PathLink: free puzzle app for iphone ipad

PathLink is a topology maze type puzzle. Start at the star, and then cover all the squares moving horizontally and vertically. Look at the yellow area: do you see the two 2's? That means that those squares will be traversed twice each. There are 35 free levels. I've done them all - they're fun. After that, there are 80 paid levels. I'd like to remind you that an excellent version of this type of puzzle is Numeric Paranoia.

Square Time: free puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Square Time is another topology puzzle. The object is to tap on the squares so that they all form one continuous string. You must start on one of the yellow squares. A red cube means that you're not going to include that space. There are 61 levels. I've solved them all. I'm not crazy about the graphics on this. I'd recommend Numeric Paranoia first.

Jigglesaw: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

Matthew Hille recently contacted me about his new jigsaw puzzle app: Jigglesaw. The picture is constantly moving. Matthew says that they start to get hard at level 30 and that after level 60 they get really hard! So far I've done just about 60 levels. Yes, they're getting hard. Definitely fun.

Update (June 19, 2012): I've solved all 70 puzzles.  Never did I think that I would have so much fun with a jigsaw puzzle app.

There 4 basic themes in the puzzles: moving footprints; bouncing balls, squares and ladybugs; and seeds that sprout into flowers. The grid sizes get larger, which makes it harder. Now I think I'd like to see more themes.

Now I want more puzzle levels!

Cast Dolce: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the Week Review

Click here for the solution. Cast Dolce is this week's Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the week. The object is to take apart the male & female symbols. I have no idea about the origins of these symbols. But I can tell you that the solution involves 4 or 5 steps. This type of disentanglement puzzle is more pleasant than the string and ring puzzles. Great price!

NineOut: point-scoring puzzle app for iphone ipad

Sandro Baggattini from Zurich, Switzerland recently contacted me about his point-scoring puzzle app: NineOut. 1. The object is to place tiles from the bottom of the board so that: the surrounding 8 squares will add up to that #. Look at the diagram and place a 7 next to the 5 & 2. The 5 & 2 will disappear and the 7 will stay on the board. In order to really clear the board, you will need to get a whole lot of 9's to pop up. A 9 next to a 7 & 2 and they ALL disappear. I was stuck on level 1 because I did not see this explained in the rules: The gray squares have to be flipped over with a 9 next to them. Then they have to be vanished with another 9. When I first saw the video of this puzzle app, I was skeptical. Big deal, I thought. Then I played it & realized there was a time element. NineOut is a terrific little puzzle app that's a keeper! So far my top score is 62,200 which places me 3rd in the World Leaderboard. My mother is very proud. View this video of how to play.

Lab Mice Puzzles: huge best seller for Mindware.com

Major thanks to everybody who is buying Lab Mice Puzzles from Mindware.com. If you decide to buy more copies to give as gifts to nieces/nephews/grandchildren, please do it at night. I like the idea of making money while I sleep. CLICK HERE.

Puzzle Bonsai: puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

Kimmo Lahtinen recently contacted me about his new puzzle app Puzzle Bonsai. There are 3 versions of games here. The Numbers version: place the plus, minus, multiplication and division signs onto the orange circles to create an 'Order of Operations' equation that will equal the number at the trunk. The Word version is basically the same. Operations for this: 'swap left with right' and 'un-anagram'. While you're thinking, the tree sways gently back and forth and in the background are some Chinese characters midst a village scene. Quite nice artwork. It's a very serene atmosphere that contrasts radically from another puzzle app I'm playing now that has a frantic time element.

iBall 38: puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

iBall 38 is the virtual model for a puzzle that was known as Mozaika invented by Rudolf Destics. I bought Mozaika from Mr. Destics about 15 years ago. He sold it in various color schemes. You could get it half red, half blue. Or you could get it in 4 colors or 8 colors. This virtual edition comes in 4 colors. It's hard! The graphics and user interface are quite good. Scroll down to find 2 more puzzles by Dumitru Ban - posted in the last 3 weeks: iGlobe 38 and iDomino 18.

