I’ve had the pleasure to play through hundreds of different mobile games now, and from my experience, it seems like puzzle games are one of the most widely appreciated genres on the mobile platform. The trouble is, a lot of the most popular puzzle games are very similar. Games like Candy Crush are giving other just as enjoyable games very little chance to get seen. Today I thought I’d share five of my favourite puzzle games that I have had the chance to play.
It was hard for me to pick out five favourites because there are a surprising number of mobile puzzle games that have really impressed me over the years. I decided to pick five games that I think are amazing, but also are less likely to be heard of in the community. Hopefully you’ll have five great new games to try out once you’ve finished reading.
Blok Amok - Free
This game beats Angry Birds in every direction, quite literally
First up, we have a very interesting physics based puzzler. Blok Amok gives you the power (and responsibility) of owning your very own cannon, and you will need to use it to bring down structures on each level. As you can imagine, each structure is designed differently, and as you progress through the game, you’ll really need to start thinking carefully about how to knock down the structures with the limited amount of ammo you’re given.
To really paint a picture of how awesome this game is; imagine playing Angry Birds in a 3D environment. The way structures react to your shots will be infinitely more interesting than they would be in a 2D game. On every level, the cannon will be attached to a circular track, and the structure will be within the center. You can push the cannon along the track, and this will give you a full 360 degrees view on the structure.
Each level is designed to really make use of the 3D space, too. It’s hard to explain how well presented Blok Amok is - you should definitely give it a go if you enjoyed Angry Birds. You can pick up Blok Amok for free on Android here.
Twisty Planets - Free
A magically charming puzzle game
I’ve mentioned Twisty Planets on the community before, but it deserves another mention. This game is absolutely amazing, and the developers behind it are constantly releasing amazing titles across a range of different genres.
Twisty Planets is another 3D puzzler that gives you the power to truly abuse the three-dimensional plane. On every level, you will have a small block-shaped fella’ named Qub, and you must direct him across the level to collect three stars and then finally enter the end-level portal.
You can freely rotate the level, and doing so will flip the gravity. As you can imagine, Qub will respond to the changes in gravity, and this can either help him to reach extra areas of the world, or result in him falling endlessly into space.
Twisty Planets really gets you thinking hard about how to manipulate a 3D object to your advantage. It’s free and everything about this game feels so magically charming. You can download Twisty Planets on iOS and Android for free.
Nimble Squiggles - Free
Your brain will feel like squiggles after playing this game
Nimble Squiggles look innocently simple on it’s app page. The background of this game is a simple parchment style blank page. All of the graphics in this game look as if they could have been drawn out in Microsoft Paint, but despite this, Nimble Squiggles is infinitely more complicated than you could imagine.
On each level in Nimble Squiggles you are given a number of coloured squiggles. The aim is of the game is to guide each squiggle into the corresponding coloured portal. The trouble is, most levels will have a variety of lines that will change the colour of the squiggles you are holding once passed, and you’ll need to think about how to deliver each squiggle to it’s destination by using the coloured lines to your advantage.
Whilst gameplay starts off fairly simple, things really start to get more complicated as you progress through the levels on Nimble Squiggles, and there are very few games that I have found so taxing on the few puzzle-worthy brain cells hiding in my head. Nimble Squiggles is available for free on both iOS and Android.
Odd Bot Out - Free or £1.49
Being the Odd Bot Out doesn’t have to be a bad thing
I’m not really sure how, but you somehow end up becoming quite attached to the main character in Odd Bot Out. As you can see from the image above, there are very few defining characteristics about him, but he’s set out on an adventure, and that single googly eye seems to hold a universe full of stories.
In Odd Bot Out, you must interact with various objects on the level to provide a way for Odd, the main protagonist, to get past obstacles and get closer to escaping the robot factory he was built in.
There are a total of 100 levels in the paid version, and just 10 levels in the free edition. The game really is quite engaging, and focuses on player interaction, making sure that everything within a level can be interacted with in some way or another.
100 levels may sound like quite a lot, but you’ll easily find yourself playing through every single one of them, so I’d love to see more levels in the future. Odd Bot Out has a free version for Android, as well as a full £1.49 version for Android and iOS.
Gravity Lab - Free
Strange things happen when you start playing with gravity..
Gravity Lab is a really fun puzzle game that feels like an absolute perfect fit for the mobile platform. In this game, players must knock robot Steve into various objects in an attempt to collect all three stars in a level.
As the name suggests, Gravity Labs is a physics based puzzler, and there is a lot of emphasis on using items to change the direction and force of gravity within each level. The interesting thing about Gravity Lab that sets it apart from many other Collect Three Stars games is that your character cannot actually collect the stars himself. Instead, you need to use robot Steve to hit into objects, which in turn can hit into the stars to collect them.
If you like Cut the Rope, you’ll absolutely adore Gravity Lab. It is free for both iOS and Android.
I hope you all find a game or two in this list to play through. I’d love to hear if any of you have any great puzzle games you’d like to share with the community.