LogicCity Jr: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Description from the App Store: 'The goal of the game is simple, to fill the grid with shapes, without repeating a shape in a row or column (yes, like sudoku !). But wait - there's more ! You have to manage the colors and the shapes simultaneously - adding a whole new dimension to sudoku.

These puzzles have been developed by Michel Lyons and Arunima. Michel is the creator of several highly popular and highly rated board puzzle games such as Metaform, Architecto .. etc. He has also written math curriculum books with a focus on problem solving.'

 

LogicCity Jr is very similar to ThinkFun's Chocolate Fix.  You'll note in the directions above that Michel Lyons developed Metaform & Architecto. Those are outstanding puzzle games produced by Foxmind, which has a long history of producing great puzzles.


There are 75 levels and I've done about 15 levels, including the last 5 hardest levels. These puzzles are great for young puzzlers. Lots of elementary schools have enrichment programs for gifted students. This is exactly what they should be doing.
The game costs $1.99 and there is a lite version.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/logiccity-jr/id936822232?mt=8

Make Them Fall: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

                

Make Them Fall is a point scoring puzzle app game that's really designed to test your reflexes and keep your brain synapses sharp.
The title 'Make Them Fall' is not appropriate for this game because your man is supposed to shift side to side within each colored region.


Look at the 1st image with the blue & red split image. The 2 stickmen are hugging the wall. The spikes scroll upward. You must tap the blue part to make the stickman shift to the opposite wall.
The dual screen is 'Normal' but tough and my high score is just 91.  There are 5 other versions. with more men to control. The hardest level is called 'Heart Attack' and has 6 mini screens.


Make Them Fall actually turns out to be a good partner game.  In the version that has 4 men, get a friend and each of you will control 2 men.  Better yet, get 3 friends and each controls 1 man for better control and a higher score. This is the easily the best partner/reflex game on the market. Though I don't think it was intended for that.


Here's what I don't like: on the Normal level, the speed increases too quickly. Nevertheless, it's still quite fun.
We should all be playing this type of game to ward off Alzheimer's.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/make-them-fall/id907164110?mt=8

Space Kitty Puzzle — family logical adventure: puzzle for iphone, ipad

Alex Perezhogin recently contacted me about his puzzle app game: Space Kitty Puzzle. The objective is for your space kitty to travel through the maze to pick up objects, get to the exit and thus save the world.

Main feature: The space kitty will have to fire his laser gun to rotate the screen 90 degrees.
I have not played this game beyond 5 or 6 levels. Why? I'm more absorbed in some other puzzle app games. Nevertheless, these puzzles are interesting. But I'm not crazy about the graphics/theme.


https://itunes.apple.com/app/id937242587

Number Painting: update

 

About 2 months ago, I became obsessed with Number Painting a free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad: http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2014/10/number-painting-free-puzzle-app-game.html


A few days ago I completed all 600 levels. Crazy, I know. Having done thousands of these types of topology puzzles, I found most of the levels not too hard. But every so often a level would have me stumped for days and weeks. The last 100 levels I did in about 2 hours, on a plane ride.


So yes, I really like this game. However, at the moment, it's not possible to go back and redo any level at all. Unless I delete the program & then reinstall it.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id928917515


Some other good topology games:
Lines Numeric Fun
Space Dots
Just Routes
Dedale
SEQ
Square Time
Numeric Paranoia

MindArrow - Game To Train Your Brain: for iphone, ipad

Artiom Zayats recently contacted me about his point scoring puzzle app game called MindArrow.

 

If you see a green arrow, swipe in the direction that the arrow is pointing and ignore the word.
If you see a red arrow, do the opposite: ignore the direction of the arrow and follow the word.
Swiping correctly gets you additional time. Swiping incorrectly - your time will be penalized.


I played MindArrow once and got a score of 348. Only 31 players are on the Game Center Leaderboard. I'm #10 at the moment.


