When one thinks of puzzle games one often pictures Tetris and other sorts of retro-styled games that not only evoke the word 'boring' but also fail to capture the imagination.
These days however, puzzle games come in some very creative forms, and they use the videogame medium to its fullest extent with the inclusion of narrative and presentation well beyond the games of yesteryear.
We've compiled a list of the best puzzle games of the previous and present decades, and we've included some very surprising entries that fans of puzzle games will no doubt find well worth playing.
This game is the tenth installment in Ratchet & Clank series. Ratchet & Clank All 4 one, takes place after the events of 'A Crack in Time' where our main characters Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark and Doctor Nefarious are in a bit of a mess. As the antagonist, Nefarious, sets out to fully remove our heroes, he builds a machine called the Creature Collector. His plan quickly takes a turn for the worse, making not only himself but the rest of the characters stuck in the machine world.
Past Ratchet games relied deeply on the use of puzzle solving, everything from use of multiple Clank bots to keeping the pace of the time just in order to make the next platform jump. This time around though you won't be taking on the puzzles alone. The new installment is heavily based on cooperative gameplay. All 4 one allows for up to four player co-op, which gives you a good excuse to call up some buddies and waste hours at a time to have some good fun.
From Dust is a game where you truly are a god, having the ability to control the environment all for the good of your tribe. This game is quite pleasing to look at and the gameplay will keep you hooked for hours. You play as a force called 'the breath' and you must go around the land serving your people as they build a community around a totem. The main antagonists are natural disasters which will hinder guiding your people to the totem and make it more difficult to keep them safe.
You must use soil, water, lava and a few other abilities along the way in order to fully save and guide your tribe. Elements in the game work as they would in real life, water will flow and lava will settle and harden. When disasters happen, you're quickly left with a puzzle and must determine the more probable solution. Mixing elements are generally a part of the solution. Lava mixed with water will harden along with creating steam. From Dust will occasionally require a few special abilities, certain totems will grants temporary abilities that will in turn be crucial to solve the puzzle. From Dust is another downloadable title that is worthy of a purchase on the XBLA or PSN.
Beyond Good & Evil was first launched back in 2003 but was later re-released in 2011 as an HD remake. I'll fill you in on the plot without giving away too much: The game starts out with protagonist Jade, a care-taker who looks after orphans. However, Jade realizes that to take better care of the children she's going to need another job. Eventually she takens on a job as an investigator and is required to take pictures of dealing with a currently world-wide mystery. Random disappearances have been occurring around the globe with no leads on how or why.
Beyond Good & Evil will have some twist and turns along with several puzzle mechanics to solve. Jade will have to jump, climb, push and destroy obstacles she approaches. If you have yet to play BG&E and you're a fan of platforming puzzles, you may want to think about purchasing the HD remake on XBLA or PSN. This game was fun back on the Gamecube, and still a treat to play on the current generation of consoles.
Braid is Jonathan Blow's masterpiece and gift to the gaming world. Developed on the ever malleable concept of time, Braid is split into multiple different 'worlds' in which a certain ruleset applies throughout the levels.
The basic premise allows Braid's protagonist to stop time and turn it backwards, preventing deaths and otherwise allowing him to surpass insurmountable obstacles. Further levels take the concept to a whole other level, like a world where time only ever runs backwards, and the player's power allows you to move forwards.
Ico is a game about a boy who rescues a girl with whom he must escort out of a strange castle. Haunted by shadowy apparitions who threaten to kidnap the girl, the boy (and thus the player) must use his wits to keep the girl safe while traversing through treacherous territory.
The boy's relationship with the girl becomes an integral key to most of the puzzles, and forces the player to consider the girl in every level of the game.
Ms. Splosion Man takes place right after Splosion Man. When the scientists finally capture Splosion man, they do what any good scientist would do under these circumstances, pop open some champagne and celebrate like there is no tomorrow. While celebrating and becoming a tad, well, wasted, a little bow falls onto one of their contraptions and thus Ms. Splosion Man is born! Looking and acting very similar to her male counterpart; other then a shade of purple, some lipstick, and a yellow bow. Ms. Splosion Man sets out to wreak some havoc herself and to save Splosion Man from their control.
If you have played the first game of the series then you'll feel right at home. Just like the original Splosion man, your main ability is to explode. Levels are filled with obstacles to overcome and yes, you will die quite a lot. While it may seem that dying will set you back, Ms. Splosion Man does the exact opposite, with a check point always close by. Traps also can be used to your advantage, when you figure out how to set the traps in motion you can smash, burn, or even incinerate your foe. Also with each death you learn a bit of what's to come so you're never left in the dark or stranded in one spot for too long.
Lumines is a somewhat modified concept of Tetris, which focuses instead on the grouping of four blocks or more of the same color stacked together in a square or a variation thereof.
The biggest aspect of Lumines comes not in its puzzle aspect, but in the music that plays in the background which changes to the actions of the player.
Versions of Lumines are available on a variety of platforms including the PlayStation Vita.
The game starts out as our hero Shuggy heads to a mansion he recently inherited from the death of his grandfather. Shuggy is not the brightest character around and so he fails to read the fine print of the will which states that the mansion is overrun by ghosts and goblins. In order to claim the mansion and get rid of the unwanted occupants, Shuggy must solve several puzzles throughout the entire mansion and fix some of the broken equipment along the way.
