Puzzle games



Solving mathematical and word games, mysteries, codes and brain teasers are the main elements in puzzle games. They challenge your logical and abstract thinking in order to crack a tough nut.

Many puzzle games involve mazes, rebuses, tangrams and mechanical riddles.

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Kinds of Puzzles
There are many kinds of puzzles out there and some games may even have more than one. For simplicity, this page will list only the two most prevalent types found in each game in the game sections. See the game description for a more rounded idea of the puzzles represented.

For your convenience, here is a list of the most common puzzle types and their definitions. If something looks close, it most likely fits under one of these types. For example, Dr. Mario may use pills instead of squares but it's still a falling block puzzle, not a "pill matching puzzle".

Color Matching Remove blocks by matching the colors up. If the screen fills with unmatched blocks or you run out of moves, you lose. Some variations require that all the blocks in a given area be the same color instead. Unlike falling block puzzles there typically are blocks on the screen at the start and more blocks do not fall from the top of the screen. Some variations may allow new pieces to be manually added by the player, however!

Oldest Archetype: Lights Out, Puzzle Bobble

Critter Guidance Guide the critters through assorted obstacles and try to keep as many alive as possible. Frequently involves the use of special moves, powerups, and lots of multitasking. You lose if too many of them die.

Oldest Archetype: Lemmings

Drawing Puzzle variation during which lines must be drawn to complete the puzzle. Typically involves using a track ball, stylus, or touch pad, though older games may use the keyboard or mouse. The lines can be used to do many things from sectioning off a screen to completing a level, and usage will vary from game to game.

Oldest Archetype: Qix

Falling Block Blocks fall from the top of the screen. They must either match colors or fill areas in order to be removed from the game. The game ends when the screen is full. Unlike color matching puzzles, your screen starts empty in this game and pieces are added at a steady (possibly increasing) rate from there.

Oldest Archetype: Tetris

Logic These puzzles don't look like puzzles. Instead you must solve problems by cleverly using items and tools around you. For example, you may need to find rope and sticks to create a ladder in order to get down from a high ledge. Adventure games love this kind of puzzle.

Oldest Archetype: Zork

Mixed This indicates a game with an extremely broad spectrum of other puzzle types inside. You may literally find no two puzzles alike in this game! One moment you are clearing falling blocks and the next you are jumping pegs. It is not an actual game genre by itself, it just warns that the game is extremely multi-genre.

Oldest Archetype: Shivers

Maze Guide the character through the maze, avoiding traps and enemies along the way. This is different from an arcade maze game because the maze itself is the puzzle and the enemies/traps are just there to increase the difficulty of the maze itself.

Oldest Archetype: Maze for Dos/Windows

Physical This puzzle type generally is accompanied by other puzzles or as a gaming element in a non-pure puzzle. These puzzles involve you physically moving your character to complete a task such as jumping across blocks in order or pushing boulders to activate switches. They are similar to logic puzzles in that you must use environmental tools to meet your goal, but they are not logic puzzles as logic puzzles are generally more abstract and do not leave all the parts in the open in front of you.

Oldest Archetype: Lode Runner (contains both block pushing & jumping style physical puzzles)

Physics Attempt to complete various tasks with care taken to obey the laws of physics. These vary wildly from building puzzles to using momentum and logic to navigate obstacle courses. Many of these games require good timing and spacial skills.

Oldest Archetype: Jenga (yes, a board game)

Strategy Carefully place pieces/units/whatevers in order to defeat the opponent. The movement of the pieces in respect to the location of the opponent's pieces is where the real puzzle lies. Typically there are no dice involved so luck is less important than skill. Rules vary wildly from game to game as do the pieces moved. For example, Go, Chess, and Risk are all strategy games.

Oldest Archetype: Mancala (yes, a board game)

Unit Based This puzzle type is based around the interactions of several kinds of characters/creatures. If the units work well together, the puzzle may progress. If he units do not work well, the game may end. Each unit often have abilities, "likes" and "dislikes". Sometimes health and level up systems are involved. Due to the high number of other non-puzzle factors, any puzzle like this is not used in a "pure puzzle" game. RTS games and strategy games may use this puzzle type.

Oldest Archetype: Tactics Ogre

Word Puzzle This puzzle type has you arrange letters, words, or sentences to try to solve the puzzle. A puzzle only counts as a word puzzle if the words themselves are the puzzle, having to type things in (such as in an adventure game) is not a word puzzle.

Oldest Archetype: Hang Man, Scrabble (yes, more board/paper games)

Pure Puzzles
100% puzzle solving action. There are no worlds to explore or anything else: just beat those puzzles! If there is a plot, it comes between rounds or after solving the puzzle and is advanced only by solving more puzzles.

Puzzle Heavy Games
These games have other major themes, but still feature puzzles heavily. Typically the puzzles are used to advance the plot or to unlock new areas of the game in titles like these. These games often have a "world" to explore and may feature other non-puzzle elements such as combat, platforming, a health bar or an upgrade system.

Genre is arranged by primary puzzle type, then main game category.

Games with minor but mentionable puzzle content:
Puzzles are not the focus of these games. In fact, there may only be a couple puzzles in the whole game. However, the few puzzles inside are good ones that people talk about!