I found MindArrow a bit too slow. But I still like the concept and think that we should all try these games out once in a while as a change of pace.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mindarrow-game-to-train-your/id942357959?mt=8

Shuttle Shuffle: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Mat Loz recently contacted me about his free puzzle app game Shuttle Shuffle. The objective is to slide the aliens to their ships. These puzzles are not too hard. However, solving them in the fewest # of moves is essential if you want to unlock the next level.


Sliding a row makes all the aliens travel together. That's really the key. While I was playing this game, I kept saying to myself: this reminds me of another game, but which?!

The harder levels have death holes and wormholes. When I solved level 24, which is the last of the free levels, the board was completely filled, I realized which game this reminded me of. There are actually a lot of games which often bill themselves as 'the 2D version of Rubik's Cube'.


If you get into Shuttle Shuffle, you can develop your own levels.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shuttle-shuffle/id937331329?mt=8
http://www.shuttle-shuffle.com

Quebix: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

      

Glen Morris contacted me almost 2 months ago about his puzzle app game Quebix. It seems very similar to another puzzle app game called MatCube. See my review of that.


Quebix is more similar to Head Spin a game I reviewed about 4 years ago. That was terrific, but is no longer available.


Quebix is easier than MatCube and Head Spin. I can do these, and fairly quickly. The objective is to swipe horizontally & vertically, until your cubes match the pattern at the top/middle.
Of the 25 Beginner Levels, I did 7 of them.
I skipped the 30 Apprentice Levels.
Of the 28 Master Levels, I did 6 levels
There are 30 Expert Levels, I did all 30. I did them pretty quickly. However, I definitely did not solve them using the fewest number of moves.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quebix/id907007581?mt=8

Pokergreen Puzzles: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Ronald Stewart recently contacted me about his puzzle app game Pokergreen Puzzles.
The objective is to fill the grid with the cards to make specific poker hands.


Look at the image shown. The tiles that are already in the grid can NEVER move. You can only move the grayish cards.


The first 13 levels are free and I enjoyed solving them. I have not played the harder levels. I'd venture to guess that they could get really hard if certain poker variations are enacted like: deuces wild.


If you're into Sudoku, then take a break from that and play Pokergreen Puzzles. 2015 is off to a good start, I'd say.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pokergreen-puzzles-next-sudoku/id906543727?mt=8
http://ronald.gl/

PAGY AWARDS 2014: Best Puzzle Apps of 2014

The famous PAGY awards are bestowed annually to the Puzzle App Games of the Year.
Congratulations to the winners.

Sudoku Killer

Threes!

Shapist

Perspecto

BoxOff

Folt

TRUpuzzlE

Titanic By SmartGames

Puralax

Stroke!

Tapes

Number Painting

Quetzalcoatl

Dwelp Tip & Tumble Game About Squares Perfect Paths

Best Puzzle App Games of 2014: The Nominations

Puzzle App Players & Designers,


Below is the famous List of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014.  I have play tested all of these extensively. My biggest regret is that I am sure that I've omitted many good games. I try to go through the new puzzle apps published weekly. People send me recommendations. I don't get to them all.


What are the qualifies of a good puzzle app game? Fun is most important. Originality is a close second. Graphics and overall presentation are third. Finally, and most obviously, is the difficulty: is there a tutorial? Are there easy levels to get your feet wet? Does the game have 100 levels or a 1000? Less is more sometimes.


Some of the games listed below are not strictly puzzles, but they often get lumped into that category by the authorities at the iTunes store. Specifically, I'm referring to the point scoring games and the games that test your reflexes. You'll find both types of those here, but not a lot.


If you scrutinize this list very closely, a couple were published in 2012 and 2013. The reason I included it now - I missed those games back then. If I missed your game this year, send me a reminder! You're eligible for 2015.

Quell Reflect +

Puzzle Chain Reaction

Sudoku Mine

Quell Memento

Sudoku Killer

Threes!