Cast Square: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the Week

Cast Square is a terrific little puzzle at a terrific little price. The object is to take it apart, then reassemble. What's great about this puzzle is that it's virtually indestructible. Your non-puzzle friends and nieces & nephews won't be able to break it. Full disclosure: Vesa Timonen is my puzzle friend from Finland and he designed it. Here's the link.

Skyline Shadow: free iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Look at the icon to the right - cool and elegant. So I downloaded it. There are 15 puzzle levels. The object is to swap the gray bars with each other so they match the green bars above the reflecting line.

I've solved all 15 levels in about 15 minutes. Strictly for kids. Still, love that art work.

Relix

The object of Relix is to slide the tiles so that 3 of them line up to disappear. If 2 of them line up without the third, they will vanish & your stuck! I haven't played this puzzle in at least year because I did it on my ipod touch and the data didn't transfer over to my ipad. Suffice it to say, these puzzles are really good fun and challenging. I did not complete them. In fact I was convinced that some of the levels were impossible. 1 more thing: notice the white dots? That's a portal. Relix 2 has recently come out. I'll post a review about that in a week or two.

63 Logic Games - Time Killers: puzzle apps for iphone, ipad

Andrea Sabbatini contacted me about 2 weeks ago about her puzzle app: 63 Logic Games - Time Killers. There are 63 different types of puzzles here totaling over 1500 puzzle levels. These types of puzzles come from the Japanese book publishing company Nikoli. My favorites: Lighten Up, Tatami, Snail, Hidden Stars, Branches. Masyu is the one I like the least. Some of these puzzles are available on the App Store under other names. Hidden Stars is also known as Jabeh. Lighten Up is also known as Lighthouse. Branches: this was offered on a CD-ROM game by Rubik's in the mid 90's and called Cover-Up. Landscaper is also known as Binary Sudoku. Calcudoku is also known as KenKen. Hidato is also known as Numbrix. (I'm not exactly sure if they're the same.) Loopy is also known as Monorail. So far I've solved about 175 puzzles from various games. I have not sampled all 63 puzzle games yet. There's no way anybody is going to complete all these puzzle levels any time soon.

Unweb: free iphone ipad puzzle app Review

Unweb is a free puzzle app where you have to untangle all the cords by moving the points around. No lines can cross. As I've said before: this has been done before. I remember a colleague of mined named Karmel who first showed me this type of puzzle, maybe 6 years ago. Do a google search for planarity. It's okay.

Hex-A-Palooza: free ipad iphone puzzle app

Doug Durkin recently contacted me about his new puzzle app: Hex-A-Palooza. Look at the aquamarine hexagons. They can turn in either direction. When they do, the yellow triangles travel with them. The object is to match the numbers on the triangles with the numbers on the hexagons. This is tough! They're similar to Doug Engel's circle and battlegear puzzles. There is a lite version, so give it a try.

Crossword/Chavez/Venezuela Plot

http://www.wtop.com/220/2862755/Crossword-plot-Probe-ridiculed-in-Venezuela CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Government critics, and even some supporters, are ridiculing a state TV host's allegation that a newspaper crossword puzzle may have had a hidden call for a plot to kill President Hugo Chavez's elder brother.

Cast Baroq: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the Week Review

Click here for the solution Puzzle Master sells Baroq and describes it this way: "This Akio Yamamoto creation consists of two pieces fashioned after the image of intertwining Bach melodies. Following the dynamic build up is an inspirational finale when the two pieces elegantly release from each other. You may even want to choose a somewhat luxurious and relaxing ambience when attempting this puzzle. The key word is 'music'." Myself: I had no idea there was a musical theme and I enjoyed solving it.

iGlobe 38: puzzle app for ipad, iphone Review

This is the second of Dumitru Ban's puzzle apps. About 15 years ago somebody gave me the physical version of this puzzle. You can slide the pieces along the equator and up and down the 2 longitudes to restore order in the world. The physical version was not too smooth; I got frustrated and never finished solving this. iGlobe 38 turns a lot smoother. It's also a lot cheaper than the physical puzzle. The graphics and interface are quite good.