The Adventures of Shuggy is filled with puzzles in a platforming style. Not all of the puzzles are as easy as jumping though, some may even make you cry. There are puzzles that will increase Shuggy's speed, rotate rooms, and some will even turn back time. These puzzles can get a bit tricky but worry not they're short and really don't require a check point. The game does include multiplayer, allowing you to go head-to-head as you try to complete the puzzle the fastest or play by working cooperatively instead. This is a game you will play in small bursts even though the puzzles are short. Even so you'll always be coming back for more.
First off: Yes, this game did come out on XBLA back in 2010. However, Limbo was released again in 2011 for PSN, PC and the XBLA. Therefore the game still counts as an addition to this list.
Limbo is one of those games where you can sit back in just pure awe, the art style alone is compeletly capitulating. For lack of better words, Limbo is beautiful yet horrifying. Having no real sense of what's going on, the game leaves you stranded in a down-right creepy surrounding with not a single cut-scene or dialog box to be found. Playing as a small boy, you're left to quickly escape from the wretched place from where you've awaken.
This title can be rather gruesome at points and you can expect a ton of deaths. The puzzles will be trial-and-error for the most part and some puzzles use sound, which I think is a nice feature. For example: Some areas will have you listen for certain queue sounds. This game could have gone farther but did not stand a chance against the next title on our list.
Oh Catherine...This game is one of those titles you'll find yourself playing late at night when no one is around. Gamers play as Vincent, a normal guy who can be found in the bar with friends during the day and at night with his lover, Katherine. Things go from normal to bizarre when you meet another woman named Catherine at the bar. A friendly innocent conversation goes straight to a dirty night of hedonism when you wake up in bed with Catherine. How exactly do you explain what happened with Catherine to Katherine, or do you?
During the night Vincent will have terrifying nightmares which require you to solve a block style puzzle. Vincent must reach the top of tower by either climbing, pulling, removing, or jumping from block to block. While this may sound like an easy task to accomplish, these puzzles are not for the faint of heart. The time limit and boss battles will make game play in Catherine a rigorous and painful journey for some. Sometimes the puzzles can be too hard and cause you to drop out before the end of the game. To make Catherine even better, the game will have multiple endings depending on the choices you make during the day which gives this game a nice replay value.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a basic but addicting puzzle game. The story is very minimal but I'll do my best to fill you in. The universe has become infected with a virus that's killing off everything and anything it comes in contact with, making any planet a very lonely and empty place to inhabit. Instead of waiting around for this virus to reach his home planet our alien protagonist and his saucer go on a quest to learn how to destroy the virus and save his home planet from what very well could be utter destruction.
The game will have you using several of the saucer tools in order to destroy the virus. You will grab objects with a claw to fling around, use a blaster to destroy what lays in your way, set off missiles for larger destruction, and even hacking slicing with your buzz saw. Throughout the game, you will acquire new traits and abilities in addition to the several tools the saucer comes with. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is not all quick and easy gameplay, you'll come across a few puzzles that may leave you stumped.
World of Goo is a physics puzzle-based game in which you control balls of goo with the goal of directing them into a funnel at the end of every level.
Each ball of goo forms into a girder or joint, allowing you to construct massive goo towers in order to allow the free goo balls the ability to traverse through the map and reach the funnel at the end.
For special awards, you can complete each level in a set amount of time with the fewest possible moves and save the most goo balls you can.
Shadow of the Colossus is the second game from Team ICO, which created the previously listed game, Ico. Rather than escorting a girl throughout a series of puzzles, the player ventures through an open world upon his faithful steed on a quest to slay each of the game's Colossi—boss monsters.
Each Colossus has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it's up to the player to discover what their weaknesses are and exploit them in order to kill them. It's a lot easier said than done.
Skip the sequels and the offshoot and just play the original Puzzle Quest. Ageless, timeless, or whatever you want to call it, the game takes the concept of Bejeweled and embeds it in an RPG that'll have you playing the game for hours upon hours on the train, in class, and just about everywhere else.
The game sinks its hooks (in the form of RPG elements) into your flesh, challenges your mind with its devious puzzles, and refuses to let go until nature demands that you sleep, eat, or do something otherwise more productive than playing Puzzle Quest.
A point and click adventure at heart, the dialogue-free Machinarium puts you in the shoes of a robot who has to save his robot girlfriend from an evil cult of robots threatening the robot city in which you live. Through every level, you must interact with the environment using your robot abilities to solve each puzzle and surmount every obstacle in your path.
The game is drawn completely by hand, in the unique style of its creators at Amanita Design, who also created the Samorost series of puzzle/adventure games.
Professor Layton is a series of puzzle games for the DS and 3DS developed by Japanese studio Level-5. Each of the games are based in a series of puzzles and mysteries provided to the two protagonists—Professor Layton and his assistant Luke—by townspeople.
The puzzles range everywhere from arithmetic questions to logic puzzles, some of which are mandatory for the player to progress through the story while others are completely optional.
The series has become one of the most popular puzzle games on Nintendo's handheld consoles and is expected to see a crossover with another popular series of games—Ace Attorney.
Valve's huge success with Portal allowed them to continue the series with Portal 2. The game follows the character Chell right after the events of Portal who once again must pass the test chambers that she worked so hard to get through during the events of Portal.
Portal 2 plays exactly the same as Portal with a few more improvements and additions. You and your trusty portal gun must get from point A to point B. Sounds simple enough, but some of these levels are far from it and will require a bit of thinking. Using the portal gun will allow you to traverse the trapped rooms as well as pick up various items in the game.
With the addition of co-op play, you and a friend can take on even more test chambers as Atlas and Peabody. You can either work together, or make each other red with anger as you both sabotage the other's efforst to get through each chamber. The title is a spectacular puzzle game with superb level designs.
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