Your All Time Favorite Puzzle Games?

[Malon_Forever]

Soloman's Key and Tetris are my 2 favorites. I really like Wetrix too for some odd reason.

[The 1 2 P]

Most versions of Tetris but I'm also going to go outside the box and add Bust-A-Groove 1 and 2. I know they are dancing games but they are also rhythm puzzle games....kind of.

[Aussie2B]

I'm not that crazy about puzzle games (breaking the girls and puzzle games stereotype), but I do like how they're completely no-commitment games. They're nice when I'm sick, for some reason. I prefer the more reactionary ones over the slow, methodical ones where you gotta plan out what you're doing 10 moves in advance. I like Magical Drop, Panic Bomber, Puzzle Bobble, Puzzle Link, Taisen Puzzle Dama, etc.

[buzz_n64]

Tetris & Dr. Mario

[Smashed Brother]

The Saturn version has Redbook audio, internal clock content and faster loading times. I'm just saying.

Argh! I've owned both at one point or another and I never really noticed that! Interesting!

[slapdash]

I'll second Fool's Errand!

[hbkprm]

ill give it to columns cause it has a touch of class

[Steve W]

There was a Mac/PC game in the late '90s published by Global Star called Nahan that was essentially a truly three dimensional version of Mahjong. Great little game.

In no particular order:

Puyo Pop (multi)
Bust-A-Move (multi)
Ballistic (Nuon)
Flip-Out (Jaguar)
Solar Fox (Atari 2600 - more of an action puzzler)
Sticky Balls (Gizmondo)
Chip's Challenge (Atari Lynx)
Rampart (Genesis/Lynx)
Super Skweek (Lynx)
Tetris (multi)

[Emperor Megas]

I love puzzle games; it's one of my favorite genres. While most puzzlers are just variations of other more popular ones, there are a few that stand out to me. A few of my favorites are:

Bust-A-Move 2 (Saturn) - Bust-A-Move really needs to introduction at this point. The second installment is my favorite of the series. The formula is essentially the same in all B-A-M games, but I really love the music in part 2. Back in college I used to put the disc in the PC's CD drive in the computer lab and listen to the music from the game while I did everything but my school work.

Battle Balls (Arcade) - The only place I've ever seen this game was in an Arcade called Penny Land in the French Quarters that used to be our hang out in back in the day. My favorite thing about the game was the character animations in the background that changed depending on how well you were doing. It's pretty common now in Vs. puzzle games, but I hadn't seen it before then. It was really cool the way that the sphere's didn't 'stick', like most falling tiles puzzlers. They rolled and settled into place. It was pretty different at the time.

Fantavision (PS2) - The little celebrated PS2 launch puzzler where you set off fireworks across the night sky, and eventually into space and beyond. You try to chain together explosions for higher scores, and use strategy to figure out which you should set off first for the best possible results. The thing that I really like about the game the extremely quirky cut scenes, the serene music and background environments, and most importantly, the fact that the game has an actual ending. I love the simplicity of puzzle games, but when you make them have an achievable goal, it's that much better. You can get through a game in about 20 minutes or so, and while it's not a difficult romp by any stretch, you're not really guaranteed to make it through every time, which is a good thing.

Gal's Panic series (Arcade) - The Gal's Panic series is basically a Qix clone series that features sexy women hidden in the background of the playfield. You have to reveal as much of their silhouette as possible while avoiding the Qix-like enemy that roams the screen, and it's spawn. The original Gal's Panic featured poorly digitized girls, all Asian, and partially nude, rendered in 256 colours. The focus was to reveal as much of the current girl's silhouette, however there was meter at the top of the screen that would move to one side or another depending on which hidden -/+ icons you uncovered. If the meter went passed the halfway mark to the right, the background would change to a hideous horror themed one featuring the unlicensed use of a copyrighted character like Freddy Kruger, and Pinhead. If the horror stage was completed before the background was returned to normal, you had to restart the level again. The game also included unintentionally humorous Engrish text ("Plea circle my silhouette"). The most of the sequels featured hand drawn Anime girls (part 3 also featured 'real' digitized models), and more enemy and environmental diversity, and all of the installments rewarded you with a more titillating look at the current stage's girl if you managed to reveal a very high percentage of her silhouette.

Klax (Arcade) - Klax was a real oddity to me when I first saw it. The perspective of the playfield, unusual paddle that you could 'load' with surplus tiles, the fact that you could launch the tiles back onto the screen (something it took me months to realize!), it was all so different. But what really sold me on it were the background environments and video poker'esque look/feel of it that felt so familiar. It reminded me of the dimly lit bars and bowling alleys of the 70's. The sort of places that you'd find cocktail tables of games like Pac-Man and space invaders, with glass ashtrays occupying them. I think the programmers were shooting for it too. The way that people 'clap' pretentiously, and cheer in the background, like it's a casino event, or something played by gentry at an exclusive penthouse cocktail party.

