Puzzle-Era: What are your top 5 puzzle games of all time?

5. Tiny Bubbles
4. The Room: Old Sins
3. Portal
2. Stephen's Sausage Roll
1. Device 6

I'll have to think about the rest but The Witness is definitely my #1. It really left an impression on me!

Within two posts we already covered the two completely different genres of games that are both referred to as "puzzle" games, lol

toythatkills said:

Within two posts we already covered the two completely different genres of games that are both referred to as "puzzle" games, lol

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True.

Tetris doesn't look like puzzle to me though.

Puzzle Pirates is a amazing puzzle game, mixed with social interaction and a unique economy system.

Puzzle Quest 2. Great game that mixed RPG with match-3. The RNG was awful though, always felt like the game was cheating to help the AI.

Pang Adventures. I remember playing this game when I was very young. I loved it.

Picross
DROD
Picross 3D
Spacechem
Link-a-Pix

Jelly no Puzzle is the easily the best one.

I don't know how something so simple can get so hard.

In no particular order:

• Puyo Puyo Tetris
• Tetris DS
  
• Portal 2
• Picross (general)
• Picross 3D Round 2

Would stuff like Ace Attorney and Zero Escape count as puzzle games?

Fuck, there's so many. I'll go with:

• Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
• Portal 2 (PS3)
• Stretchmo, AKA Fullblox (3DS)
• Tetris (Game Boy)
• The Talos Principle (PS4)

Not sure about 2-5 (I will need to think about them), but Talos Principle is next-level puzzle gaming. One of the best, most atmospheric games I have ever played. One-of-a-kind game

1 - Lumines
2 - Panel De Pon aka Tetris Attack aka Pokemon Puzzle Challenge aka Planet Puzzle League
3 - Tetris
4 - Picross
5 - Molehunt

5. Tricky Towers
This one is relatively new, but man it's pretty fantastic. The Tetris x physics combo is pretty damn fun to play around with and the different gameplay modes offer a lot of variety

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4. Money Idol Exchanger
Great gameplay concept combined with fantastic music and a colorful presentation. Nothing like stacking a bunch of coins and setting off huge combo chains

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3. Pokémon Puzzle League
This is really just a Panel De Pon with a Pokémon skin, but goddamn this shit is great - especially in multiplayer

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2. Picross 3D
I love the 2D Picross games, but Picross 3D took the series to new heights and added a new layer of depth without feeling too clunky or confusing to control and navigate. It's the perfect game to waste tons of hours with and it's incredible how easy the first few puzzles are while the later ones take you like 30-40+ minutes to solve. Also, the low-poly figurines that you unlock are pretty nice and I always play this funny game in my mind where I try to guess what I'm about to unlock. Greaaat game

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1. Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo
The absolute GOAT. Simple to play, but hard to master. There aren't many games with this kind of addicting core gameplay which shines especially in competitive modes. The presentation from the sprite work to the music and sound effects is absolutely masterful. Probably one of the most perfect games I have ever played. And y'all can't even begin to imagine how much that new mobile game crushed my soul

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No order:

Tetris DS
Tetris Attack
Picross 3D
Puzzle Fighter

In no particular order:

Tetris
Braid
Picross S
Portal 2
Klax

I've been staring at this text entry box for minutes trying to put them in an order. What I've got so far is this:

5. Pokemon Puzzle League
4. Puyo Puyo Tetris
3. The Picross e series
2. Tetris Battle Gaiden
1. Picross 3D

I'm going to hit "post reply" now before I change that list again haha

Edit:

Nibel said:

4. Money Idol Exchanger
Great gameplay concept combined with fantastic music and a colorful presentation. Nothing like stacking a bunch of coins and setting off huge combo chains

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Dammit I literally just bought this on Switch this week and totally forgot to put it on my list haha

Picross 3D and the second one are some of the best games ever created.

Not particularly difficult but so engrossing. So enjoyable to solve.

Picross 3D
Honeycomb Beat
The Room 3
Horde of Heroes
Layton Brothers: Mystery Room.

It was really hard not to just pick 5 different versions of Picross, and to not pile up with mobile games, but good lord the platform has some bangers. Bonus 6th game:.
Pixzle Lines DX

This is a fairly easy list for me. One of my favorite genre's for sure.

1. Portal 2
2. The Witness
3. Dino Crisis (I actually think "Puzzle Crisis" would have been a better name for the game)
4. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros Treasure
5. Dr. Mario (Superior to Tetris in every way)

Avance Wars DS
Picross DS
Toki Tori 1 (or the remake available everywhere)
Hexcells
Sokoban

Not in a good position to do a full list/write-ups, but I want to submit Gorogoa as my all-time favorite puzzle game. The puzzle concepts, the art, the themes, the singular creative vision...it's absolutely flawless and one of the only games in the last decade I would give an easy 10/10.

