puzzler

I often write about action games in my collections, and it's no secret I'm a fan of the racing-game genre as well. But another genre I like to play while on my commute is mind-twisting puzzle games. A new game was released a few days ago that has jumped to the top of the charts at iTunes App Store and it has all the bells and whistles to remain a hit.

Though puzzle games come in a lot of different forms, one of my favorite types is those that use realistic physics. Some of the best I have come across use liquid physics and require you to experiment in order to solve each puzzle.… Read more

Last October I called Chillingo's Cut the Rope the best game since Angry Birds. And it appears the world agreed with me, as evidenced by its current number-three spot on the iTunes Top Paid Apps chart.

If you're looking for the next big thing in Cutesy Physics Puzzlers (or CPPs, as I like to call them), look no further: it's Cover Orange.

Weird title, I agree, but it's the literal explanation of the gameplay. In each level, you must shelter (i.e. cover) one or more oranges against the "poison rain" that pours in … Read more

Farm Break is a free, sheep-themed arcade puzzler with cute art direction and decent level design.

The game's central schtick--as revealed in a children's-book-style prologue slideshow--is that you're helping three larcenous sheep escape from a farm, by outsmarting and outmaneuvering the many traps (i.e., puzzles) set by the farmer. You alternately control three different sheep (Sally, Knuckles, and Big Jim, each with their own sounds and personality), using their various characteristics (e.g., Sally's strength, or Big Jim's ability to squeeze through small spaces) in tandem to defeat the game's 25 physics-based puzzles … Read more

You can't turn around in the App Store without tripping over physics-based puzzlers and games with a hand-sketched, graph-paper aesthetic--but Doodle Bomb still manages to be a fun, above-average entry into these two crowded subgenres.

Your goal in Doodle Bomb is to throw bombs--as few as possible--to escape each level. From your torn-out-paper perch, you're trying to blow up a green control panel to open a door and end each level. Along the way you have to blow up blue control panels to activate parts of the environment (such as hinges or wheels) and either avoid or exploit … Read more

Twisty Text is a thoughtfully designed letter-arrangement game with an inventive interface that encourages experimentation and fast-paced play. As with similar games in this genre, Twisty Text challenges you to find as many words as you can from a set number of letters (five, six, or seven) before a timer runs out. What makes Twisty Text so novel is how its interface makes such effective use of the touch screen: you can quickly drag letters back and forth to form words, and then swipe to underline every new guess. You can also press a button (or shake your device) to … Read more

Shift Lite is the iPhone version of the popular Web-based Flash game Shift, a traditional, puzzle-based platformer with a twist. In Shift, you traverse a stark black-and-white game world to the beat of a jazzy, noir soundtrack, jumping over obstacles and grabbing keys to activate platforms that let you "escape" into each progressively more complex level. You use touch-screen buttons to run left and right, and you press both buttons to jump.

The twist in Shift involves the black-and-white game world: puzzles on each level often require you to hit the "Shift" button (or you can … Read more