Pocket Games
Puzzle & Logic
Fast hands don’t matter here. These games ask you to look, think it through and only then move. You almost always play on your own, at your own pace, and the game is saved as you go, so you can close it and pick up exactly where you left off.
The kind of thinking changes from one to the next. Sudoku and Nonogram are pure deduction: every grid is built to be solved without guessing, and the only way to go wrong is to skip a step. Minesweeper is deduction too, but the first click is blind and uncovering a mine ends the game.
2048 and 10×10 have no solution to find. They go on as long as there is room, and they are lost to a move made without thinking about the next one: keeping the grid tidy matters more than seeing far ahead.
Then there are the level-based games, like Paths: a grid to fill with a single line, one solution per level, and grids that grow as you go. No timer and no lives; at worst you start the level again.
Finally, memory. In Repeat a sequence of colours gets one step longer every round and the first mistake ends the game. Pairs is the only game in this section you can also play with two people on the same phone.
- 10×10How to play 10×10: fitting blocks into a ten by ten grid, the scoring for multiple lines, and why you have to keep the middle clear. Free in your browser.
- 15 PuzzleHow to solve the 15 Puzzle: the row-by-row method, the last-pair manoeuvre and why improvising never works. Grids of 4×4, 5×5 and 6×6.
- 2048The rules of 2048 and the strategy that works: keep your biggest tile in a corner, never use the fourth direction. Free in your browser and on Android.
- MinesweeperHow to play Minesweeper: what the numbers actually tell you, the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patterns, and when you are forced to guess. Three difficulties, free.
- NonogramHow to play nonograms (picross, griddlers): reading the clues, forced overlap, counting from the edges. Levels from 5×5 to 15×15, free in your browser.
- PairsHow to play Pairs, the matching game also known as Concentration, and how to cut your number of tries: scanning in order, what is actually worth remembering, and the three grid sizes available.
- PathsHow to play Paths: a single line that starts from one dot and fills the whole grid, passing through every cell exactly once. Level-based puzzles, free in your browser.
- RepeatHow to play Repeat and how to reach long sequences: chunking, rhythm, and why it helps to stop watching the pads. Three speeds.
- SudokuHow to play Sudoku: the rules, the techniques that crack most grids and the mistakes that waste time. Three difficulties, free in your browser.
- SumsThe rules of Sums, the puzzle where you delete the extra numbers so every row and column hits its target. Deduction techniques, levels from 3×3 to 8×8.