The Ginormous P)u([z]zle thread

Roe

Here within we talk about our favorite Puzzle games and reccomend others. Be sure to lable the system and the mechanics.


Starting with my favorite: Lumines

Wait isn't that game only for psp?

Yes but it's also on steam Demo Included.

Match the blocks togeather while trying to not be distracted by the background and catchy music.

Portal



Addictive fps puzzle-solving bliss.

Bejeweled + bejweled 2.




Gem matching madness well worth your time and money.

Plants vs Zombies.



Sure theres way to many levels, but whats there not to love?

Puzzle quest 1



Rpg-puzzle mashup that does a good job of keeping the game fun for both genre enthusiast's.

Zuma



A balance between timing and color coordination.

Another favorite; Meteos



One of the first DS games. From the makers of Lumines.

Super Puzzle Fighter II



Tetris Attack



Bust a Move

LibrarianThorne

I have a strong penchant for Super Puzzle Fighter II. It's way too much fun.

Roe

Posting for future lists.

Mmmm... Cocks...

LibrarianThorne wrote: »

I have a strong penchant for Super Puzzle Fighter II. It's way too much fun.

I've been playing this a lot lately.
Does anyone ever use the Y or Z modes?

BlitzAce1981

Lumines also has a PS3 and a 360 version.

Of course, Lumines II is best, purely because of Heavenly Star.

Gilder

Where is Bust-A-Move?! It's all Bub and Bob have these days!

Foefaller

Tetris Attack, and it's sequel noone played because they were sure it was "just" a cash-in, Pokemon Puzzle League.

Skull2185

Portal is one of my all time favorite games. Can't wait for Portal 2. Wonderful puzzles and some of the best dialogue in a game ever.

"Hey remember when you were heading into the fire and I was like "Good-Bye" and you were like 'NO WAY' "

Bartholamue

Foefaller wrote: »

Tetris Attack, and it's sequel noone played because they were sure it was "just" a cash-in, Pokemon Puzzle League.

I loved it too much, that it's the only N64 game I play nowadays.

"I'm feeling giddy!"

Raiden333

My recent addiction is Chime.

Chime is all about placing shapes on a grid to make music. Gamers control a single shape at a time, and can move, rotate, and then place it on the grid. A beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, and sets off events when it hits placed shapes. Quads are created by placing shapes in solid blocks of 3×3 or more. When a quad is completed and the beat line hits, different musical samples are triggered dependent on its shape.

The size of the quad denotes the score, and multipliers can be achieved by having several quads on the screen at once. Once the beatline hits a completed quad, it is stamped down into the grid, earning the player coverage. Put simply, place blocks to create quads, create quads to gain coverage, and gain coverage to fill the grid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVVaHLO31o&feature=related

edit: Actually, this video is probably much more likely to sell people on it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-F9EoDyVuk

UncleSporky

I like puzzle games and all, and I don't mean to be an ass, but this is kind of a poll thread. Could you introduce any sort of more meaningful discussion into this thread?

Foefaller

Yeah, we are being a little vague...

I figure, Puzzle games, what are the good ones? which ones should I avoid? Is there any obscure indie/freeware games that we should know about?

Like... does there happen to be any other Tetris Attack-esque games I should know about?

Rotam

Picross DS is the best damn puzzle game. So many hours lost to that thing.

Tofystedeth

I'm huge fan of Puzzle Pirates. Or I was. It's gone kind of downhill, but that's just because the oceans are pretty underpopulated anymore. Mechanically they keep adding new and interesting things, though I don't like any of the new puzzles nearly as much as the older ones. The swordfighting puzzle is very very similar to Super Puzzle Fighter II (the only 3 differences being, there's no Wild breaker gem, there's no defensive attacks, and there's attacks that come as sword strikes in addition to the ones that drop unconnected blocks).
If you like SPF you'll probably like swordfighting.

Lord Jezo

What about Tetris Battle Gaiden, one of the finest Tetris battle games ever?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcArcZYxEgw

With a multitude of characters to chose from offered challenge and intrigue to all that dared to try it.

GreasyKidsStuff

I fucking love Meteos. Has anybody played the sequels? I know there's one for XBLA but I never tried it. Wouldn't be the same without stylus controls I don't think...

And I was kinda turned off by the sequel being all Disney stuff... what the fuck was that about?

Roe

How could I forget, the very first puzzle game I fell in love with: Yahoo Towers.

http://games.yahoo.com/games/rules/towers/advanced.html?page=yt

TeeMan

Raiden333 wrote: »

My recent addiction is Chime.

Chime is all about placing shapes on a grid to make music. Gamers control a single shape at a time, and can move, rotate, and then place it on the grid. A beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, and sets off events when it hits placed shapes. Quads are created by placing shapes in solid blocks of 3×3 or more. When a quad is completed and the beat line hits, different musical samples are triggered dependent on its shape.