What is this App?: puzzle app for iphone, ipad

What Is This App? is the title of the app. You are presented with a series of images and have to solve them. Very similar to 100 Floors. What Is This App? is not exactly my kind of puzzle. But I can see the appeal for other puzzlers.

Magic Bricks: free iphone ipad puzzle app

Magic Bricks is a super fun puzzle app! The object is to eliminate the bricks in the center by firing matching bricks from the top, bottom, left or right. A bit like Tetris. However, you only need 2 bricks adjacent to each other to make them disappear. Magic Bricks is challenging, frustrating and just plain fun. I've done 33 of the 100 levels and that took about 4 hours. For the record: I've never liked Tetris, but I love Magic Bricks. Truly. Note: the first 25 levels are free. Update: May 21, 2012. I am now up to level 75. I've skipped 5 or 6 levels. At this point, each level can take 1 hour. I'm thinking I need to delete this to remove the addiction.

Clever Driver: this week's ripoff of Rush Hour

Thomas McDonald of Games Magazine recently wrote an article about plagarism in the App Store. Seems like every week there's another version of Nob Yoshigahara's Rush Hour. Clever Driver is the latest.

100 Floors: free iphone ipad puzzle app

100 Floors just came out on Friday. The object is to somehow open the elevator doors to go up to the next level. Spoilers have already been published everywhere. Right now I'm stuck on level 25, which I'm finding really annoying because I know what to do. Implementing the solution is proving to be very tedious. However, I really like this set of puzzles.

Cast Keyring: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the week Review

Click here for the solution. Cast Keyring comes from Oskar van Deventer. There are 2 pieces which are almost identical. Or maybe they are identical. I'm not sure now. It's actually a maze disentanglement puzzle. It's very cool and clever and I've solved it numerous times over the years. My advice: buy 3 copies. 1 for yourself, another for a niece or nephew, another for an office grab-bag Christmas party.

iDomino 18

Dumitru Ban from Timisoara, Romania recently contacted me about 3 puzzle apps he's created. The first one is called iDomino 18. The physical version of this puzzle was called Rubik's Domino. It was a commercial flop. When ebay came on the scene, the puzzle often sold for $200. I felt very fortunate to get a copy for just $15. Then I solved it. It's much easier than a normal 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. But it's still tricky. This virtual version is stellar. The graphics make this puzzle super easy to manipulate. You don't need to buy the physical version now. Next week I'll post a review of another of Dumitru's puzzles.

Is this blog a success?

Google the phrase 'puzzle app' and this site comes up #1. Thanks everybody for signing up as 'followers' and posting a link on your own website to this site.

Titanic by SmartGames: puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Raf Peters recently contacted me about his new puzzle app: Titanic by SmartGames. Raf has created at least 10 puzzles for Smart Games. I have a bunch of them. The object of Titanic is to move the boats to rescue the people. Beware, it's the seat of the boat that must be adjacent to the person. Also, if a boat travels next to a passenger, it must rescue that person. When a boat is full, it drops anchor and cannot move. These puzzles are hard. There are 96 levels. So far, I've done 87 of them. The last 24 puzzles are very hard. SmartGames and Raf produced a physical version of this puzzle a few years ago, also called Titanic. That version had 48 puzzle levels. The app version has a completely new set of puzzles. Titanic easily makes it onto the list of Best Puzzle Apps of 2012. Congratulations Raf!

Tank Maze: free iphone ipad puzzle app

When I saw this I thought: looks too easy. The object of Tank Maze is to get your tank to the star. Each intersection has a set of arrows that may or may not permit you to advance to where you want. These were more challenging than I thought! I solved 8 or 9 of the levels. The paid version has 39 levels! Great for kids!

