All the top Android puzzle games that are worth your time.
Whether you enjoy a relaxing game of Mahjong, you love solving brain teasers, or you like finding the most creative physics solutions, there are plenty of a puzzle games on Android that you’ll be able to lose yourself in. Here are some of our favorites.
- Cut the Rope: Magic
- World of Goo
- Lara Croft Go
- Dots
- Mahjong by 1C Wireless
- The Room Three
- That Level Again 3
Cut the Rope: Magic
In ZeptoLab’s seventh iteration of the popular physics puzzler, you’re once again tasked with feeding little Om Nom by solving physics puzzles to get the candy into his greedy maw. The familiar dangling candy is present, but new to the series is the ability to transform Om Nom into other creatures, including a yellow bird that can hover in the air, and an even tinier version of himself.
Each level may be cleared by simply feeding Om Nom, but you’ll also want to collect the stars that are strategically placed in various spots. The more stars you collect, the more crystals you earn, which you can use to unlock new magical-themed worlds. You can also “conjure” eight crystals every three hours, or watch an ad to be able to conjure them more often.
There are in-app purchases in the form of packs of crystals, and you also have the option of buying hints to help you solve the puzzles and grab all the stars.
While the game can be downloaded for free, there is the option to pay 99 cents to remove the ads. In our opinion, it’s a miniscule amount to pay to enjoy the game ad-free.
Download: Cut the Rope:Magic (free +IAP)
World of Goo
“Higher and higher” is the catch phrase for World of Goo, a super fun and addictive game that’ll soon have you hooked.
The object of the game is to get as many of the tiny goo-ball creatures to the end point of each level — a vacuum pipe — through building (sometimes massive) towers and bridges. The trick is that the building blocks you have to work with are the goo-balls themselves, and every piece of your structure removes one goo-ball from play.
Weight distribution and structural integrity play a role. And as you progress in levels, the vacuum pipe gets harder and harder to reach, and you have fewer goo-balls to work with.
World of Goo has no ads or in-app purchases and is totally worth the mere $4.99 it costs to buy.
Download: World of Goo ($4.99)
Lara Croft Go
From developer Square Enix comes another mobile spin-off of a popular console and PC game franchise: Lara Croft Go.
Using simple swipe-to-move mechanics, you’ll guide Lara through 101 puzzles fraught with perilous pitfalls and dangerous foes. Each puzzle is part of a chapter, six in total, and involve finding ways around obstacles, avoiding traps, and battling baddies.
Along the way, you’ll find various tools to help you navigate through each puzzle, as well as relics that unlock new outfits for Lara. Should you get stuck on a puzzle, you have the option of paying for the solution via in-app purchases.
With its beautiful graphics and simple mechanics, Lara Croft Go is addictive and fun — and definitely worth the $4.99 asking price.
Download: Lara Croft Go ($4.99)
Dots
Like all the best puzzle games, Dots is simple to learn, difficult to master and highly addictive.
The main object is to connect as many dots of the same color as you can, with certain patterns, such as a square or a W being worth more points.
Dots has four game modes each with different spins on the main objective:
- Timed: Connect as many dots of the same color as you can in 60 seconds
- Moves: Connect as many dots of the same color as you can with 30 moves
- Endless: No limits — connect as dots of the same color as you can
- Challenges: Play against others (multiplayer) to connect the most dots of the same color
To be able to play on Endless mode you’ll have to pay $2.29, but it’s worth it for a relaxing experience. Another in-app purchase grants you the ability to earn dots twice as fast.
With the dots you accumulate, you can “buy” more power-ups, which enable you to do things like stop time, erase a single dot, or wipe out all dots of the same color that are currently on the screen.
The game has absolutely no ads, and a really unique and clean visual style. (Protip: AMOLED screen owners, try night mode to save battery power!)
Download: Dots (free)
Mahjong by 1C Wireless
We’ve played a number of variants of the Chinese tile-matching game, and of all those we like the version from 1C Wireless the best, due to its varied game modes and minimal ads that don’t interrupt the gameplay.
This Mahjong game has four modes:
- Classic: Pick from over 39 different towers and start playing
- Time attack: Choose your tower and see how long it takes you to clear the titles
- Challenge: Choose your tower and keep matching titles without while working against the timer at the top of the screen.
- Endless: Play through random towers, matching all the tiles in one before moving to another.
There is an option to pay 99 cents to remove the ads, but since they are so minimal (just a banner at the bottom of the screen), it’s not really 100 percent necessary.
Download: Mahjong (free)
The Room Three
The Room Three is third sequel to Fireproof Games’ award winning puzzler, The Room. Reminiscent of point-and-click classic adventure series such as Myst and Siberia, The Room Three has you figuring out how escape from the clutches of your kidnapper, the mysterious Craftsman.
You navigate around by swiping around the screen and double tapping to focus in on an object or puzzle. As you progress through the game, you’ll find objects that will help you find your way out. As you go, more and more of the story is revealed through notes left for you by the Craftsman.
The game is pretty long and involved, so expect to spend many hours glued to your device as you solve puzzle after puzzle.
Download:The Room Three ($4.99)
That Level Again 3
That Level Again 3 is a tongue-in-cheek puzzle game where you have to basically figure everything out. And by everything, we do mean everything. For instance, the opening screen is a gray background with your character standing in the middle of it. You have to find the background (careful, don’t pick the one with spikes at the bottom of it) and build your user interface (UI) so that you can move your character around.
Ads in this game are minimal; they’re confined to video ads that you can choose to watch for additional help, letting clear a level or skip it entirely.
Prepare to burn a lot of time on this game — the most difficult puzzles and hilarious running commentary offer hours and hours of entertainment.
Download: That Level Again 3 (free)
What are your favorites?
We’ve tossed out the puzzle games for Android that we love, but how about you? Did we miss any awesome games? Shout out your favorites in the comments!
