Your brain behaves a lot like a muscle and it needs to be exercised regularly. While your brain is no different from the rest of your body, it is important for you to improve its overall functionality. One way to do this is by indulging in action-packed puzzle apps and logic games.
Brain games, crosswords, brainteasers, and puzzle solving games work wonders to help improve creativity and your and analytical process, all the while promising a fun experience.
To help you find the best game to get your brain working, here is our list of the best logic games and puzzle apps of 2018:
1. Puyo Pop Tetris
We all love Tetris. While the classic game remains very near and dear to our hearts, we believe PuyoPop Tetris is an excellent twist to our favorite classic game. Combining two of our most favorite games, Tetris and Puyo Pop, Puyo Pop Tetris is a timeless puzzle game.
Easy as it is for just about anyone who has played the age-old games, Puyo Pop Tetris provides you with an excellent platform to involve every working part of your brain. Put your brain into action by playing Puyo Pop, Tetris, or both at the same time.
2. Portal
There is no way we can stop ourselves from talking about the brilliance of Portal. Keeping aside the abundant supply of hilarious jokes and insults coming your way from GLaDOS, Portal – available on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC – is an innovative first-person game with extraordinary puzzle mechanics.
Enjoy using portals and cubes to solve complex puzzles and tune up your brain by working your way to gain access to inaccessible places in the game. Portal combines teamwork, fun gameplay elements, and the art of perfect timing to offer you the best gaming experience.
3. Candy Crush Saga
No puzzle app list is complete without everyone’s favorite game: Candy Crush Saga. Available on Android and iOS, Candy Crush undoubtedly earns its place amongst the best puzzle apps. The game requires you to combine as many similar pieces of candy as possible, until you run out of time or moves. Candy Crush Saga combines colorful and engaging elements to promise a fun gaming exercise for your mind. You are likely to spot at least one person playing this game during your commute.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
With Nintendo back in the picture, thanks to the introduction of the Nintendo Switch, playing The Legend of Zelda on modern tech will allow you to enjoy an enhanced gaming experience. Featuring 120 shrine puzzles and 4 divine beasts in a bigger setting, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has a bit of everything – from puzzles about physics, to those involving mechanics and much more.
5. EDGE Extended
Developed by Mobigame, EDGE Extended is a game closely based on the original Edge – a high grossing game on the Apple App Store. EDGE Extended is easy to understand yet extremely difficult to master. In this game, you have to navigate a rolling cube around maze-like geometrical levels created from blocks and collect prisms while trying to reach the end of the stage as fast as possible.
6. Monsters Ate My Condo
Ever wondered what it would be like to play Jenga with a twist on a digital platform? Well, now is your chance to try this out. Taking the gameplay of Jenga to the next level, Monsters Ate My Condo features brightly colored condos falling from the sky and you having to stack those condos, while some colored monsters try to flank them on the sides. The goal of Monsters Ate My Condo is to continue feeding the monsters with condos of the same color to avoid them throwing an earthquake-like-tantrum.This game is sure to drive your brain insane!
7. Stacking
Experience a world governed by living Russian stacking dolls. Stacking is a late 19th century themed puzzle game that gives you a great chance to put your special abilities to use in order to solve a series of puzzles and challenges. Following a story that features a small group of siblings that was once kidnapped by villains, the goal is to stack up the small dolls into bigger dolls with higher capabilities. Enjoy the charm of the stop motion-esque aesthetic, hilarious script, and fun-filled puzzles as you make your way through the game.
Now that we’ve covered a bit of varied puzzle games across platforms, I’d like to focus a bit more on the core of the puzzle game franchise: iOS. Specifically, I’d like to go over the best puzzle games for iPhone and the best free puzzle games for iPhone. Starting with: Bejeweled Stars.
8. Bejeweled Stars
This puzzle game is a hidden gem. Ha. Ahem. Bejeweled Stars isn’t all that much of a secret. In fact, behind Candy Crush it’s one of the most popular and best iOS puzzle games. In keeping with tradition of their previous games, Popcap made a brilliant match-3 puzzle game out of Stars. Not only is it visually appealing, it has loads of interesting characters and worlds, adding much more depth to the previous iterations in the series. With powerups and new mechanics, this game is just different enough to entertain the short attention spans of modern mobile gamers and still appease fans of the classic. Be warned though, as with all new mobile games, there are microtransactions. While you’d never need to spend a dime, progress can be limited on difficult levels.
9. Cubis Kingdoms
As a huge fan of the Cubis series myself, I’ve played almost every installment in the series. Cubis Kingdoms. While not a free installment (no Cubis games are totally free), this game is dripping with charm and fun puzzles. The gameplay is a match 3-however many you can. The player fires colored blocks into other colored blocks to clear the board as efficiently as possible. A storyline has been introduced and a new method of acquiring new levels has been adopted. Your job, as the player, is to purify the land by defeating puzzles and running little demons out of the area. At the end of each world, there is a “boss fight” which is just a unique puzzle with a health bar. Clearing zones completely is fun and rewarding. Once you hit a paid roadblock, you can opt to watch an ad instead of paying, which is super nice and doesn’t take much time. However, parents should be careful of these ads. While perusing the review section of the game’s store page, a mom noted that her children had been exposed to an ad she deemed inappropriate for her 10-year-old. Everyone is different but take caution.