Shapist

iceMazeAD

Slidercrash

Astro Mined

Perspecto

Nixie

BoxOff

Folt

TRUpuzzlE

Titanic By SmartGames

Puralax

Two Dots

Stroke!

Tapes

Fold the Adventure

Number Painting

Quetzalcoatl

Dwelp Park Seasons You Have One Box Colors - The Addictive Game Point to Point 1 to 25 Number challenge Buffalooh LostLands Caveboy Pathle Connect Infinite Amid Worlds The Impossible Dodging Nino Square Push Square Blokkology TwoDots Stop Crows SpinIn Colors Mix Numberino Flip Puzzle Game 21 Dice Petals Fiz Atoms HD Dozen! Color Shape Tile Puzzle Nexionode Har*mo*ny Noda Twelve Hardest Puzzle Andy's Trains Fruit Dating Tealday GOAT Tip & Tumble oO WaterColors Scribologic aa Laserbox Arrowed Ichi Mergect Photon Lab Light Weaving Trebene Space Crystals Pushopolus Game About Squares Click the Button Paths of Light Kindly Colors Exodus Free! Perfect Paths Frozen Ice Cubes 3Doku

Andy's Trains: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Andreas Gunther recently contacted me about his new puzzle app game: Andy's Trains.  Essentially it's an old fashioned 'shunting' puzzle. Basically, your objective is to move the trains forward and back on the track, dismantle, reconnect and eventually unload the cars in the correct color sequence.

Years ago, I saw an old film made by Thomas Edison where the objective was to shunt the trains. As I recall, it was a little kid who figured it out. I tried finding it on youtube. No luck. However, Edison did make a slew of train movies.

Andy's got something like 36 different puzzle levels. You can see from the images, some are easy, others are quite complicated.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/andys-trains/id929799895?mt=8

Tip & Tumble: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

     

Bill & Andrea Mitchell recently contacted me about their new puzzle app game: Tip & Tumble. Andrea & Bill have a very long history of making extremely interesting maze puzzles that are quite unique. http://clickmazes.com/


Let's talk about Tip & Tumble, their latest puzzle app game. There are 90 puzzles. The objectives are sometimes different. In the first image, get the balls to the correct homes. The second image: collect all the markers. Be careful that you don't fall into an inescapable loop.

     

The third image: get the red balls into the hole.
I've solved all 30 easy levels. 28 of the 30 medium levels and about 15 of the hard levels. According to Bill: 'Even Andrea, despite being her own designs, struggled to remember some!' I feel better now.


Without a doubt, Tip & Tumble jump onto the list of Best Puzzle Apps of 2104. The full list will be released December 30 & 31. Stay tuned.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tip-tumble/id925694379?mt=8
Definitely download Wriggle,  and Clickmazes BoxUp

Dwelp: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Alex Blaj recently sent me a promo code to review his new puzzle app game: Dwelp.
His description: Dwelp is an elegant little puzzler with a brand new game mechanic. To complete a puzzle, just link all of the same-colored dots by placing them one near another. There's a catch, though... Once you have connected two dots, the others of the same color become locked in their place.

It's so simple to understand, yet it opens up a whole world of possibilities! Why "only" 100 puzzles, then? Because they were carefully selected from hundreds of others, in order to offer you only the best of the best.

Each puzzle has more than one solution (and some have thousands). Will you find the one that requires the least number of moves? That’s the real challenge! Should you complete it, you will be treated to a select number of puzzles that are bordering on impossibility. But the satisfaction of solving one of those can't be described in words…


My thoughts: 100 puzzles is exactly the right number. Offering 200 is too many. The puzzles start to get quite tricky at #20. The graphics are crisp. The concept is very unique, clever and fun. In terms of classification, Dwelp seems to fall under the category of a packing puzzle.



At the moment, I have solved about 70 levels and collected 60 stars, (you get a star by solving a level in the fewest moves.) There are some bonus levels where the objective is a bit different. But very elegant.


