The iPad is a very versatile device — it’s great for productivity related tasks, watching movies, and yes, for gaming. It’s the perfect combo, a big screen, a powerful processor, and an excellent display. So, if you’ve just got yourself a new iPad and are looking for some great games that will make you scratch your brain, here are the 10 best puzzle games for iPad that you should check out.
1. Star Battle Go
The reason I have put Star Battle Go as the first game on this list is simple. Out of all the games I tried out for this article, this is the one that made me really use my head. At least more than others. The concept here is fairly simple, you have to fill out a grid with stars, but with a few conditions. There should be no more than two stars in any row, column, or region. Plus, stars should not touch each other, even diagonally.
It might sound quite simple, but I would recommend you give it a try, because you will find yourself spending some good time figuring things out here. You do get access to a couple of tips for figuring out where stars go, but apart from that, you really need to just use your brains and get things done. Plus, if you like offline games on your iPad, this fits that requirement as well.
2. Good Sudoku
No list of puzzle games can be complete without including a Sudoku variant in it, and Good Sudoku is my pick. Of course, it’s the same Sudoku that has had us hooked since we tried solving it on newspapers. However, Good Sudoku actually tries to help you learn techniques and tricks to solving harder and harder puzzles as well.
This is great if you’re looking for a puzzle game that you can get better at, as time goes by. And Good Sudoku does a really good job explaining the concepts behind the game and helping you steadily improve your thinking skills to complete the game. If you’re a Sudoku lover, this is definitely the game for your iPad.
3. Meow Tower
For fans of Nonograms, Meow Tower is an excellent puzzle game you should install on your iPad. The game brings a fun and quirky set of graphics, and it does seem as though it was tailored more towards kids. However, the Nonograms here quickly go from incredibly simple to deceptively tough to solve.
Once you cross a couple of levels, things get quite hard all at once, and that can throw you off a bit. However, for people who enjoy a challenge in puzzle games, and who want a Nonogram puzzle game for iPad, this is where you search might just end.
4. Number Sums
Math lovers, this puzzle game is for you. In Number Sums, you have to, well, add numbers together. Sounds fairly simple, right? Well, things get complicated pretty soon here and you will definitely find yourself trying to keep multiple different combinations of numbers in your head at the same time to solve these puzzles.
The concept is simple — you get a grid of numbers, and you have to select the numbers that add up to the number beside each row and column on the grid. You can also delete numbers from the grid if you’re certain they can’t be a part of the solution. To add some drama to the proceedings, the game gives you only two lives, so if you accidentally select the wrong number (or delete the wrong number) you lose a life, and if you end up making two mistakes, you will have to restart the entire level.
5. Rings
Rings is a really fun puzzle game for the iPad, which will keep you hooked for hours. The game will give you three rings in each turn, and you have to arrange them on the grid such that three rings of the same color match up across a row, column, or diagonally. Things start off easy, with just a couple of colors, but soon you will find yourself being given multiple colors, and arranging them gets more and more difficult.
There are no lives here, so once the grid is completely full, the game ends. There are also a few different game modes here, including a really intense “Time Trial” mode, alongside a few other options.
Rings is a fun game for people who like to play games that don’t require a lot of math and can be played for hours on end.
6. O-O-O
Another game that’s based on matching colors, O-O-O puts three concentric discs on your screen. With each turn of the disc, more colors are added into the empty slots, and your job is to create connections between slots that have the same color by rotating the discs. Once you create connections, you can swipe to clear them out and get points.
In a pattern very similar to most other puzzle games, O-O-O also starts out in a deceptively easy way and gets progressively more difficult as you play it.
It’s a great way to test your skills at arranging concentric discs in ways that will let you clear out the maximum number of slots in one go, in order to get higher and better scores.
7. I Love Hue
Continuing the theme of color-based puzzle games, I Love Hue is another game that you can check out for your iPad. As the name suggests, this game is all about arranging colors in order. You get a grid of colors, and at the beginning of the level, some of the colors are moved out of their proper position. Your job is to find the perfect place for each of the displaced colors on the board.
I Love Hue isn’t very easy, because things quickly move from simple hues to more complex color patches, which can take some time getting used to. If you like colors, and you want a bit of a challenge, check out I Love Hue for sure.
8. Mini Metro
Mini Metro is one of my favorite games on the iPad. It’s not really a puzzle in the classic sense of what a puzzle game is, but it does make you think and analyse every move you make in the game.
In Mini Metro, you have to design the metro system for a variety of cities. The game starts off with a couple of stations on screen, and you get a limited number of rail-lines that you can use. However, every now and then, Mini Metro adds more and more stations on screen, and you have to ensure that they are all connected in the most efficient way for fastest travel between any two points. If a station overcrowds, the game is over.
To help you along, you get more lines as time passes, and you get upgrades like Interchanges (to make stations faster at passenger exchange), tunnels (to connect stations across rivers), and carriages (which can enhance the carrying capacity of trains on your lines). This is one of the easiest to play, and yet difficult to beat games that I have played, so if you want a challenging game, this is the one for you.
9. Temple Minesweeper
Who doesn’t remember Minesweeper, the classic game on old Windows PCs? Temple Minesweeper is basically that, but with better graphics. For those who don’t know about minesweeper, here’s a quick explainer.
You get a grid of blocks, and certain blocks contain a trap behind them. If you break a block which was hiding a trap, it’s game over. To help you find all the traps, other blocks (when broken), show a number. This number is basically the number of traps that are touching that particular block in the grid. You have to use logic to figure out where all the traps are and clear out the board. Once done, you clear the level, and proceed to higher and more challenging boards.
Temple Minesweeper is a really fun game that will keep you engaged (and often, frustrated) for hours.
10. Ghost Trick
Ghost Trick is another fun puzzle game that has a unique concept behind it. In this game, you die right at the beginning. However, that’s just where the story begins. As a “ghost”, you can now move your soul around to possess different objects, and perform “tricks” to manipulate the objects in moving, etc. This way, you can affect the outcomes in the real-world.
The game starts off by teaching you the basics, where you end up trying to save a girl’s life from a hitman of sorts — the same hitman who kills you, by the way. You have to figure out how to use different objects to try and save her, and as the game proceeds, try and figure out who you were, how you know the girl (or if you do), and why you were killed.
Bonus: TED Tumblewords
As a bonus, if you’re into word games, you should try out TED Tumblewords from Netflix. This new puzzle game gives you a new grid of letters every day, and there are a couple of different game modes to try. The Daily Match pairs you up with an AI, and you get six turns each to form the highest scoring words. It’s a fun little exercise in trying to re-arrange the grid to form longer words to get higher points. Plus, once you’ve played the puzzle, you can see a list of all the possible words to improve your vocabulary as well.
Well, those were the 10 best puzzle games for iPad that you should check out if you’re a fan of brain teasers and puzzle solving. I have tried to include a variety of games in this list to ensure there’s something for everyone, whether you like Nonograms, number puzzles, word games, or color-based puzzles. Hopefully, you found something that suits your needs, and if there are any other puzzle games for iPad that you think should be on this list, do let me know in the comments and I will check them out for sure.
Anmol Sachdeva
