The 24 best iPhone and iPad puzzle games on the App Store (2014)
Riddle me this
Puzzle games are the bedrock of the iOS App Store. There's just something about sitting down and figuring out a riddle that suits these handheld devices.
But which ones should you spend your money on? What are the truly best puzzle games on iPhone and iPad?
For this list, we've had to lay down some ground rules or we'll be here all day. So we're looking for puzzles with distinct levels, and hand-crafted puzzle - so no Threes!
And we're going to skip point and click adventures (like Monkey Island) and puzzlers that are primarily platformers (like Limbo) - those are lists for another day.
So if you want everything, dig into our Buyer's Guide for a list of the best puzzle games of all time. Otherwise, read on.
The Room 2By Fireproof Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
A creepy and atmospheric game about opening up the world's most complicated puzzle box. It feels perfect on the touchscreen as you tug at switches, turn keys, and wiggle levers. As you play, you'll uncover an interesting Lovecraftian narrative.
Don't miss the original - The Room.
Cut the RopeBy Chillingo - buy on iPhone (£1.99 / $2.99) or buy on iPad (£2.99 / $4.99)
A clever physics-driven game about cutting a rope so a dangling sweet will drop into the waiting mouth of a cute green monster. You'll soon encounter bellows, bubbles, spiders, portals, and other hazards.
Don't miss this spin-off - Cut the Rope: Experiments
Monument ValleyBy ustwo - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.49 / $3.99)
A drop-dead gorgeous game about exploring impossible architectural spaces - inspired by mind-warping artist MC Escher. You'll have to rewire your brain to figure out some of these devious conundrums.
Like this one? Try Windosill.
Bridge Constructor MedievalBy Headup Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
The original Bridge Constructor - a game about designing a stable bridge for passing traffic - is good, but Medieval adds clever new twists like having to withstand cannonball fire, or purposefully making your bridge fail when the enemy is crossing.
Like this one? Try Bridgy Jones.
DEVICE 6By Simogo - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.49 / $3.99)
This enigmatic puzzle game looks like a lavish ebook. That is, until protagonist Anna wanders around a corner and suddenly the sentence bends 90 degrees mid-word. As she explores this mysterious island, Anna will encounter many head scratching puzzles.
Like this one? Forever Lost might be up your alley.
TrainyardBy Matt Rix - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
A game about laying down tracks to get trains to their colour-coded stations. Easy, until you have to intersect two tracks and then have to puzzle out the timing to stop a deadly collision. A level editor means there are thousands of puzzles to play.
Want a free taster? Get Trainyard Express.
Where's My WaterBy Disney - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
Swampy wants to have a shower, but his taps are running dry. Your job is to reroute a pool of water to his bathtub by digging a path through the dirt. The game is packed full of clever twists - including fire, ice, poison, algae, mines, and balloons - that completely change the rules.
Don't miss this spin-off - Where's My Perry
Hitman GOBy Square Enix - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.99 / $4.99)
Figuring out how to assassinate someone in Hitman can often feel like a puzzle, but that idea is taken to the extreme in this inventive chess-like game. The best bit is the design, as Agent 47 and his mark are reduced to tiny ceramic figures.
Like this one? You might dig Ending.
BlekBy kunabi brother - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Draw a squiggle, and that squiggle will keep repeating itself until it falls off the screen. Your goal is to design a doodle that will carry itself through all the coloured dots, and avoid the black ones. This elegant puzzler is inspired by calligraphy.
Like elegant puzzlers? Try Kiwanuka.
Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot MysteryBy Lucid Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (69p / 99c)
The Nintendo DS's riddle expert Professor Layton would surely make this list if he were on iOS. No worries: hotshot puzzle solver Jacob Jones will take his place. As he goes on field trips and camping holidays, he solves conundrums to advance the plot.
Like this one? Puzzle Agent is also inspired by Professor Layton.
Year WalkBy Simogo - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.49 / $3.99)
A Year Walk, or arsgang, is a mystical vision quest performed in Sweden. In Simogo's take on the phenomenon, that involves solving puzzles in the middle of a chilly winter forest. Complete with satisfyingly crunchy snow underfoot.
Like this one? Give Help Volty a look.