Here's what you need to know: these puzzles are handmade/crafted with the equivalence of a fine wooden box. One level has a minimum solution of just 4 moves. How hard could it be? HARD!


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dwelp/id935201107?mt=8
http://www.roundabyte.com/

Fold the Adventure: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Puzzle app fans, I've been away for a week. Thanks for the emails. I'm back.
Sometimes I feel guilty. I start playing a new puzzle app game, then get distracted by other new ones and forget to finish play testing and then blogging.
Fold The Adventure has a very unique design. Look at the first image. Your task is to cut some of the lines and fold other lines to create something like image 2.

Then, your man, Nezo, can climb up the step ladder configuration to collect the stars and head for the exit. The graphics are very nice. There are 40 levels and I started to get stuck at just level 7.  At the moment I'm stuck on level 19.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fold-the-adventure/id912311797?mt=8

Rod Kimball's Path Puzzles

My friend Rod Kimball is a true renaissance man: juggler, musician and serious puzzler. His Path Puzzles are featured in the NY Times:
http://wordplay.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/08/path-3/?module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog+Main&contentCollection=Numberplay&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs&region=Body&_r=0


Read my review of his Path Puzzles app & book:
http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/2014/02/path-puzzles-puzzle-app-game-for-iphone.html?showComment=1410504164730

Fruit Dating: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

Tomáš Rychnovský recently contacted me about his puzzle app game: Fruit Dating. It's a tilt/swipe maze. The object is to get the two red fruits next to each other. When that happens, they disappear. Then do the same for the yellow faced fruit.

There's good and bad. Let's start with the negatives. I don't like the graphics. The border is not necessary. The green squares are stationary. What moves during tilts? Cars, barrels and other things, sometimes unidentifiable, at least by me.
Now for the positives. Tomas has added some interesting things. Some levels have arrows on the grid. A fruit can never go against that arrow. Next, most tilt mazes - you know exactly where to get your man. In Fruit Dating, where the pairs match is part of the puzzle. Finally, some of the harder levels have aardvarks that will slurp up the fruit if the fruit rests in it's direction.  Be protective of your fruit! (At first, I thought it was a laser gun to shoot the fruit down.)
Other levels have puddles - cars can go over them, but not fruit, of course.
The final levels have a hedgehog - don't crash into it.


There are 63 levels and I've done them all. All together, I spent about 1 hour on this.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fruit-dating/id918243413

Quetzalcoatl: puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

     

Quetzalcoatl is a new snake slider puzzle that's very similar to Snake Slider, Wriggle, TRUpuzzlE, and Choo Choo Puzzle.  Those are all great. And so is Quetzalcoatl.  The object is to slide the snakes so that the colored circles match the colored squares. (Quetzalcoatl is named after the Feathered Serpent, the most important god in the Aztec mythology.)

 

There are 180 levels and I've spent a lot of time on these. Probably 5 or 6 hours to solve about 145 levels. They can be very challenging. $1.99 is the price and that comes to about 25 cents per hour.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quetzalcoatl/id913483313?mt=8

600,000 visitors

Long time followers of this puzzle app blog know that I give a prize to every 100,000th visitor. If you're the 600,000th visitor, take a screen shot, send me an email with your address and I'll send you a small prize.


If you're using a tablet, the hit counter might not show up.  Use a regular computer.

Lock Sphere: new mechanical puzzle

I do not own the Lock Sphere. I'm not a big fan of puzzle boxes. In part because there's been a slew of ingenious box mechanisms and it's impossible to keep abreast of all the developments. That being said, I do own about 20 secret boxes.


Lock Sphere reminds me a bit of Isis, the steel ball puzzle from England about 6 years ago. 


This is the promo video. You MUST watch it.  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lock-sphere-a-revolutionary-new-mind-game

Noda: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

 

Multiple people have recently contacted me about Noda, a free puzzle app game. Look at the first image. In the top left corner is a yellow 4 times 3. This means that the object is to create three 4's on the yellow circles.