Lumines: Puzzle Fusion (PSP) - This is another one that really needs no introduction. You basically arrange bi-chromatic, falling 4x4 tiles into solid coloured 4x4 squares (or larger). There's a vertical 'time line' that constantly sweeps across the screen from left to right, keeping time with the rhythm of the BGM, and it wipes out any solid coloured 4x4 squares, and other like coloured blocks touching them that expand the square/rectangle. With trippy, New Age music, and hip urban and futuristic visuals, the game is basically a feast for the senses. There was always an element of 'I wonder what the next stage will look/sound like?' that kept me playing and trying to get farther and improve my score. Everything about Lumines: Puzzle Fusion made it a show piece for the PSP platform, and sold me on the system. It was one of my first PSP titles, and it's still one of my favorites. I own the PS2 port, and the PSP sequel as well, but I've never played either of them yet.

Meteos (DS) - This was something of a flagship puzzler in the early years of the DS. You use the stylus to slide single coloured/textured tiles up or down in columns of multi-tiled stacks. This 'launches' the stacks into the air, and presumable off into space. The catch is that you need to match several more tiles to launch the larger stacks off, which offers a better reward. It was a simple concept, and really easy to pick up on. In fact, the concept was so simple that it lent itself to 'cheating'. Essentially, you could just abandon strategy and slide the stylus down across the screen, randomly, and chances are you'd launch something that you didn't even see. There was tons of extra content in the form of unlockables: stages, tile schemes, music, etc. There also an interesting (and cutesy) interplanetary space theme, and storyline, that added style factor of the game.

Money Puzzle Exchanger (Arcade) - My wife and I love this game; it's easily her most played MAME supported title. The premise, for those who've never played it, is to move your character among the bottom of the play field and grab stacks of coins from the columns above, and relocate them to other columns, stacking the coins with like values, which causes them to rank up in value to the next denomination of coin. There are pennies (1's), nickles (5's), dimes (10's), half dollars (50's), dollars (100's), 5 dollar (500's), and 10 dollar coins (1000's). If you stack, say, 5 pennies together, there's a reaction, and they rank up into a nickle. If you stack two nickles, they rank up to a dime, etc. (surplus coinage above what's needed to rank up disappears, so 8 pennies still only makes a nickle). The real fun comes in when you're trying to set up coins so that when you set off the lower denomination, it ranks up and does the same to the coins above it, and on and on. The money exchanges take a few seconds, and you're free to rearrange coins on the screen while they're adding up. The longer the chains you make, the higher the points and combo multiplier.

Pokémon Trozei! (DS) - This game doesn't seem as popular as I thought it would be when announced. You basically use the DS stylus to match 4 Pokémon, represented by facial icons, in a vertical or horizontal row on a grid-like playfield. It's a simple concept that might not be as enjoyable were it not for the familiarity of the Pokémon characters you match. Being as it does feature them, however, it has that signature 'collection' reward you get when you see which Pokémon characters you've captured so far, and the silhouettes of the ones featured which you haven't yet. Like most modern puzzlers, there's different modes of play, including story mode, endless, etc.. The story mode features a really unusual art style that I'm not particularly fond of and isn't characteristic of the series, but that's really the game's only downside (if you can even call it one).

Uo Poco (Arcade) - I'm not sure if this game was released outside of Japan; I've only played it on MAME. The premise is to use a pinball style plunger on the right of the screen to send coloured spheres into the playfield. The longer you hold the plunger down, the farther to the left the balls go. Also, you have only one shot per sphere because you can't release the pressure on the plunger. If you hold it for too long, you over shoot the place you want to the sphere to go for that turn. The coloured spheres 'settle' rather than stick, and you need to match clusters of three of more of the same colour to remove them from the field. The challenge of Uo Poco is that you have to gauge the distance your spheres are launched without the aid of a guide line (beyond the early stages). Once you clear a stage, you move on to another, which is represented by a submarine diving deeper into an undersea chasm. This undersea theme is reflected in the in-game background graphics, which are lively with exotic fish, coral, and other undersea fair. Every so often a little submarine will cruise across the top of the screen, not unlike the UFO in Space Invaders. If hit with a well timed sphere, the sub will pause and release a vertical beam that will remove all spheres in it's path. This helps out a lot.

When the game boots, there's a freaky broken English copyright warning about how "all violators who operate the game outside of Japan will be persecuted to the full extent of the jam", or something to that effect.

