Human beings love puzzles. This was proven eons ago when man first drew grids in the sand and placed various arrangements of four stones together as he gradually moved them downwards and removed them from the dirt when they formed a horizontal line. What, did you think Tetris was a modern invention? This week's Mobile Monday is stacked with three puzzle games for the Android platform. Download 'em, play 'em, and love 'em for a very long time, as each one's got a ton of content to sap your brain for all it's worth.
Click on the game name to check out the developer's website in your browser, and use a barcode scanning app to scan the QR codes and start downloading the games to your phone.
Everlands - A beautiful puzzle game that should be familiar to anyone who has played the in-game card game found in Final Fantasy 8. The goal is to own more than half the animals on the screen at the end of the battle. Each animal hex has attack sides, health and attack values shown on the face. Place tiles to emphasize their strengths and tuck their weak points safely in the corner. At the end of the round, you want to own more tiles than your opponent. The description sounds awkward, but the game plays as smooth as butter, with great artwork and the touch screen operating all actions. Scan the QR code on the left for the full version, the one on the right for Everlands Lite.
Puzzle Attack - Panel de Pon (a.k.a. Tetris Attack a.k.a. Puzzle League) is one of the darling subgenres in the puzzle gaming field. Puzzle Attack is a no-frills Android adaptation of that game. Tap and slide blocks left or right to form matching groups of three or more squares. Clear the screen without using all your moves by setting up chain reactions that clear themselves. Use your phone's [back] button to undo moves, allowing you to experiment without penalty. Three difficulty levels, each with over 200 puzzles, and an infinite mode should keep you scratching your head for a very long time. And using your phone for something other than phone calls.
Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection - One of the favorite logic puzzle collections of freeware gamers (we featured the Mac/Windows/Linux version a few years ago), this Android port by Chris Boyle features 32 different puzzles, each with its own simple interface and nearly-limitless set of levels. Everything from Minesweeper to samegame, picross, tents, towers, twiddle, and loads of other numbers games you might not even recognize but will probably love. It's hard to beat a collection like this, and it's also hard to beat the price of free.
NOTE: Games listed may not be available outside of North America. Prices are subject to change and are therefore unlisted. Please see the individual game pages for purchasing info. Games have been confirmed to run on Android 2.1 on an HTC Eris.
I'm really digging the Android Mobile Mondays. Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection is a great find... I've already used up an entire charge of my battery in a day without making a single call.
I wish that someone would port the puzzle collection to the iphone/touch. I missed the original post of the collection for PC, but I went back and downloaded it and I can't stop playing.
I love Tatham's puzzle collection. Unfortunately my favorite puzzle, Loopy, requires more precision than I can manage with finger taps, and using the wheel to select line segments is too clunky to let the fun out. The puzzles with fewer moving parts work great though.
Re: iPhone. Not likely any time soon; Jobs hates Java. If he ever changes his mind about that, the collection could be dropped right in. Failing that, someone would need to port the puzzle framework code and probably each individual puzzle to Objective C, and provide ongoing maintenance for the forked codebase.
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