The size of the quad denotes the score, and multipliers can be achieved by having several quads on the screen at once. Once the beatline hits a completed quad, it is stamped down into the grid, earning the player coverage. Put simply, place blocks to create quads, create quads to gain coverage, and gain coverage to fill the grid.

Ah Chime, it's brilliant! Still play it every other day since release. I've found that to really rack up the big scores it's about starting off with as big a quad as possible, then doing as many small quads as possible, then making your last quad (start before the dead pieces get swept away and you lose your multiplier) as large as possible. Hopefully you're able to eek out a 100 block, 25x multiplier monster!

So you could imagine what it's like when you first start playing this game; soothing music, slow scrolling band, just chugging along looking to get the most coverage. Then switching to the above technique for maximum points? You are clicking like a motherfucker! Some of my better games have stretched to about 13 minutes and by then your fingers are quite sore!


One game I'll give a heads up to probably avoid (unless it's super cheap and you're looking for frustration) is Droplitz



I don't like how the game can peg you into a corner and you're screwed no matter what you do because the pieces at the very bottom of the screen simply don't synch up with the tiles around them. So through no fault of your own, just the luck of the drop, you're penalised. I've gotten more frustration than joy out of this game, that's for sure.

I got it for the low-low price of $2 on Steam though, so I'm not terribly fussed :P


Also, I'm just going to leave this video here. Shatter is awesome!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djD3npkGXsE

Drake

I've been playing Tidalis lately. It's a "match three" puzzle game, with some really nice mechanics and tons of modes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L28SWHTgqM&feature=player_embedded#

It's been satisfying all of my puzzle needs lately. Great community support too, with user created puzzles and stuff.

edit: Oh yeah. It's on PC. You can get it on Steam and a bunch of other digital distribution sites. And the Steam version has Achievements.

BlitzAce1981

s_86 wrote: »