See the yellow 5? Swipe that up or to the right, and it will divide into 3 & 2. Other rules: you can't add above 9.  A single 1 cannot move to a vacant circle. See the 4 & 2 in the first image? If you swipe from the 4 to the right, you'll get 6 on the yellow circle.




There are 48 free levels. I've solved them all - pretty quickly. However, I have not solved them all using the least number of moves.  You get a star if you solve a level with the least # of moves. The leaderboard will only record your score based on your stars.  At the moment, I have 36 stars.




There are another 72 levels and they cost $.99. Noda has a serious number of players, based on the leaderboard, so it's quite popular. Because it's fun, easy to learn with good graphics.
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/noda/id925990663?mt=8
Update 12/15: I have now solved all the free levels & have 48 stars.

Tealday

      

Nili Abrahamsson recently contacted me about his puzzle app game Tealday. It's a color mixing puzzle.  Look at the second image. The object is drag some red paint, some blue paint and some yellow paint onto the big circles so that the Big Circles will match the Target Color.
I solved the first 3 puzzles. I think this is particularly difficult for me because I can't even name these colors. Aqua-Marine? Teal? Greenish-Gray?

See the numbers in the little circles? They indicate how many times you can paint the big circles.
Look at the very bottom of the second image. See the tiny question mark? Tap on that and it will tell you which of the Big Circles have already matched the Target Color.


There are 120 levels. The first 10 are free. The rest cost $1.99
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tealday/id882629964?ls=1&mt=8

One More Line: free point scoring reflex game for iphone, ipad

 

One of my students recently told me about One More Line: a game that's cool, difficult, colorful and somewhat addictive. The game starts with your man (the rainbow line) traveling straight ahead. You must avoid the objects by circling around them and then release at the right tangent point and not crash into a wall or object.


One More Line is quite popular. But it needs to be improved. For example, it moves too fast. It should really start off slowly. The point scoring system is based on how long you survive. My high score is only 21, which I think represents only 10.5 seconds. Something silly: the one's look like 7's.


One More Line is free and comes with ads. Give it a shot. And if you end up succeeding with a high score, let me know.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/one-more-line/id914433115?mt=8

Har*mo*ny: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  
Last week a colleague at work showed me Har*mo*ny 2 from BorderLeap.  Since it cost $3.99, I downloaded Har*mo*ny instead, which is free.
The object of the puzzle app game is to get your color squares to the correct row, to create some kind of rainbow effect.  This can be done by swapping 2 squares at a time. However, the 2 squares must both be in the same row or column.

At the start of the game, each square will have some dots. The number of dots indicates how many times it can swap.
Har*mo*ny has over 1000 levels. I've solved 84 of them so far. I'm not solving them all! Har*mo*ny 2 has only 'hundreds' of levels. But, as best as I can figure, it features cool music.
About a year ago I reviewed BoarderLeap's other puzzle app Blendamaze.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/har-mo-ny/id686313581?mt=8
http://borderleap.com/
12/10/14 Update: I've now solved 102 levels. This puts me around #5000 out of 15,000 on the leaderboard. Obviously, this is a popular game.

oO: strange, cool dexterity puzzle app for iphone, ipad and android devices

 

Maciej Targoni is the author of oO - a very bizarre, cool dexterity game. Look at the first image. You are the tiny white circle going around and around. Transfer to the next circle at the tangent point by tapping the screen. Then to the big circle. When you get to the big circle, avoid the spikes by shifting to the outside of the circle. Again, just tap the screen.


I solved the first level - after dying some 90 times. The second level is even cooler. The circles are psychedelic, wobbly, and  Dali-esque. See the second image. I have not completed the second level, though I've died over 200 times. Why? Because the game doesn't save your progress.