Murder FilesBy Relentless Software - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Whodunnit? You'll find out who's knocking off the cast of this quintessentially quaint British adventure by solving various puzzles. You'll have to gather evidence and eliminate witnesses, too, of course.
Like this one? Try another murder mystery in Detective Grimoire.
Icebreaker: A Viking VoyageBy Nitrome - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
A bit like Cut the Rope, but you'll slice more than just lines of trumped up string. You'll also slash through glaciers of ice and gooey strands of troll snot as you rescue your Viking crew from disaster.
Like this one? You may enjoy Sprinkle Islands, too.
Might & Magic: Clash of HeroesBy Ubisoft - buy on iPhone and iPad (£2.99 / $4.99)
It might look like an RPG, but this feisty battler is actually a super smart puzzle game as units will only attack when you stack three of the same coloured fighters in a column. There's a huge story to play through, but you can also battle online.
Like this one? Puzzle Quest 2 is another great puzzle/RPG hybrid .
LYNEBy Thomas Bowker - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Draw a line to match up shapes. Easy. Except when it's not. But Lyne ramps up the difficulty at such a smooth, painless incline that you never hit a brick wall or become overwhelmed. Your brain simply gets trained to untangle these tricky levels.
Like this one? Get more line-drawing head scratchers in Flow.
Quell MementoBy Bulkypix - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
A dashing puzzle game about rolling a marble about these claustrophobic little chambers. There are loads of ideas to keep grabbing your attention. Plus, it also carries a charming, and slightly heartbreaking story about an old man losing his memories.
Don't miss the original game - Quell
The CurseBy Toy Studio LLC - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
A cute digital book, containing 100 different riddles for you to solve. Okay, so some of the puzzle types are repeated a few times, but the challenge is increased with each iteration. There's also a creepy puzzle master to guide you through the game.
Don't miss this spin-off - The Voyage
Sushi SnakeBy Benjamin Davis - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Cannibalism is not just encouraged in this chunky lo-fi puzzle game. It's required. As you start to juggle multiple snakes on one level, you'll find that you need to have one serpent chomp through another if you want to gobble down every dot in sight.
Like this one? Try English Country Tune.
Girls Like RobotsBy [adult swim] - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Girls like robots, but they don't like nerds. This isn't just a soul-crushing reality, it's the rules to a cute puzzle game about seating arrangements. To finish each level you must judiciously plop down each tiles so as many people are happy with their neighbours as possible.
Like this one? Joining Hands is also about perfecting placements.
Eliss InfinityBy Little Eyes LLC - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Multi-touch really set the iPhone's touchscreen apart from other finger-sensitive screens of the day. So why do so few games use it properly? Eliss does, to let you split apart planets in this manic celestial sorting game.
Like this one? Keep an eye out for Eliss follow-up Faraway.
StrataBy Graveck - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
Strata is a tricky one to describe. You want to lay down ribbons so they are the same colour as the squares on the patchwork puzzle board. Things get tricky as soon as you have to lay ribbons on top of one another, which forces you to consider things many moves ahead.
Like this one? You might dig ZONR.
KAMIBy State of Play Games - buy on iPhone and iPad (£1.49 / $1.99)
KAMI is a game about colour. Your job is to make every square the same colour by swapping the hue of all contiguous blocks in one area. The best bit is the presentation, where everything looks authentically papery - and sounds it, too.
Like this one? Try Blip Blup.
Spacechem MobileBy Zachtronics LLC - buy on iPad (£1.99 / $2.99)
This one is ostensibly about chemistry, but it's actually about programming. As you craft autonomous machines that carry, combine, and drop molecules, you're really writing code - complete with loops, conditional statements, and bug fixes. And like coding, it's immensely satisfying when you crack it.
Like this one? Cargo-Bot is another puzzler about programming.
SpliceBy Cipher Prime Studios - buy on iPad (£2.49 / $3.99)
Cipher Prime refuses to tell you what to do in this yummy organic puzzle game. You simply have to figure it out by playing around and experimenting. You're trying to reconfigure a strand of DNA so it fits in a template, but how you do that can be quite the mystery.
Like this one? Maybe give Hundreds a go.