Puzzle games

These games are best approached by reading the board before committing. The guide highlights the goal and the first useful pattern so a new player can make a deliberate opening move.

The boards here divide into two groups, and telling them apart is most of the skill. On Road Connection every tile is either already decided or still free, and the ones that only fit one way set the constraints everything else inherits. Plumber Pipe behaves the same way through its two endpoints, which have fewer legal directions than anything in the middle. In Mahjong Story 2 the equivalent is the pair sitting on the deepest stack: remove it first and the tiles buried underneath become playable.

Several of these are route problems with a single stroke. Protect The Dog 3D is settled by one supported line released at the right moment, with both ends resting on solid terrain. Drawing Lines Great Adventure wants the line's job named before the stroke begins, whether that job is supporting something, blocking something, or redirecting a moving piece. Thief Puzzle Online commits the whole level to one continuous gesture, because there is no way to edit a route already underway.

Branching order matters more than branching speed. Higgs Ball Paint seals corridors as the ball travels, so the pockets with a single way in have to be cleared while they are still open. Roll The Block is read backwards from the goal, counting the flips needed to arrive in the pose the level asks for rather than merely on the right tile. Paper Fold delays the crease that would bury the detail you are reading the picture by, because the anchor has to stay visible until the surrounding edges are placed.

Moves are a currency in the matching titles. Momo Pop limits the level by move count rather than by time, which makes a swap that produces no match the most expensive thing you can do, and the highest-value exchange is often a single piece sitting between two same-coloured groups. Mahjong Story 2 works the same arithmetic with its hint and shuffle tools, which are a safety net rather than a plan.

Failure comes with a label attached. A hanging edge on a roll means that route does not exist. A piece that still has several plausible directions in the middle of the board means an outer tile was locked wrong. A deflection off a defender means the stroke aimed at the goal as a whole instead of at a specific gap. Reading the specific failure is what keeps the next attempt from repeating it.