Creating a quality puzzle app is not easy, even for the best of the best on the Play Store. Balancing gameplay elegance, intricacy, and satisfaction while adhering to a reasonable difficulty curve is a task only the top puzzle games can achieve. The key is to reward players for their deductive reasoning skills rather than demanding snap decisions, incentivizing some deeper thought and caution before proceeding. Build it around an entertaining gameplay loop with a sweet artstyle, and you’ve got a great puzzle game, ready for the best budget Android phones. From calming apps like Mekorama to addictive “just one more go” experiences like Melon Maker, Puzzle apps are primed and ready to keep you guessing.

It's no secret that puzzle games are a little over-represented on the Play Store, with slews of imitators riding the slipstream of market leaders, so we're here to highlight the best of the best. This genre of apps is a little oversaturated on the Play Store, given its flexibility in terms of setting and artstyle, so we’d like to share our favorites in this roundup of the best puzzle games that stand out. You can put your new high-performance gaming phone away for these apps, but don't forget your thinking cap.

1 Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon

Netflix Games has published Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon on the Play Store, bringing the popular puzzle roguelike to Android. While this game does differ from the original platformer, the puzzle-based gameplay is superb, offering falling block gameplay any Tetris fan should recognize. The mechanics are simple enough to understand while remaining challenging to master, which is why the gameplay loop is so addictive, all without pesky monetization to ruin the experience.

You will need a Netflix account to play, but beyond that, this is a premium release that stacks up to its console and PC counterparts.

2 Baba Is You

Baba Is You puzzle game roundup

Baba Is You takes a traditional Sokoban puzzle game and turns it on its head through the use of cryptic words. You'll unlock specific abilities and areas by pushing certain words together, which is ultimately how you solve each puzzle. Still, these solutions aren't easy, as this is an incredibly challenging game, but the solution is the reward, and it feels great once you finally get past a puzzle that was previously stumping you.

Baba Is You may be a short game clocking in at 7 hours to beat, but it's one of the best puzzle games on the platform, which is why it's a great title to start with for today's puzzle game roundup.

3 Path of Giants

A slick puzzle game where you'll control three characters, each offering unique skills to see you progress through each stage. As you can guess, you'll use these characters to solve each stage's puzzle, with the challenge growing with each solved stage. The graphics are excellent, the gameplay is enjoyable, and it's easily played in bite-size sessions to ensure this is a title best played in your downtime.

Best of all, what you see is what you get, as this is a premium release, so you're free to enjoy the game in its entirety once you pay $4. Not bad, not bad at all.

4 Golf Peaks

Golf Peaks is styled as a miniature golf game, but it's actually a puzzle game (which is why it's on today's list). There are more than 120 levels to explore, spread across ten worlds. Cards are used for movement as you decipher which cards will get your ball into the hole, making for a logic puzzler you will have to spend time thinking about, but that's where the fun is to be found, illustrating why this game is so appealing. It's designed well and offers tons of fun. What's not to like?

5 Gorogoa

Sliding tile puzzle games may have a reputation for being simple, but Gorogoa is anything but. Sure, you'll slide some tiles around, as that is part of the core gameplay, but thanks to some striking art and abstract puzzle solutions, this game goes way beyond moving a few tiles. Imagine if Salvador Dalí created a video game, and you're getting close to the abstract play within this release. While the game is only two hours long, it's a heck of a ride that shouldn't be missed.

6 PUSH

PUSH is a fun minimal puzzle game where your single objective is to push a bunch of buttons in the correct order. What is great about this setup is that there are no timers and no tutorials. Heck, there aren't even any boss fights. This game is solely focused on gameplay and gameplay alone. Essentially, what you see is what you get, and what you get is a competent puzzle game that offers a stress-free experience.

7 Hidden Through Time

Hidden Through Time is a stunning hidden object game that offers wonderful art, cute animations, and enjoyable gameplay. Mostly you'll spend your time deciphering clues to find all the hidden objects in each level, and each stage is pleasantly animated, making it easy to gaze at the screen for hours as you hunt down every last hidden object. If you enjoy titles like Hidden Folks but are looking for a splash of color to brighten the experience, then you'll love Hidden Through Time.

8 G30 - A Memory Maze

G30 - A Memory Maze is a minimal puzzle game that offers a unique story about a person suffering from a cognitive disorder. It will be your job to piece together their memory by solving two-part puzzles of scattered text and random images. You'll spend most of your time rotating these images to form larger pictures. The secondary puzzle element comes into play as you cycle these pics through words displayed at the top of the screen.

These words ultimately tell a story, but you'll first have to solve each puzzle before you can piece together the entirety of the tale.

9 Hidden Folks

Hidden Folks is a stylish hidden object game that's a joy to look at and play. The art is hand-drawn and consists of black-and-white pen and ink designs. Players are tasked with finding a particular person hidden in each drawing, much like a Where's Waldo book. This is easier said than done since you'll have to peel back and move objects in each environment to hunt down these hidden people.