10. 1010!
A spiritual successor to Tetris, 1010! challenges players to use a similar grouping of pieces in a similar amount of space, with one major difference: it’s a slow pace. Rather than drop pieces on the player continually, 1010! would rather see you suffer by asking you to fill a limited space with pieces that form lines. Those lines disappear when formed. Then, you get more pieces to position terribly and try not to lose. You see, in a previous article, I wrote about the start of Tetris briefly and how it was based on an old physical box filling game. 1010! asks the same of you, but while leaning on the success of its counterpart. It’s fun and a great time killer for an iOS game. As far as in-app purchases go, they are mostly cosmetic and there are no barriers to play.
11. Monument Valley 1 and 2
Monument Valley one of the most critically acclaimed puzzle games on the iOS market place. As a result, it isn’t free either. Praised for its innovative level design and stunning graphical experience, Monument Valley tells us a story without words. You play as princess Ida and you desperately don’t want to be turned into a bird person, or something like that. So, you explore the remnants of a dead civilization that really enjoyed geometry in their architecture. The gameplay consists mostly of moving big slabs around and turning various pieces into place to traverse the beautiful world. If you’re a visual person that really enjoys breathtaking views, this game is great for killing time in Doctor’s offices and the DMV. There’s something of a catch. Though. Both installments in the series (with a third on the way) are ridiculously short and fairly easy. You don’t get much bang for buck here, though it isn’t going to break your bank at $4. Just understand that it’s about the journey.
12. Prune
Okay, so maybe they all aren’t as free as I wanted them to be, but Prune is just so good. This one also sits at a $4 price tag. The concept of the game alone is enough to make me throw my money at it. Your job is to creatively prune and trim away at a small bonsai branch to weave it through obstacles to bring it to sunlight! Yay. It’s really relaxing and a bit challenging. The visuals are in the realm of Limbo. Tons of darkness abounds, a bright light shines through it all, and everything wants to stop you. With some forethought and dedication to be a Zen master you’ll conquer this game in no time. Paid or not, the sheer visual virtuoso required to craft such an engaging piece is worth every penny.
13. Word Cookies Cross
If you like word puzzle games, you’ll love Word Cookies Cross sequel to Word Cookies. With a generally pleasant cookie theme, Cross gives the player a few letters on a crossword board. Then, you must cleverly and expertly swipe between the letters to form various words that will fit on the board. While many critics of this iteration suggest that the first Word Cookies was and will always be superior, fans have adjusted well to the sequel. That being said, the game is quite a bit easier than its predecessor and offers a host of 30 second ads on the free version. However, that’s to be expected when it comes to an entire game for free. Developers can’t simply work to entertain us for nothing, despite how incredible that sounds.
14. Scale
This game is one of the best free puzzle apps on the market. Available for both iOS and Android, Scales is a simple game with a steep endgame difficulty curve. I mean it. Gameplay revolves around a ball bouncing around in a square environment. You want to cut this square environment into pieces, trapping this ball in a smaller space. Don’t ask me why, but the ball needs to be in small box, okay? You do this by using a variety of slicing instruments to cut chunks of the board off. Careful though! If the ball encounters your cutter or gets cut away, you lose a life. You get three and it’s harder than it sounds. The gameplay is addicting, teaches great timing skills for other games, and is just plain fun. I don’t know why. It just is. You can collect different balls and other cutters by earning in game currency! Yes. It doesn’t want all of your money. Even better, am I right?
15. Empires and Puzzles
There are tons of Puzzle Quest wannabes on the iOS and Android stores. In truth, they’re all pretty good. However, one stands above the rest: Empires and Puzzles. Guys, this game is good. Really good. The art is beautiful, and the animations are lag free. The combo chaining is fantastic and feels really rewarding. In addition, you can even build your own city to manage resources like those expensive games akin to Clash of Clans. In this city, you can manage a host of different characters that all have different abilities to use in combat. If you’re an RPG fan in any capacity but need to be able to play something on the go, this game will satisfy your need for bloodshed while also being simplistic enough to be casual about it. The best part? It’s completely free to play with no crazy paywalls. Talk about one of the best puzzle games.
16. The Room Series
I’m going to end this article on a paid game series note. The Room series, which now has four games in total, is a masterpiece of a collection. I can’t say all that much because I don’t want to ruin any story elements, so, here goes my best shot. This series focuses around being put in…well, a room. Then you cause mischief by looking through stuff that is meant to keep you out. You solve a myriad of different puzzles against a beautiful hand-drawn backdrop and explore the creepy ambience. Everything about this game feels like a page out of Tim Burton’s playbook. All that’s missing is Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Honestly, these games are some of the best puzzle games for iOS and Android you can find. The only problem you might have with the series is its length. With only 2-4 hours of gameplay to offer per title, some fans might not appreciate the $5 tag found on most of them. This really is a case of you get what you pay for, though. The Room series shouldn’t be missed by any gamer, casual or otherwise.
With puzzle solving games and apps coming in all shapes and sizes – from classics like Tetris to mind-boggling problem-solving games such as the Scales – it can often become quite overwhelming trying to find the best puzzle games for adults. We hope our list of the best puzzle game apps and logic games to play in 2018 has helped you find a game, both you and your brain can enjoy playing.
