TapGem is a very interesting puzzle app game.  The object is to place 4 gems on each colored region and ensure that each row and column has the correct number of gems as indicated. See the left margin and the row of numbers on the top.

If a number is in black, then you have satisfied the correct number of gems in that row or column. You can then white out the other squares because they cannot have gems.

There are 60 free levels. I’ve done all the easy and medium levels.  Here’s what I don’t like: many of these [Read More...]

Chemin is by Enrique Brandariz:  http://www.enriquebrandariz.com/chemin/CheminEN/Home.html

You are given numbered red squares – already fixed in the grid. Your task is to till the missing numbers so that there is a snake pattern from start to finish.  By the way, the word Chemin means road in French.

The grid sizes are 4×4, 5×5, 6×6 and 7×7.  25 levels per grid size. I raced through them and completed everything within 2 days.

The concept is not new. Marilyn vos Savant, supposedly the smartest person in the world, calls her version Numbrix. So I’ve been doing these for ages.

Chemin’s user [Read More...]

Have you played  Tile’M All and Jelly Blocks? I love them both.  They are rock solid challenging puzzle apps where the object is to get all the colored shapes together.

I’ve been told that the original concept was known as Denki Blocks.  It’s not new. And it’s a bit expensive at $4.99. But I think it’s well worth it.  Most of the puzzles have 2 objectives: first to get all the colored shapes together. The second, more challenging goal is to make each final shape identical.

There are over 100 levels.  I have not solved them all. I’ve done about 70 [Read More...]

Book Tower has all the rules of Tower of Hanoi, but color is added.

I’ve seen 3 or 4 version of this exact same puzzle. I don’t remember the names though. What I particularly like about this version is the theme of books and the library background. They did a nice job on that.

http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/

Jelly Fits Puzzle comes from Qmax, Inc in China.  The object is to slide the colored tiles onto their homes.

Look at challenge level 24: see the small blue square? When the normal blue square gets to its home (which is covered up temporarily by the long vertical red rectangle), then the small blue square will disappear and turn white. Which means that pieces may travel over it.

There are 36 levels. I’ve done them all. Not terribly hard, but there’s potential here.

http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com/

DJ Mole is a sokoban type puzzle.  The object is to get the DJ Mole to traverse the grid and pick up old albums.  If DJ Mole picks up a blue album, then his headphones turn blue and that allows him to push blue obstacles out of his way.

Other featueres: rainbow albums, teleporters,

One drawback is that you can’t see the entire grid all at once. But that adds another element of complexity.

There are 15 free levels, and I’ve done them all.

Without a doubt, this concept is not entirely original. But the implementation of a Mole who [Read More...]

Oball is a point scoring puzzle app from Vlifect. Their webpage is down or defunct. However, the puzzle game is quite good.

The object is to get 4 balls of the same color into a cluster of 4 or more. When that happens, they disappear and you score points.

Gameplay: tap on 2 balls and if they can trade places via an open path (no diagonals), they will swap.

You score more points by getting a cluster of 5 or 6. But that’s not necessarily an optimal strategy.

Right now, my score is about 17,000. That’s from playing 30 minutes [Read More...]