I haven't been updating the blog this year, but I have kept playing iOS puzzle games, and giving brief heads up on Twitter. It's now time to pick the best, for the customary end-of-year top 10 list.
While I must say that I felt 2015 was, for puzzle apps, a worse year than the preceding ones, there were still many excellent games released, and it was difficult picking just ten of them.
#10 Kaodoku
A variation of Sudoku which is a lot more difficult and interesting. Excellent hint system, which gently points to the logic deduction needed to proceed. The puzzles are randomly generated, favoring the ones that remain interesting until the end.
#9 Patchmania - A Puzzle About Bunny Revenge!
This could very well be the final word in "path finding" puzzles, extending the mechanics in several ways and putting cute animations on top. I think it might even have too many levels, so it can get a bit repetitive after a while.
#8 Divide By Sheep
I like the dark humor of this one. Don't be put off by it being pitched as a "math puzzler": the math is elementary. There's a lot of variety, because the mechanics change in many ways as you progress. Easy to play through if you don't care about earning 3 stars, but if you want to find the perfect solution to each puzzle you have a lot of thinking to do.
#7 [the Sequence]
A "visual programming" game with novel ideas and very good level design. You essentially need to put together an assembly line of different robots, then watch it run as they move items from start to finish. Unlike other games of the genre, it doesn't leave much freedom to create your own solutions, because you have a limited number of elements in each level.
#6 Good Fences
This game oozes mathematical depth--in a good way. The aim is to completely surround a shape with identical copies of itself, which gets complicated as the shapes become irregular and difficult to tightly pack together.
#5 Inch By Inch
A rare instance of a single-tap puzzle game, where timing is essential, but isn't everything: to ensure that your worm doesn't die a violent death, you need to carefully plan your moves. At the beginning you might think that you are just timing your moves wrong, but eventually you realize that you are doing the wrong moves.
#4 Manowar
One of the best physics puzzlers ever. While physics do play a major role, the core of the game actually requires a lot of logical thinking. In some cases you also need good dexterity and precise timing, but more often than not, the main difficulty is figuring out the right sequence of actions to do.
#3 Test Chamber - Mind-bending Puzzles
A "block pushing" puzzle set in a mysterios "wraparound" world. Clever mechanics and doubly clever level design. with many surprising solutions. Takes a while to grasp, and is well worth it.
#2 A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build
Another "block pushing" puzzle which features some incredibly simple mechanics used in creative ways. One of the best examples of videogames as a form of art. It might seem short, but there's a hidden meta-puzzle after the end which raises everything you did previously to a different level.
#1 Tetrobot and Co.
One of the largest collection of "a-ha!" moments in a puzzle game. Great mechanics, explored in lots of different directions by making all kinds of variations to the world. Large, very well designed levels. The basic solutions are reasonably approachable, but requires careful thought in order to achieve the 3 "stars". And after you've done that and think you're clever, you need to bend over backwards if you want to unlock the extra achievements.
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