Qbism

The thing that makes physical puzzles like the immortal Rubik’s Cube so appealing is the tactile nature of the experience.

You can inspect the puzzle from all angles, turn it in your hand and manipulate it in order to find the solution.

You can also throw it out the window of a speeding car when you get incredibly frustrated, but that’s beside the point.

It's natural to expect a video game attempting to replicate such a puzzle to be a futile gesture; these fiendish brain-busters rely on a physical element which games simply cannot provide.

Qbism, however, proves such a theory to be wholly false. Through clever use of the touchscreen, this mind-melting title is every bit as compelling as Mr. Rubik’s invention.

The objective of each puzzle is to get all of the assorted cubes into an outline in the centre of the screen. To do this, you swipe with a finger to move the cubes along a single plane of movement.

Since these outlines are 3D, you have to rotate the camera – and consequently, the axis of movement – in order to complete each puzzle. Adjusting the perspective is a matter of tapping a virtual directional pad in the left-hand corner.

For example, to make an object you might have to move certain blocks in one direction and then spin the viewpoint around 90-degrees to slide them along another axis.

It’s tricky to explain with nothing but words and static screenshots, but trust us, it works brilliantly and only takes a few moments before you're hopelessly hooked.

As you move through the game, the puzzles become increasingly complex with the outlined objects taking on intricate forms which require you to constantly toggle the view in order to get your bearings.

Obviously the ultimate aim is simply to complete each puzzle, but there are other challenges available to keep things fresh too. Each cube movement and viewpoint rotation is counted and the fewer you use, the better your overall score at the end.

Like all the best puzzle titles Qbism is able to succeed on the strength of its allure alone, but some additional options wouldn’t have gone amiss.

While you can toggle the position of the viewpoint control, turn down the music and even change the colour of the blocks, there’s little else of note.

Some kind of connectivity with Facebook or Twitter would have been nice. As we all know, there’s only one thing more satisfying than solving a particularly difficult puzzle and that’s boasting about it.

Still, this is a relatively selfish request and the lack of social network integration has no bearing whatsoever on Qbism's unquestionable quality.

If you want a lesson on how to utilise the touchscreen for compelling puzzle play then look no further.