Monument Valley
Considered a puzzle game classic, Monument Valley took home arguably the two most prestigious awards in 2014 that any iOS-based game can get: Apple Game of the Year and the Apple Design Award. In Monument Valley, you embark on a surreal architectural puzzle adventure with the goal of guiding Ida, the silent princess, through staircase-laden monuments recalling Salvador Dalí’s mind-bending paintings while outsmarting the strange creatures known as the Crow People. Monument Valley boasts an eye-pleasingly sleek design and has enchanting sound effects, making for a near-perfect game that anyone can enjoy.
The Room Three
Due to lofty expectations set by a pair of award-winning prequels, The Room Three had some enormous shoes to fill – and, in the words of Yoda, fill those shoes it did. According to the story, you are lured to a remote island, where you must employ your puzzle-solving skills to get through the obstacles set in your way by a mischievous and mysterious figure referred to as “The Craftsman”. The Room Three has beautifully dark-toned, captivating 3D visuals, a haunting soundtrack, dynamic sound effects, and intriguing puzzles, so it’s impeccable five-star rating is very much deserved.
Lara Croft GO
Lara Croft GO is another top-of-the-heap, award-winning puzzle game that took home a pair of coveted awards in 2015, namely Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year and the Best Mobile/Handheld Game Award courtesy of The Game Awards. Now that we’ve left the trophy room, let’s look at what features catapulted Lara Croft GO to the mountaintop of the puzzle game genre. It is a turn-based, immensely addictive puzzle adventure in which you wander in a long-forgotten world, exploring the ruins of a mysterious ancient civilization and face dangerous challenges on your treacherous quest to uncover the myth of the Queen of Venom. Lara Croft GO comes equipped with visuals that pull off the feat of being rich and detailed despite their minimalism, an easy-to-master control system, a versatile selection of obstacles with all sorts of enemies and traps, and over 101 puzzles in 6 chapters.
https://youtu.be/_KC_HX3VR4I
Hitman GO
So much GO in one compilation! Although the protagonists are completely different in all conceivable ways, Hitman GO is basically the prequel to Lara Croft GO, as it not only appeared on the iPhone puzzle game scene a year earlier, but was also developed by same company, Square Enix Inc. It very much seems like the guys and girls at Square Enix can do no wrong, because Hitman GO was named the Best Game Design and the Best iOS Game at the 2014 Canadian Videogame Awards. Hitman GO is a turn-based puzzle game-strategy game combo in which you play as Agent 47, the bald-headed assassin, and the goal is to avoid enemies, take out the target at hand, or infiltrate locations guarded by heavily armed tough guys by navigating grids laid out across fixed spaces boasting diorama-style designs. Each enemy has its own, distinctive characteristics and personality and each mission is different, meaning you have to make use of your entire assassin arsenal to ace the jobs you were given. Whether you choose the path of silence or the path of force, you’ll surely have a killer time figuring out Hitman GO’s puzzles.
A Good Snowman is Hard to Build
Almost as hard as making an outstanding puzzle game. A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is the cutest and most relaxing puzzle game around starring an adorable monster who loves building snowmen – and also loves to give them names and hug them once they are done. The goal is to solve different snowman-building puzzles in order to progress in the hedge maze you’re wandering in. A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is an ode to how creativity can take away your loneliness, and is bound to make you smile and break your heart at the same time, a feat that is extremely rare among puzzle games.