Racetrax: free iphone ipad puzzle app

How many puzzle apps use an image of a hot girl as part of their icon? There was another puzzle that involved a maze, but I don't recall the title. The object of Racetrax is to swap adjacent tiles to form closed loops. The bigger the loop, the more points you get. After solving level 4, you get a limited time to play level 5. Then you are asked to pay for all the levels. This is a good puzzle! I played it 4 times. You really have to scrutinize the playing board to figure out what swaps will lead to a closed loop. I may even pay the $.99 to keep playing. But there's a problem with this puzzle. I have no idea how the program determines when I'm done with any level before it advances me. Do I get a limited number of moves? Is there a time element? A scoring issue. On that aspect, this puzzle app is a bit frustrating.

Cast Flag: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the week

Click here for the solution Cast Flag was created by Nob Yoshigahara. The object is to remove the flag. It's kind of easy. Another company ripped him off by making a replica with the slightest of changes. This metal version is quite nice.

Web site for puzzlers

Just in case you're interested in another social media site, there is now something called pinterest.com. Peter Grabarchuk sent me this link to a group of serious puzzlers.

Grooh: free iphone ipad puzzle app

Grooh is similar to Hex-A-Hop, a game I've mentioned several times in the past couple of years. The object is to get to the door while getting all of the colored tiles to explode. How to explode a colored tile: step on it, then absorb its color, then step off. Some tiles are raised. You can pick up boxes to put in holes. There are wormholes. I've been playing this game for a month and am stuck on level 22. Download Grooh right now and give it a test run.

Moovin Up: puzzle app for iphone and ipad Review

Moovin Up is kind of a tilt maze. The object is to get the cow/s to eat all the grass. We've seen this type of puzzle many times. Here's what's different: 1. The red cows do not eat grass, but they can kick the rocks off the grid. 2. Cows can climb up stairs, but never down. 3. If a cow eats a mushroom, that cow will still travel all the way to the end, but then will fall asleep forever. There are 60 levels. I've done all 60. It's fun!

Addidoku: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

The object of Addidoku is to loop the numbers in the grid into simple adding equations. Look at the picture: 3 + 4 = 7. Also 5 = 5. These puzzles are really fun! Oscar Lindberg is one of the creators of Addidoku. The free portion allowed me to play 5 easy, 5 medium, 5 hard & 5 extreme levels. I didn't hesitate to spend the $.99 for the rest. They're addicting and fun. The easy & medium levels are way too easy. But the hard & extreme levels can be quite tricky. There's usually 1 number that's the key to solving everything. Each level pack has 100 puzzles. The 25 easy levels will take 10 minutes - total time. The 25 medium levels will take 12 minutes. The 25 hard and 25 extreme levels will take 45 minutes - 2 hours. Furthermore, I bought the second level pack for another $.99 and didn't stop until all they were all solved. Addidoku is a great puzzle app for people who like Kakuro, Sudoku and Kenken. Math teachers: get your students to play it.

Tangled: puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Billy Lavoie recently contacted me about his new puzzle app Tangled. The object is to untangle the cords. Intersecting lines are wrong and turn red. Correct lines turn white.

We've seen this app before more than once. I believe Tangled is the only one that has a percent scorecard so you can track your progress for each puzzle. Good fun for kids.

Pixopush: iphone ipad puzzle app Updated!

You may recall that I wrote about Pixopush: an interesting puzzle app from a 17-year old. I have finished all 192 levels. Whew! They definitely get more challenging with 2 and 3 cities and complex paths. Click here for the webpage. A lot more complex than the image below.

Cast Equa: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the Week Review

Click here for the solution. Oskar van Deventer designed this take-apart puzzle. Inside the frame is a ring, which is composed of 2 pieces. The whole solving process is really fun. Do get it. About 10 years ago I got a wooden version of this - crafted beautifully by Tom Lensch. I think I paid $90 for it. This version is metal and much smaller.

