Review: Pair Solitaire for iPhone and iPad

Pair Solitaire by Vitaliy Zlotskiy played a nasty trick on me. I got my best score on the very first game, and haven't been able to replicate it since.

I like this game because even if it has the mechanics of a classic card solitaire, luck is not particularly involved. At the beginning, you have full knowledge of the position of all the cards, so it can be approached like a puzzle.

Review: Andy's Trains for iPad

Train shunting is a classic puzzle genre, but for some reason the App Store seems to be lacking that kind of games. The recently released Andy's Trains attempts to fill that void.

The game's title screen surprises, showing an animated railway full of switches, semaphores, and tunnels, where several trains are presumably on their way to solve some complicated puzzle.

Developed by the German Andreas Guenther, this is clearly a work of passion, and even if it looks a bit amateurish in places, or perhaps precisely because of that, it stood out amonge the weekly deluge of new puzzle games.

Review: Euclidea for iPad

To put it briefly, Euclidea is a game that every math student should have and, in an ideal world, every adult should like.

The game was developed by the Russian Horis International Limited, which seems to be specialising in apps with a strong maths background. Some time ago they also released Quick Route, a nice puzzle based on the Travelling Salesman Problem.

The concept isn't new; we have seen it for example in the browser game Euclid: The Game. However, the implementation in Euclidea is perfectly done, making it an absolute joy to play.

Review: Fallin Love for iPhone and iPad

What best time to talk about a game about love than... Halloween?

Surely Fallin Love will have a big promotion for Valentine's Day, however an update was released recently, featuring new levels and significantly improved performance on older devices, so it's worth talking about it now.

Technically, this game by the Italian Chestnut Games should be considered an action game: a platformer, where the usual ability to jump has been replaced by tilt mechanics. However, the action elements are minimal, and it plays more like a puzzle game.