Another thing that stands out about Uo Poco is the striped, yellow mascot cat character (and a pink one for player two) on the side of the screen that animates as you play. He becomes excited if you advance, and worried if you do poorly. Eventually, when the spheres reach the top of the screen, the game is over and the cat dies a HORRIBLE drowning death, and his lifeless body slowly floats, eerily, to the surface of the screen, as the continue timer counts down to zero. It's actually pretty disturbing at first.

Shanghai Triple Treat (3DO) - Triple Threat is the only Shanghai game I play, and it's strictly for 'The Great Wall' falling tile mode. Like traditional Shanghai games, you have to click matching pairs of Mahjong tiles with your cursor to remove them from the screen. In 'The Great Wall' when you remove tiles, the tiles that were stacked above the ones removed drop and settle. You have to be careful or else you'll block yourself in and place the tiles in such a way that you can't make anymore moves. The fact that the rounds are timed adds to the difficulty. The traditional Chinese music is also nice, as is the map that appears between stages which shows your progress across the Great all of China. There are also customization touches, like the ability to select different types of tiles, and cursors (I like to play with traditional Mahjong tiles and the 'magic wand' cursor, myself).

Trip'D (3DO) - The wife and I love playing this competitively. It's one of the few games that she can hold her on with me in. It has a very good risk vs. reward dynamic where you'll find yourself not clearing out your screen like you probably should, because you're trying to 'birth' several aliens out of a groups of 4 like coloured alien eggs. When you birth aliens, they produce special results once you clear them away. The real test is trying to create a giant alien out of 4 smaller ones, for 4 times the effect...and bragging rights (it's not easy to do).

Zoo Keeper (DS) -This DS sleeper is FANTASTIC. While Meteos got tons of well deserved praised, Zoo Keeper slipped under the radar and remains relatively obscure by comparison. In Zoo Keeper you assume the role of a zoo keeper who for some reason or another appears to be in the employ of Adolf Hitler. You play by sliding tiles with animals icons on them up and down, and side to side, swapping them with the tiles next to them, or having them return to their original place if you don't match it with at least 2 other tiles of similar types, which if down, removes the group and introduces new tiles into the screen. It's a very simple concept, but it's so well executed and controls so well with the DS' touch screen controls that anyone can just pick it up and play. It's easily one of the best DS titles under $10, IMO.

[VintageNintendo]

I really enjoyed Tetris for gameboy (black and white style). When I was younger my mom was always threatening to throw that thing away. Many hours lost. Dr. Mario and Arkanoid were good also.

[kedawa]

One game that I forgot about is Roll Away, aka Kula World(E), Kula Quest(J).
It's a PS1 game where you control a beach ball that has to roll through a 3D maze.
It's really fun and there's a freeware remake for PC called Cubosphere that looks promising.

[NE146]

While not a pure puzzle game, I did dig Might and Magic Clash of Heroes on the DS.

It's akin to Puzzle Quest, but the gameplay is more related to a head-to-head "Columns" type game where you match 3 colors.. only this time it's with war units and they form attacks. It's a short game but I had a lot of fun with it.

[Wraith Storm]

I thought of a few more that got LOTS of playtime from me.

Baku Baku on the Saturn got pleanty of playtime back in the day. You had to match animal heads to their food. Simple, charming and loads of fun!

Sega Swirl. This free Dreamcast demo disc puzzler was played non-stop between my friends and I back in 1999-2000. Even my friends Mom got addicted to it and when it was all said and done she consistently held the high score and instead of competing with each other we pulled together and tried to knock her high score... I don't remember if we ever succeeded.

I also have a fondness for the original Game Gear Columns. It's my favorite version of the game. It has great music, graphics and just enough game play options to keep things entertaining.

[tom]

Catrap
Marios Picross
Daedalian Opus
all GB

[megasdkirby]

all GB

All GB?

[VACRMH]

I've totally fallen in love with Picross. I've got...6 games of it now?

Lode Runner is a guilty pleasure, guilty because I suck at it. And there's always Puzzle Fighter.

[tom]

Super Fighter Block Battle, great game

[cynicalhat]

one of my favorite puzzle games was Intelligent Qube for the PS1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Qube

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

In no particular order:

Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo

Tetris DS (my absolute favorite version of Tetris with reglar GB Tetris running a close second)

Bust a Move (series/variations)

Zoo Keeper for DS is my favorite match-3/Bejeweled variant

[Koa Zo]

Battle Balls (Arcade)

Great mention on Battle Balls.
It is also on the Japanese Playstation as Mezase Senkyu Oh.


my suggestion for this thread is the great and little known GBA game: Guru Guru Logic Champ
If I'm not mistaken, it was the last game by Compile, of Zanac fame.