Fourbar puzzle app for iphone and ipad Review

Kevin Loewke recently contacted me about his mechanical engineering puzzle. The object is to move the blue circle and the semi-circle at the end of the red piece so that the white dot on the green bar will trace a path that will touch each of the stars.

I've done the first 7 levels - they are challenging. Level 17: I've tried this and cannot believe that it is possible. Yowsa! Obviously, I don't know much about mechanical engineering and wish that I did.

Update: I missed something in the instructions. The red bar and the other bars can be stretched! That changes everything! Last night I completed 22 of the 48 puzzles. Definitely fun. 48 levels is just the right number for this puzzle I think.Fans of Angry Birds should like this because it has a fair amount of trial and error.

There is a lite version. Give it a shot!

Find a Way, Jose!: free puzzle app for iphone, ipad Review

Ola Muchachos! Ehud Zamir recently sent me an email about his Israeli company Artlab, and their new game/puzzle. It's a sliding tile puzzle that combines a Mexican who has a distinctive mustache and sombrero and tequila. I'm sure somebody somewhere is offended. I'm here to report on the puzzle aspect only. So don't send me hate-email.

The object: slide the tiles around until Jose gets to the bottle of tequila. There are 15 free levels. 60 levels total. After that you can buy more. You can also build your own levels.

I've solved all the free levels - they're not so easy.

The graphics are really good!

Download it here.

Combination: great free puzzle app Review

Combination came out in 2009, but I didn't know about it until recently when one of my blog 'followers' alerted me to it. All I can say is Whoa! Best of all: it is a free puzzle app.

This puzzle has 397 levels. The difficulty categories: simple, easy, fun, smooth, tricky, risky, knotty, taxing, tough, baffling, havoc, mayhem, insanity, bedlam, cruel and superhard.

The object is to place the pieces into the grid so that red does not attack any other color except red. Right now I've done more than 150 of the levels. Mostly at the fun, smooth, tricky, risky and knotty levels.

These are plain fun! Everybody download it right now, give it a test run and send me an email how you like it.

Combination easily makes it onto the list of Best Puzzle Apps of 2012 - even though it came out in 2009. My list, my rules!

Bloxie: puzzle app for iphone ipad Review

Ivan Vassilev has created some very good, challenging puzzle apps - all within the last 6 months. They are all worthy of your attention. The object here: roll the shapes around so that the red rectangle can fall down the rabbit hole. The gold colored shapes: that's the frame.

200 levels. Right now I've done about 40 of the levels. No way I'll be able to complete these in the next 2 years; they're tough.

Ivan has also produced Red Mix, Spin Mix and tJam.

Cast Seahorse: Hanayama Mechanical Puzzle of the week

Cast Seahorse is cute! The 2 seahorses are not identical. A few readers emailed me to ask about these disentanglement puzzles that don't use string, rope, wire or rings: are they like the nail puzzle? The nail puzzle is basically a 1 step problem. These Hanayama puzzles usually require 4 or 5 steps.

Trust me: these are cheap enough that you should buy multiple copies. Always 1 for yourself. The others you use to spread the mechanical puzzle bug.

Here's the solution.

Spin Mix: Puzzle app of the week for the ipad, iphone

My puzzle friend Ivan Vassilev has done it again! First he came out with tjam, which is fabulous and hard. Then Ivan came out with Red Mix, it's also difficult, but maybe not as fabulous as tjam. I still haven't mentioned his third puzzle app bloxie, but I will post a review of that in the future.

Spin Mix could be the most fun! The object is to swivel the blue and red line segments onto the white circles until the red line segment lands on both red circles.

Look at the picture below - there are exactly 274 levels. As you can see, there's a good mixture of easy, medium & hard puzzles.

Without a doubt, Spin Mix makes it onto the list of best puzzle apps of 2012.