5. Money Idol Exchanger
4. Puyo Puyo Tetris
3. Tetris Attack
2. Puyo Puyo 2
1. Tetris The Grand Master 2 and 3 (a draw, sorry)

Fast-paced competitive Arcade puzzle games are the most overlooked genre of all time outside Japan. I fucking love the competitive scene of all those games. I'm really happy that Puyo Puyo Tetris is an eSport in Japan now (with Redbull support!).

Some other really good examples: Puzzle Bobble, Dr. Mario, Magical Drop, Columns and so, so many. All hail this genre.

Puyo puyo tetris
Magical Drop 3
Critter Crunch
Dr Mario
Waris woods

Picross - AKA Good Sudoku

Lumines - Shake ya body shake ya body shake ya body down to the ground

Escape Goat - That 90s Epic MegaGames style <3

Stephen's Sausage Roll - objectively the best sokoban ever, possibly the best puzzle game ever

Antichamber - Too clever for its own good most of the time.

Honorable mentions:

The Witness - Cool game with smart tutorials

Recursed - Great concept, makes brain all hurty

In no order...

Tetris
Tetris Attack
Meteos
Lumines
Pushmo

I love me some competitive arcade puzzle games.

1. The Talos Principle

Idk how to order anything else.

I do still have The Witness, Stephen's Sausage Roll, and Lumines to play though. Gonna tackle these soon.

In no particular order my top 3 are probably

Lumines
Puzzle and Dragons
Tetris

I love puzzle games but I'd have to really sit down and think to close out a top 5. There's so many and so many I haven't touched in too long.

1. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
2. Puyo Puyo Tetris (limiting Puyo to two spots otherwise it's this whole list)
3. Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo 2
4. Meteos
5. Pokemon Puzzle League

Edit: Shit, wasn't even thinking in that context but Portal 2 is definitely up there too

Portal 2, Catherine, Puzzle League Express, Crush, Pushmo

Nibel said:

5. Tricky Towers
This one is relatively new, but man it's pretty fantastic. The Tetris x physics combo is pretty damn fun to play around with and the different gameplay modes offer a lot of variety



4. Money Idol Exchanger
Great gameplay concept combined with fantastic music and a colorful presentation. Nothing like stacking a bunch of coins and setting off huge combo chains



3. Pokémon Puzzle League
This is really just a Panel De Pon with a Pokémon skin, but goddamn this shit is great - especially in multiplayer



2. Picross 3D
I love the 2D Picross games, but Picross 3D took the series to new heights and added a new layer of depth without feeling too clunky or confusing to control and navigate. It's the perfect game to waste tons of hours with and it's incredible how easy the first few puzzles are while the later ones take you like 30-40+ minutes to solve. Also, the low-poly figurines that you unlock are pretty nice and I always play this funny game in my mind where I try to guess what I'm about to unlock. Greaaat game



1. Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo
The absolute GOAT. Simple to play, but hard to master. There aren't many games with this kind of addicting core gameplay which shines especially in competitive modes. The presentation from the sprite work to the music and sound effects is absolutely masterful. Probably one of the most perfect games I have ever played. And y'all can't even begin to imagine how much that new mobile game crushed my soul

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Funnily enough, Tricky Towers is the one game where Gameloft had the original concept and someone copied it. I remember playing it back when J2ME games where a thing, and like most gameloft games of that era, it kicked ass.

1. Tetris (GB, but NES is great too)
2. Puzzle Quest (DS)
3. Catherine
4. Puyo Puyo Tetris
5. Klax

... reading this thread, I should really check out Lumines and Meteos I guess.

Picross, Picross 3D, Bust A Move 2, and Puyo Puyo Tetris are up there.

Meteos

In the category I intuitively consider puzzle games, it's really hard to only pick 5, but my 5 essential go to games would be:
- Picross S: I love Picross in general but two players solving a mega-Picross is just awesome.
- Picpic on DS, which is a great compilation of 3 modes.
- any Nikoli compilation that includes Slitherlink, Nurikabe and these crazy Japanese pencil puzzles where Sudoku is almost a footnote. Typically, we got a pretty good 3DS one in Europe titled "Sudoku + 7 other complex puzzles by Nikoli". Hamster tends to port the puzzles individually and Slitherlink is still my favorite.
- The Talos Principle. To be honest, I kind of hesitated between this one and the Portal games, but ultimately I preferred this one's mechanics. They lack the elegant simplicity of Portal, but more than make up for it with some really inspired combos.
- Spacechem. It's hard to pick one Zachtronics game, but this one was my first one. I love their industrial approach to puzzles, and honestly think they're educational.