I did start the 3rd level. Imagine the inside of one of the circles being completely filled with spikes. (Sorry, I don't have an image for that.) Those spikes will fade on off for about 3 seconds. So you must time your transferring.

oO costs $1.99 on the App Store and $1.97 on Google Play. Not sure if this happens all the time.  If it does, then maybe we should all switch to Google Play so we can save 2 cents for all of these games. The game came out in April, but I just found out about it recently via Apps Gone Free. oO was free for a days. Nice job Maciej.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oo/id834240887?l=pl&ls=1&mt=8
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rainbowtrain.eu

Do you have an idea for a puzzle game or something else?

Puzzle App Players,


do you have an idea for a puzzle app game? How about an idea for something non puzzle related? If so, allow me to steer you to some excellent programmers. I've known them for a long time. Their work is stellar. They're easy to work with. Who knows, you might get rich!


Contact me: my last name at Hotmail.com

Miscellaneous Ramblings

1. I've been playing Number Painting a lot recently.  There are 500 levels and a few levels had me stuck for too long. No advertisements and it's free. The bad thing is that the game doesn't allow me to go back and redo levels I've already solved.  On the ones that I found particularly hard, I took screen shots of the solutions.


2. Twelve - Hardest Puzzle really is a good point scoring game. However, it takes too long to play a single game - about an hour. Also, the board doesn't really get crowded until you get your first 11. Which means that the first 15 - 20 minutes is mere busyness. Nevertheless, my high score puts me in the top 20 out of 36,000. I think I'm done with it.


3. Threes! - I promised myself not to play this. I got a new high score of 71,000. But not on my ipad.


4. Have you been trying to contact me via Google +, LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, or Whatever - to tell me about your game? Please email me directly: my last name AT Hotmail.com


5. Do visit my friend Nicola's site: http://nontrivialgames.blogspot.it/ His site is similar to mine. But his focus is on the very very good stuff.


6. The List of Best Puzzle Apps of 2014 will be published on December 30th & 31st. Feel free to nominate your favorite puzzle apps and send them to me via email. Use my rule of 3: Is it fun? Do you play it a lot? Is it unique/clever?

Book of Bad Arguments: free!

Wow, this book is short, well illustrated and well written. Good for anybody involved in debate.


https://bookofbadarguments.com/?view=allpages

MoYu 13x13 Mechanism Revealed! From CrazyBadCuber

Years ago, it was a 'proven fact' that there could be no twisty cube made with sides greater than 5x5.  Fortunately, Mr. Verdes from Greece never saw that proof and he designed the 6x6, 7x7, 8x8, 9x9 and 10x10. 


3 years ago Oskar van Deventer designed the 17x17 cube, which he premiered at the annual New York Puzzle Party.


Check out this video of how a 13 x13 works

Watercolors: free puzzle app game for iphone, ipad

  

I played Watercolors months ago. Why has it taken me so long to post a review?  I simply forgot.  The object is to drag your blue paint source to the open circle blue target. Do the same for other colors. You will have to mix.
Seems kind of easy. But there are some very interesting problems here. You will have to mix red & blue to get purple, then knock it out with yellow. Got that? Watercolors has some very interesting color topology problems that seem impossible, but are doable - if you knock secondary colors out.

There are 45 levels with 2 colors. I've solved them all. But rarely within the fewest number of moves.
There are 45 levels with 3 colors. I've solved 42 of them. Again, using lots of extra moves.
There is a 'Grid Pack' with another 45 levels. I've done 20 of them.
Beyond that, there are several more packs with very challenging levels. I have not unlocked those because I'm not done with the 3 Colors pack.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/watercolors/id875838755?mt=8

Ones 5x5: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad

Tadaki Tokairin has made another version of 2048. However, his rules are a bit different. In one version, only 1's will replace the empty squares. In another version, it's 1's & 2's that fill the empty squares.
What's different? The matching numbers will move across in 2 steps, as opposed to 1 step. This is nice to see for those people who were a little lost in 2048. However, the movements are too slow for me. I'm already making the next swipe.
I don't think I can look at another 2048 version.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ones-5x5/id898717130?mt=8