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Who says games are a waste of time? Depending on the genre, they have the capacity to teach you almost anything. In particular, word games offer a unique blend of entertainment and puzzle-solving. And it just so happens that they feel right at home on contemporary Android tablets.
Wordle guide — From novice to expert in an afternoon
Don’t miss out on the latest word game trend sweeping the web
Since the most popular Word game flooded social media posts in 2022, plenty of Wordle posts remain in the spotlight today. Sharing and discussing daily puzzle results online has become a routine for millions of players. Once you've got a hot streak going, it becomes tough to call it quits.
Whispers of a Machine is a point-and-click adventure game that contains genre-fitting pixel-based graphics, over 4,000 lines of voiced dialog, and an enthralling sci-fi noir story. You'll play the part of a cybernetically enhanced special agent tasked with investigating a string of murders that are tied to a group of fanatics committed to creating an AI superintelligence in a world where the technology is outlawed. It'll be up to you to investigate and resolve the case by gathering pertinent information and decoding challenging puzzles.
Puzzle games, in spite of all the frustration they may cause, are a good way to pass time. Whether you're at the airport waiting for a delayed flight or just bored at work, you can rest assured that the time will fly by once you get into a puzzle game. And now, with our latest Humble Mobile Bundle giveaway, you might not even have to pay for a couple.
There's a new Humble Bundle live, and it's all about puzzles—action puzzlers, relaxing puzzlers, and everything in between. All you need to do is drop a few bucks, and you can get up to nine Android puzzle games with no DRM or in-app purchases. There are a lot of great titles this time, too.
What are letters? They have meaning, and can be combined to form words like these (and cooler ones like "kerfuffle" and "cantankerous"). They also take up space—they have shapes that can mean something else. unWorded is a new puzzle game that uses letters not to form words, but objects. It's pretty clever.
Most people who are even peripherally interested in games have probably played Machinarium at this point. Originally released on PC in 2009, Machinarium is a stylish, relaxing point-and-click adventure. It came to Android a few years back, and was quite successful. Now, the same developer has released Samorost 3 on Android. It's similar to Machinarium, but it looks even prettier.
You might know Spry Fox from its bear-themed games Alphabear and Bushido Bear. The new Road Less Traveled isn't about bears, but admittedly there are some bears in it. Instead, it's about a ranger whose task it is to rescue foolish children who are constantly getting trapped by blizzards.
You can usually take your time with puzzle games, but Bit Bit Blocks is anything but leisurely. You have to play this puzzle game at lightning speed to have any hope of winning. By making bigger blocks, you can beat back your opponent's advances, and that opponent can be the computer or your friend/enemy.
In Perchang, all you need to do is get the little metal balls from one side of the screen to the other. You can't just let them roll over there, though. There are flippers, ramps, fans, magnets, and other contraptions to control in each over-engineered level. Oh, and you're scored based on how quickly you figure it all out. No pressure, though.
Most games have tutorials or some sort of instructions, but not _PRISM. I don't know if there's a scrap of text anywhere in it other than the name. You're left to tease out the secrets of each puzzle in this fascinating game on your own, but that's part of the fun. It just arrived on Android after launching on iOS earlier this year.
I will admit that I don't usually get excited about the release of a new mobile game, but The Room Three is an exception. The first two games were amazing puzzlers, and the third one is finally available on Android. This game is bigger and more detailed than the previous ones, and it has Play Games cloud saves so you can play on multiple devices.
I can't honestly claim to be an old-school fan of Shadowgate, because when it was first published for the Macintosh in 1987, I was -2 months old. The original game was one of the first dungeon crawlers, advancing the player from room to room in a text-driven role-playing game that focuses on puzzles over combat, ruthlessly killing the player if he or she makes a misstep or doesn't keep enough torches around. It was kind of like Dark Souls, but with a greyscale color palette. Shadowgate is simple by modern PC and console standards, but its intricate worldbuilding and devious puzzles have made it a minor classic in the genre.
It's just a red button, what's the worst that could happen? It turns out, a lot of things could happen when you press the button in Please, Don't Touch Anything. The latest Android title from Bulkypix presents you with a mysterious console which you probably should not be touching. Once you do, there are 25 puzzles to solve, each with a unique outcome.
There's finally an official Pokémon game on a mobile device, and that's great. It's just... well, it's not the game that everyone really wants. Pokémon Shuffle is a matching puzzle game with hefty in-app purchases and a timer system. It was released in geo-restricted beta a week or two ago, but now it's live for everyone. Maybe if we give them enough money they'll release a proper Pokémon game?
Welcome to the latest entry in our Bonus Round series, wherein we tell you all about the new Android games of the day that we couldn't get to during our regular news rounds. Consider this a quick update for the dedicated gamers who can't wait for our bi-weekly roundups, and don't want to wade through a whole day's worth of news just to get their pixelated fix. Today we've got a charming space shooter, a unique endless runner, a morbid platformer, and another themed version of Puzzle Quest. Without further ado:
You at your boat. It's a sad, boring little boat. Certainly not good enough to help you travel the world. The only way to improve it is to go adventuring and recruit some new blood. You do that by matching tiles, of course.
While you wait anxiously for the next installment of The Room, why not take a look at a darker and somewhat more action-oriented first-person puzzler? Hellraid: The Escape has just made the trip over from iOS, and it's got some impressive graphics powered by the Unreal Engine. Also, lots and lots of gruesome deaths.
So what's going on in Light in the Darkness? The Totems are (apparently) a race of little gumdrop-shaped creatures that emit light. No need to judge, though. Their offspring have gone missing, and you have to use their luminous powers to spot the youngsters.
Not every Kickstarter campaign is doomed to failure—occasionally you get something like Back to Bed, a new puzzle game that was Kickstarted back in spring 2013. It has just arrived on Android with a really cool visual style and interesting narcolepsy-based gameplay.