If we're talking about reflex based block puzzles and the like, my favorite is still Lumines, with Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and Tetris DS not far behind.

Tito said:

Avance Wars DS
Picross DS
Toki Tori 1 (or the remake available everywhere)
Hexcells
Sokoban

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.

Among the games I would rank it as


5 Puzzlequest

4 Braid

3 The Secret World

2 The Witness

1 Tetris


Basically my ranking is softly influenced by fun factor and gameplay. I'm heavily influenced by unique qualities and integration of world building with the puzzle gameplay.

Tetris is simply so good on gameplay alone it rises above the rest even though I am technically downplaying all gameplay elements from each game compared to other aspects.

Tetris for the longest time waz undisputed as one of the best games of all time for good reason. It is more than a puzzle game. It is almost gameplay perfection.


But recently I found out about what the ps4 tetris version made by creator of Rez and Lumines introduced and I suspect this will be true sequel to Tetris everyone never knew they were waiting for.

As for everything else on my list I suspect TSW would raise some eyebrows.

The Secret World as a consequence of being an MMO is truly more massive than your adventure game or world building puzzle game like Portal.

This was a game where being an investigator even with other people around truly meant you could complete quests ( all unique) while severely leveled if you took the time to observe and think about your surroundings and the npcs. Every puzzle was intuitive in a way that even the best adventure games could make a mistake.

It is absurd how detailed that world is. The only reason Witness tops it is by virtue of successfully making the puzzles a story onto themselves and as a result of its design was more replayable as you gained more experience in how the entire world related to itself.

There are a few puzzle games I wish to experience because they could change this list.

Scribblenaughts
Hexcells Infinite
Magnum Opus
Swapper
Antichamber

Stephen's Sausage Roll
Gorogoa
Riven
Device 6
Opus Magnum

Honorable mentions go to The Witness, The Swapper, Hexcells, English Country Tune, DROD, Yankai's Peak, Recursed, Portal 2, Infinifactory, Snakebird, Corrypt, Tetris

In no particular order:

Puyo Puyo Tetris
Picross series
Pokemon Puzzle League
Tetris Battle Gaiden
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

FrostyLemon said:

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Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

The Talos Principle
Portal
Portal 2
Gorogoa

Wouldn't know a top 5 out of my head without serious consideration. But I do know that Puzzle Leage (Tetris Attack) is on the top!

The Sequence 2 will be out the 2 august for iOS, the first espisode is also available for Android and Windows.
http://ombgames.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/454320/the_Sequence/

Hoplite is an obsessive hexa/roguelite/puzzler for mobile.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=oP1NSMPYue4

Human Ressources Machine is a funny way to learn programing. PC, Mac, Linux, Switch, WiiU, and mobile.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/375820/Human_Resource_Machine/

Telepaint is a cute thing from the studio of Titan Souls (iOS only).


Lumino City is not da greatest puzzle game but one of the most original. Windows, Mac and iOS.

I dunno about top 5, but Toki Tori 2 is easily one of my favourite games ever.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet. It's pretty interesting in its genre especially, as it's sort of an open world metroidvania-like game, except there aren't many actual powerups like in metroidvanias usually but instead the game guides you to learn yourself while playing.

Mitchman said:

Funnily enough, Tricky Towers is the one game where Gameloft had the original concept and someone copied it. I remember playing it back when J2ME games where a thing, and like most gameloft games of that era, it kicked ass.

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This is the first time I'm hearing of this, lmao. Gameloft definitely had some great games under their belts despite their reputation

Not really a puzzle game guy, but Portal 2 is one of my all time favorite games.

I think my top 5 would be something along the lines of:

5. Pushmo
4. Snakebird
3. Opus Magnum
2. Portal
1. Stephen's Sausage Roll

Special mentions to The Witness and Fez.

1. Tetris Attack
2. Lumines
3. Bust-A-Move
4. Portal
5. Mole Mania

5. Tetris DS
4. Puzzle & Dragons
3. Catherine
2. Portal 2
1. Meteos

Puzzle & Dragons is such a great mobile game. I really enjoy the blend of RPG and puzzle elements in the game.

Timeaisis said:

In no order...

Tetris
Tetris Attack
Meteos
Lumines
Pushmo

I love me some competitive arcade puzzle games.

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Meteos is so good. I used to play it before school when I was in high school.