Unlike many of the hidden objects on the Play Store, Hidden Folks offers a highly interactive experience, which has a lot to do with the wonderfully engaging art style.

10 hocus.

Hocus is an indie puzzle game that exudes a minimal style. It will be your job to navigate a cube through a series of optical illusions. There are 120 hand-crafted levels to explore, and if you get tired of these levels, you can jump into the optional level builder to design your own. What's great about this system is that you can share these homemade levels through a code or card, which means you can jump into levels created by other players if you wish.

11 blue

Blue is a popular release in the color-themed puzzle game series from Bart Bonte. The game's goal is to change the color in all the title's fifty stages to blue. If you get stuck, hints are available, though ads will play unless you pay to remove them through an in-app purchase. Trial and error is the key to victory, especially if you plan to complete all 50 levels.

12 Shadowmatic

Shadowmatic took its sweet time coming to Android, but the game is so pretty we can forgive the late arrival. The game's setup is extremely simple. All you do is spin and tilt one or more of the game's 3D objects to form a shadow that displays the puzzle's desired shape. Things grow more complex when multiple objects are in play. The beautiful 3D graphics create a relaxed atmosphere perfect for short or lengthy gaming sessions, though you'll need some beefy hardware to run this title.

13 I Love Hue Too

I Love Hue Too is a psychedelic puzzler where harmony, geometry, perception, skill, and magic intersect to create an enthralling puzzle game. Puzzles are solved by shuffling tiles to create harmony with the colors provided. There are more than 900 puzzles to unravel within this release and multiple play modes, which should keep players busy for a long while. Oh, and the game contains six ambient tracks that help set the mood for this trippy puzzler.

14 Bridge Constructor Portal

The Bridge Constructor series from Headup has seen a few releases on mobile, sporting all kinds of themes, combining gameplay elements from these themes with classic bridge construction gameplay. The most popular title to combine interesting elements is Bridge Constructor Portal. It offers familiar Portal gameplay crossed with bridge-building action, resulting in a good time solving all portal-laced puzzles.

This is a premium release you can snag for $5, and there's extra DLC once you beat the main game that you can pick up for $2. Seeing that the main campaign is 13 hours long and that the DLC adds even more content, you'll have plenty of puzzles to solve for a small investment.

15 Railbound

From the same creator as Golf Peaks, Railbound is a puzzler where you'll lay down train tracks to solve the game's level-based challenges. There are more than 200 puzzles to solve, all revolving around trains and track laying, with adorable graphics attached and a couple of cute pups to boot. So if you're a fan of Golf Peaks and want to see what's new from the same creator, Railbound is the obvious choice, and best of all, it's just as great as its older brother.

16 Mekorama

Mekorama draws inspiration from similar isometric puzzle platformers, such as Monument Valley, but that's an easy thing to forgive when the games you imitate are solid to start with. Much like the titles that inspired this release, you can expect tons of humor and personality, and the developer has implemented a user-friendly way to pay what you want for the full game unlock, which is a nice touch.

17 Lost Words: Beyond the Page

If you're big into platformers, but enjoy them most when they offer puzzle mechanics, then Lost Words: Beyond the Page should be right up your alley. This is a chill game where you'll literally use the letters in words as platforms to traverse each stage. These words, of course, tell an evolving story, which is entertaining enough, but it's the puzzle-based platforming where the game really shines.

Taking a page out of Baba is You's book, you'll have to think creatively about how words can be used to solve the game's 2D puzzles, all at your own pace.

18 Linelight

Linelight is an atmospheric puzzle game centered around navigating threads of light to complete puzzle challenges; with a celestial theme that immerses you in the experience. Gameplay-wise, Linelight gets really creative with the kinds of puzzles it offers; particularly the ones themed around only moving when the player is moving. Linelight focuses on its gameplay, with over 200 puzzles to solve, but its presentation is also very absorbing, from the silky movements to the beautiful music.

19 Melon Maker: Fruit Game

Melon Maker has been making waves for a while due to its curiously magnetic appeal, presenting an interesting blend of match-3 and Tetris mechanics. The gameplay boils down to dropping fruit into a transparent box, and combining fruits of the same color to keep the pile from overflowing. The difficulty curves smoothly as the fruits get bigger the longer you play and the circular nature of the fruits makes stacking difficult. Its cute artstyle, satisfying gameplay, and insane replayability create an experience that's just impossible to put down.

If you’re looking for your next big app addiction à la Vampire Survivors, check out Melon Maker.

The best puzzle games are easily installed from the Google Play Store

The above selection of quality puzzle games are some of our favorites, but there are plenty more out there too, which is why this roundup is constantly updated with new listings to ensure everyone can jump into a fresh puzzler when the need arises. So until the next update, enjoy the latest puzzle titles that have struck our fancy as the best of the best.