055 – New videogames — 2/4

This is only a succinct review of different types of puzzle videogames published between 2001 and 2020. Not in chronological order.

Logic

● Colour Cross – 2008 A puzzle for the Nintendo DS. The game contains 150 puzzles split between ten categories. The player's time is recorded, with time penalties incurred for mistakes made.

● Matches Puzzle Games – 2020 A classic board game with 1000+ puzzles (shapes, numbers, roman and bonus levels). Solve matches puzzles by removing, adding and moving matches. Use all matches to find the right solution! Every matches puzzle level is different (shapes, sizes, modes). ● – 2007 A puzzle adventure video game series. - Professor Layton and the Curious Village - Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box/Pandora's Box - Layton and the Holiday of London - Professor Layton and the Unwound Future/Lost Future - Professor Layton and the Last Specter/Spectre's Call - Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - Layton Brothers: Mystery Room - Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - Layton's Mystery Journey ● Gridmaster – 2006 A Touch generations puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. The game features four hundred sudoku puzzles, four different tutorials as well as four difficulty settings (practice, easy, normal, and hard). If the player manages to perform well in the puzzle, they receive stars which can

New Puzzle videogames — 2/4 ● Page 1 of 5 be used to take a sudoku test to determine their skill level. There exists a bug in the game : after Platinum rank is obtained, the total playing time is summed up.

Hidden object

● Criminal Case – 2015 A detective-themed hidden object game. Developed for Facebook by an indie company, Criminal Case had over ten million average monthly users. It was crowned the Facebook Game of the Year 2013.

● Hidden Objects Daily Collection – 2014 App needing WiFi. 1 free level every day and final 12 bonuses. Each new hidden objects level is locked away to be accessed only one at a time.

Obstacle course navigation

● A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build – 2015 A puzzle video game for PC and mobile devices. An adorable puzzle game about being a monster and making snowmen with three different sized snow balls. The game received "universal acclaim" from professional critics according to review aggregator website. ● Archer Maclean's Mercury – 2005 A puzzle-platformer video game for the PlayStation Portable. The player can manipulate a droplet of mercury to move in the player's desire direction (trough worlds and levels) by tilting the stage using the PSP's analog stick. He can use the directional buttons to toggle between focusing on all mercury droplets or a single one. Each stage has hazards and obstacles designed to reduce the player's amount of mercury. If the amount of Mercury on the level drops

New Puzzle videogames — 2/4 ● Page 2 of 5 below the limit or time runs out, the level ends and must be restarted. The objective of each level in the game is to navigate the mercury around the stage and reach the goal. ● Balance – 2004 A 3D puzzle video game for Microsoft Windows. The player the player controls a ball via mouse and keyboard, moving it along a course while trying not to fall off the screen. He can change the ball's material with special transformers throughout the game's 13 levels. As the player navigates the ball along a path, each become more difficult than the last. ● English Country Tune – 2011 A puzzle video game. The first few levels are much like puzzles, in which objects are pushed around on a grid by a player- controlled figure until they reach specified target cells; subsequent levels add other elements with different unconventional behaviors and goals. The levels often involve three-dimensional structures, around which the player must navigate using logic and abstraction. ● Enigma – 2007 A puzzle video game based on Oxyd and is released under the GPL. Enigma is a marble game. Landscapes usually take the form of logic puzzles, although frequently, dexterity with the pointing device (the only form of input) is also required. The game is based on a traditional square grid map (2D graphics) and a realistic physics simulation. Enigma is cross-platform and available for Mac OS X, GP2X, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD and Linux (with packages available for several distributions). ● Flamin' Finger – 2003 An arcade redemption game and merchandiser. The game generates an LED behind a touchscreen. The player must then trace through the maze, using his finger, within the given time limit. Depending on the player's progress when time is up, arcade tickets or prizes are awarded.

New Puzzle videogames — 2/4 ● Page 3 of 5 Anything less than a perfectly executed finish will usually result in losing the game. ● Kumoon – 2005 A puzzle game that blends in third person shooter gameplay for Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. In Kumoon, you control a yellow baby chick from a third person view — walking around, hovering, pushing objects and shooting. The object of the game is to advance from stage to stage by making all of the red blocks in a level turn into white blocks, and to finish each of the 39 stages with a positive score. ● Kuru Kuru Kururin – 2001 A puzzle video game developed for the Game Boy Advance The player controls a slowly spinning stick and must maneuver it through a series of without touching the walls. The game starts with simple training levels, in which players are told how to play and how to get around the first corners. After that, there are three levels in each stage, which get progressively harder and longer. The obstacles and the look of the levels (ice, cave, machine, etc.) vary between stages. ● LaserTank – 2015 A computer puzzle game. Requiring logical thinking to solve a variety of levels, LaserTank is open source, careware and can be used for free. It s played on a 16 x 16 grid and the player must use the tank to reach a flag in every level without "dying". He can move the tank in four directions and can fire a laser that is used to move or destroy objects. Experience allows the player to learn a number of techniques and tricks that need to be used to solve difficult levels. ● – 2004 A puzzle game developed for the Nintendo DS. Players use a stylus to draw lines on the DS's touch screen, flipping tile from black to white (or vice versa) to clear puzzles. They must make room for falling tiles by clearing rows as they pile up on the bottom screen. Scoring is based on how the lines are cleared. Main neutral

New Puzzle videogames — 2/4 ● Page 4 of 5 are can be used to flip disconnected groups of tiles in a single pass. There are 10 levels — players advance one level for every 100 lines cleared. The game is over when the blocks of tiles reach the edge of the top-screen. ● Pretentious Game – 2012 A puzzle plat-former video game. It is a satirical take on puzzle games in which poetic hints guide players to unite two lovers. The first chapter was written for Ludum Dare's 2012 game jam, and the series of five chapters was subsequently released for PC and mobile devices. Hints in the form of poetry describe lovers’ story and guide players through the puzzles. Pretentious Game is an enjoyable platformer with a touching message. ● Switchball – 2007 A 3D action-puzzle game released for Microsoft Windows, , PlayStation Network and PlayStation 3. The game puts the player in the role of a marble, which is guided through a narrow winding course suspended in mid- air in five different environments. Using PhysX as its core physics engine, the marble can be "morphed" into different balls with unique physical properties. Each course contains obstacles and traps as well as physics-based puzzles (moving boxes, weighting ramps). Also, different balls react to the environment in different ways. Each level is timed and players are rewarded depending on how quickly they complete the level.

Source : Wikipedia

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