Kirby's Avalanche!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVQOwgoBX4
Excellent!
~~~~~~~~Watch out!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Here it comes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Avalanche!!
Oh system and mechanics
It's for the Super Nintendo, and uses the same mechanics as Puyo Pop (Connect 4 of a color to send junk blobs to enemy screen and try to make big nasty comboes). It just has Kirby character's instead of Puyo Pop character's. Although Puyo Pop is cute, this game is cute too, in it's own cute way.

So, basically, the SNES version got Kirby branding, while the Mega Drive/Genesis version got Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic cartoon?

I still have a saved file from the Ultimate Mega Drive Collection that's at 90 minutes into Exercise mode; level 99, 10 million points. Waaaaay too addictive.

datac0re

Rotam wrote: »

Picross DS is the best damn puzzle game. So many hours lost to that thing.

THIS. So hard. Hands down the best, most played game ever to grace my DS.

Drake

Oh yeah, here is another one I like to play. Primrose. It's free and has online scoreboards and is really quite addictive. It was made by the same guy who made Passage, and Sleep is Death. It's an actual game though, with like scoring and rules and stuff. It's kind of like Go or Othello, in that its primary mechanic is surrounding groups based on color. Once surrounded, the group is removed and the surrounding tiles change their color to match the group that was just captured. Just check it out. It's free and stuff. You'll like it.

Jam Warrior

datac0re wrote: »

Rotam wrote: »

Picross DS is the best damn puzzle game. So many hours lost to that thing.

THIS. So hard. Hands down the best, most played game ever to grace my DS.

I'd give Picross 3D an equal share in the throne.

Mr Fuzzbutt

If you like REAL puzzle games, where it's actually about solving puzzles and not quick reactions and pattern recognition, then you owe it to yourself to try out Deadly Rooms of Death.

It is a top-down, grid based, turn based game. You character takes up one square and your sword takes up another. Each turn you can move one square, turn 45 degrees or wait.

Since each monster follows a simple set of rules, the puzzles often come in the form of how to manipulate the monsters in ways that allow you to kill them. As the game goes on, new dungeon elements are added and it soon becomes devilishly tricky.

The original, which is really old, has some patchy level design and is missing a ton of features, is available for free HERE.

Later versions cost money, but have better graphics, better level design, better controls (YAY for the undo button! And the turn timer!) better blah blah etc. I think there are also demos but their website is unfortunately pretty badly designed.

Cherrn

Jam Warrior wrote: »

datac0re wrote: »

Rotam wrote: »

Picross DS is the best damn puzzle game. So many hours lost to that thing.

THIS. So hard. Hands down the best, most played game ever to grace my DS.

I'd give Picross 3D an equal share in the throne.

I don't know, I liked Picross 3D a lot, but it never gave me that same itch regular Picross does. It might take a few more games to hit their stride, though. At least I hope one is on the way.

Wasn't there some Japanese-exclusive Picross game that some dude swore was much better than Picross DS?

Drascin

Foefaller wrote: »

Tetris Attack, and it's sequel noone played because they were sure it was "just" a cash-in, Pokemon Puzzle League.

What.

What.

That thing was like a super-awesome Tetris Attack on steroids. I loved that game as a kid My whole family played this one.

I was the reigning champion, though. I had an urge to match my schoolmates by groups of three based on shirt color. There was this time I made a chain so big in the 3D field that the computer gave up counting and just displayed a question mark. I was seriously fucking addicted to this thing as a kid.

Damn, now I'm nostalgic and want to replay it, but I no longer have an N64 .

Aroduc

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is surprisingly fun. Unfortunately, it's also a bit short and not very hard, especially certain single player campaign areas where they're just like "HERE! TAKE THIS ARTIFACT THAT GIVES YOU AN AUTOMATIC WIN!" It will just almost automatically give you losses on occasion when you get a shit starting setup and the enemy begins with multiple elites or a champion matched though, so that gets frustrating, but it's greatly amusing when you have that advantage.

Also, the start of the Wizard campaign was possibly the worst thought out game decision I've seen in years.

Mighty

I have to kind of second the droplitz thing. but i got it for .99 cents. its still a pretty fun game, and when you get those mega chains going, its really quite fun.

its all about setting all other tiles the right way while they funnel through a correct path

datac0re

Mr Fuzzbutt wrote: »

If you like REAL puzzle games, where it's actually about solving puzzles and not quick reactions and pattern recognition, then you owe it to yourself to try out Deadly Rooms of Death.

It is a top-down, grid based, turn based game. You character takes up one square and your sword takes up another. Each turn you can move one square, turn 45 degrees or wait.

Since each monster follows a simple set of rules, the puzzles often come in the form of how to manipulate the monsters in ways that allow you to kill them. As the game goes on, new dungeon elements are added and it soon becomes devilishly tricky.

The original, which is really old, has some patchy level design and is missing a ton of features, is available for free HERE.

Later versions cost money, but have better graphics, better level design, better controls (YAY for the undo button! And the turn timer!) better blah blah etc. I think there are also demos but their website is unfortunately pretty badly designed.

YES. Another awesome puzzle game. DROD has sucked many, many hours of my life away. And even the free one, while old, is still incredibly fun and challenging. Not to mention the community around it that releases tons of keeps that you can download for free.

cj iwakura

Lumines was also on the PS2, an updated port of Lumines 1.

Lumines II on the PSP is probably the best version, sans Heavenly Star and Shinin'.


And does Technic Beat count? It's like a puzzle rhythm game hybrid, sort of.

Roe

Bejeweld 3 is out, has anyone tried it yet? Gamespot gave it high ratings so I was wondering if it is as good as they say.

Drake

You guys should consider picking up Tidalis while the Steam sale is on. Five bucks is a good deal, it's a great puzzle game.

cj iwakura

DS' 999 is 35% puzzles and 65% (fantastic) writing.

G0D

So, being a long time fan of Rez, I saw Qubed; a Lumines Live, Every Extend Extra Extreme, and Rez HD compilation, I had to get it for Rez alone. I heard that Lumines is good, but don't know what the "Live" part is about, leaderboards perhaps? Beings as I'm already satisfied with my purchase before I've even played it, I've gotta know, is EEEE another top notch title that I'll be glad was on this disc?

cj iwakura

I'm of the opinion that anything Tetsuya Mizuguchi makes is fantastic. You won't be disappointed.
(This is why Child of Eden is the only thing good to come of Kinect.)

Lunker

G0D wrote: »

So, being a long time fan of Rez, I saw Qubed; a Lumines Live, Every Extend Extra Extreme, and Rez HD compilation, I had to get it for Rez alone. I heard that Lumines is good, but don't know what the "Live" part is about, leaderboards perhaps? Beings as I'm already satisfied with my purchase before I've even played it, I've gotta know, is EEEE another top notch title that I'll be glad was on this disc?

E4 is 25 percent game, 75 percent trippy music graphics plug-in. It's a sort of revamp/spinoff of Every Extend Extra, where you have to try to blow up your ship to chain enemy explosions and cause all sorts of chaos; the best part of the game, bar none, is synchronizing it to your own music. (I recommend Radiohead's "15 Step" as a great starter piece.) It's fairly easy to keep yourself alive eternally, so the limiting reagent is how bored you get, but in that classic Mizuguchi style it's all crazy graphics and bangin' beats, so it's a pretty awesome time.

Roe

Picked up Puzzle quest for $1.50. Pretty awesome hybrid puzzle game.

Thinking about picking up 999 if I have the money after christmas.

GoodOmens

Rotam wrote: »

Picross DS is the best damn puzzle game. So many hours lost to that thing.

There is great truth here.

Drake

Arcen Games has released a browser based lite version of their completely awesome puzzle game Tidalis. It uses the Unity browser plug in and it can be found here. Give it a look, if you like puzzle games, you'll like this.