grew to 3435. I could not stop playing this game.
The following day, I showed it to somebody and they pointed out to me that in the bottom right corner of the screen is the next piece! Somehow, I never noticed this, probably because my right hand simply blocked it. And I didn't read the rules thoroughly!

Since you know what the next piece will be 3 out of 4 times (the 4th time is a mystery), my strategy changed significantly and I scored 45,115 in a game that took over an hour. I think I could have kept going, but it was getting late and I got careless.


I hope the developers make another version of this game where you never know what the next new piece is.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pushopolus/id910316357

Hover Box: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Did you play Flappy Bird? I tried it and could not do it at all. Erik Tysdal Egaas has come up with something more intelligent, but still very hard, with Hover Box. The object is to get your man from the red rectangle to the green one.
Use your left thumb as an anti gravity force.  Use your right thumb to steer left/right. And try not to crash into an obstacle.
There are 30 levels and I enjoyed levels 1 & 2.  After that, I could not solve any of them.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hover-box/id906713132?mt=8

Atoms HD: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad

 


Stephen Hayes recently contacted me about his puzzle app Atoms HD. The objective is to recreate various chemical molecules by sliding pieces in the grid.


Look at image 1: excellent, fun drawing of the typical chemist - balding, white coat, glasses, old, eccentric.
Look at image 2: in the bottom left corner is the methane molecule. You actually have 2 tasks. The first is to figure out where in the grid you can fit the molecule. The second is to slide the atoms - 1 at a time - until the molecule is formed.  Note: the atoms will slide all the way until they hit an obstacle.

A nice feature is that when you're done, you can learn more about that particular molecule. There is a leaderboard. You score points by solving the puzzle levels quickly and more points for using fewer moves. There are 90 levels and I've solved 17 of them.


Atoms HD is definitely a cool puzzle app for young chemistry students.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/atoms-hd/id888626368?mt=8

Grid Blox: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

              

Grid Blox comes from Jesse Mount.  The object is to move the blue squares onto the yellow squares at the same time.  See the black squares? Those are blockers: you cannot go over or through them.


There are over 100 levels. I did the first 20 or so. It's a great concept, but we've seen this type of 'all the tiles slide together' a bunch of times before. Note: the puzzles of Grid Blox are very good.


If you like Grid Blox, definitely give Duality a try.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/grid-blox/id764912670?mt=8

Lines Numeric Fun: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad. Also, my thoughts on ripoffs.

                           

John Adams has created an interesting set of topology type puzzles. Look at the first image: the objective is to cover all the squares from the starting square to the ending square. Make sure you fill up all the squares and of course the 1 square must come before the 2 square. You get the idea. I did those 24 levels very quickly.

The green levels have 2 paths that must be connected simultaneously. Here's what's interesting: because there are 2 paths, there are two sets of numbers.  You don't know which numbers are for the green path and which are for the orange path. These puzzles are more difficult.

There are 24 blues levels where there are 3 paths.  The 24 yellow levels have 4 paths! Very challenging and fun.

Recently, a puzzle app developer was asking for my advice/opinion. I generally want to stay positive. However, since this game is a ripoff from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jadams.lines, I feel I can vent. So, let's talk about the negatives. First are the ads that will interrupt your game. Beyond annoying! Turn off the wifi!  The graphics are old school. I'm not crazy about them. For example: the board does not fill up the screen. Why not take advantage of the full screen?  I also don't like the font and have trouble distinguishing a 2 with a 3. Maybe I need reading glasses.

Those complaints are really minor. I positively love these puzzles. Right now I've done 81 out of the 96 levels.
According to my fellow puzzle app blogger Nicola  this game was originally published here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jadams.lines and that this game is a blatant clone. That's unfortunate. It also makes me not want to complete all of the levels. Or do I?
The hard lesson for everybody who's developing a great puzzle: if your game is successful, there is a 100% certainty that you will be ripped off by cloners. There is no entity that will protect your intellectual property.

Numeric Paranoia Space Dots are similar games. The former is better. The latter is easier and more colorful.



https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lines-numeric-fun/id904711649?mt=8

Number Combine Puzzle: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad

Number Combine Puzzle is a rip-off of a pretty good puzzle called Even Up. I believe that Number Combine Puzzle has new puzzle levels. However, the author has totally taken the same graphics.  C'mon!


Play this game instead. http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2013/12/even-up-puzzle-app-game-for-iphone-ipad.html

Game About Squares

http://gameaboutsquares.com/
This is an excellent online puzzle game from Andrey Shevchuk. There are 48 puzzle levels to solve. It's a little similar to Perfect Paths, which I found to be very difficult.


There are numerous puzzle apps that have been made in the past few weeks that copy every single detail. To my knowledge, Andrey has not published his own app.

Coin Trick: free game for iphone, ipad

                      

Kitty Gala has created a little dexterity game that's easy enough that I can do it. The pencils move back and forth and you must be very patient to move the coin to the top of the screen.


I was stuck on level 13 and then saw that if I could get to level 17, I would shoot up the leaderboard significantly.  Couple hours later, I'm on level 56 and am at the top of the leaderboard. My parents could cared less. There are 'hundreds' of levels. So I'm going to stop right now!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/coin-trick/id903261762?mt=8

Catch the Crazy Cat: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

             

The description of Catch the Crazy Cat seemed good:
•When we release the "Wechat" web version of this game, in 3 days, we got 5,000,000 users and 100,000,000 visits!This is AMAZING! Thank you!
We are so happy to release the app version of the game.
•Some medias call "Catch The Crazy Cat" "The Best Puzzle Game Ever"
•The rule of the game is very simple : try to use the orange blocks to surround the Crazy Cat, don't let him come close to the edges.


This type of game has been around for ages. Who are these people calling it the best puzzle game ever? I played it twice. I'm guessing that some mathematician has done a study on this. Instinct is my strategy.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/catch-the-crazy-cat-!/id903976526?mt=8

PETALS: A BRAIN TEASING PUZZLE - for iphone, ipad

 

Boaz Ouriel from ZigZapps recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game: Petals: A Brain Teasing Puzzle.  Petals is a 'slide all the tiles together' type puzzle. The object is to get the flowers to their matching squares.

 

We've seen this type of puzzle app numerous times. However, Petals has some interesting new features. See the purple circle with the white curved arrow? A petal will rotate 90 degrees. Then the widget will disappear. Another widget makes the petal flip over to its mirror image.


The first 96 levels are free. I've solved them all. Although I had to use a few hints.
Within that, there's a good mixture of easy, medium & hard levels. And you can skip around - a feature I appreciate since I could not solve Daisy #11 - even though it's classified as medium. I confess, I used a hint for that one.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/petals-a-brain-teasing-puzzle/id903185306?mt=8

Click the Button: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Amedeo Tamburrino is the author of Click the Button which is very challenging. The objective is to get each button in a pushed-down state. If you click on yellow, then all of the yellow will change direction, some may go down, others will go up.


If you click on a button that looks like an equal sign, two things happen. If it's blue, then all the blue buttons will change.  Second, all the buttons in that row or column will shift too.
Click the Button is a serious set of puzzles. My only qualm is the color scheme with the white background. Maybe the buttons that are still in an up position could be displayed in a more pronounced manner.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/click-the-button/id905747766?mt=8