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Thinky Puzzle Games

All games make you think in some way or other. However, some are designed to stretch your puzzle know-how more than others. There are games that don't lean on reactions or visuals to tell a story. Instead, they offer a conundrum to get you thinking.

We've worked with Thinky Games and people from the Thinky Puzzle Discord to track down the best little games that get you thinking. "The devotees of such games have been known to smile at all sorts of diverse puzzles and conundrums. Puzzle games, platformers, number games, word games, games with or without grids, games with or without secrets. Easy games. Hard games. But keep it thinky and save your FPS games and dexterity-intensive platformers for another day."

Many of the games in this list look simple and, well, a bit basic. But that is part of the charm. The clever bit is how their design draws you in and gets you thinking. If you want more like this, you can find helpful people on the ThinkyGames.com Discord server and the Thinky Puzzle Games Discord server.

This list includes 99 games from the last 23 years, with 345 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to get your brain working.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 16
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to MA 15+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Stealth, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Total Likes: 345

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Chariot

Release Date: 30/09/2014, updated in 2018

Out Now: Apple TV, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Chariot is a cooperative running and jumping game where you work with another player to haul a wheeled Chariot to the end of each level. Pushing, pulling or dragging with ropes, you need to use the real physics of the game to solve puzzles and time...

Pico Park

Release Date: 28/04/2016, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Pico Park is a collaborative puzzle game for up to 10 players where you traverse levels using one another to solve puzzles. It's a game about communication and physics as players work to position themselves to bridge a gap, use ropes to hang off ledges...

Paper Trail

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Paper Trail is a traversal puzzle game about a budding academic, Paige, leaving home. Play is set in a foldable paper world that you manipulate to join paths, move rocks and overlap the two sides of reality. It's a unique two-sided puzzle that tells the...

Toodee and Topdee

Release Date: 04/08/2021, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Toodee and Topdee is a platform puzzle game where you control two characters to complete single-screen levels. The twist is that each character exists in a different plane. Toodee is a top-down block-pushing 3D world, while Topdee is side-on 2D...

Crime O'Clock

Release Date: 30/06/2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Crime O'Clock is a point-and-click crime-solving game where you explore a detailed map to piece together timelines that prove whodunnit. You zoom in and study the detailed map to find time markers and work out the culprit of hacking, murder and theft.

Luigi's Mansion 3

Release Date: 31/10/2019

Out Now: Switch

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Luigi's Mansion 3 is an adventure game where you explore the intricate rooms of a haunted hotel to find and capture ghosts. As in the first two games, you move through the rooms, finding secrets and treasures, and vacuuming up ghosts. It has the same...

A Monster's Expedition

Release Date: 10/09/2020

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

A Monster's Expedition is a puzzle game where a monster finds creatures on an island and learns about the history of humanity. The puzzle is how to get from one island to the next.

Imbroglio

Release Date: 18/05/2016, updated in 2020

Out Now: iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Imbroglio is a puzzle game where you take a character into a dungeon and progress by collecting stars. The twist is that combat is focused not only your abilities but the tile you are standing on when you attack. Although each character has different...

Opus Magnum

Release Date: 08/12/2017

Out Now: PC

Components: 2D Side-On

Opus Magnum is a puzzle game about assembling machines to convert spherical chemicals into different compounds. Each challenge can be tackled by creating different machine configurations, and each is awarded points on how compact, quick and efficient...

A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build

Release Date: 01/12/2018

Out Now: Android, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build is a puzzle game about being a monster and making snowmen. On each level, you must roll your snowballs to be the right size and then position them on each other to make a snowman.

Baba is You

Release Date: 13/03/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Baba is You requires some lateral thinking. Each level is controlled by rules written on the screen, such as ‘Lava is Hot’, ‘Wall is Stop’ and ‘Flag is Move’. By moving the words around with your pixelated character, you subvert the...

Patrick's Parabox

Release Date: 29/03/2022

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Patrick's Parabox is a puzzle game where you move, and move through, boxes within boxes. Like a Russian doll, inside each box is another level that you can navigate to create a nested set of puzzles. It's an equally mind-bending and elegant experience...

Samsara Room

Release Date: 06/09/2013, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Samsara Room is an abstract point-and-click puzzle-horror game. By solving the puzzles hidden throughout the room, you uncover an uneasy story about judgement and atonement told through the things you find.

Carto

Release Date: 27/10/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

Carto is an adventure puzzle game that is unusual in letting you rearrange the map tiles while you are playing. This enables you to access new areas of the world previously impossible to get to. This can be as simple as redirecting a river out of your...

Sniks

Release Date: 05/08/2020

Out Now: Android, Mac and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Sniks is a puzzle game about guiding colourful worms to matching coloured fruit and food. Each level is a self-contained arena with a number of snakes. Each snake can only consume fruit of a matching colour and they can't pass each other. It poses some...

Rusty Lake: Roots

Release Date: 20/10/2016

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

Rusty Lake: Roots is an unusual point-and-click puzzle-horror game that has you piecing together your family tree. With a wide range unusual puzzles and game mechanics, like growing a literal family tree, it tells a story of a broken family and dark...

Escape Simulator

Release Date: 19/10/2021

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Escape Simulator is a puzzle game where you try and escape a series of rooms. Like a real escape room, you look in drawers, read books, and solve riddles to provide the tools you need to escape. It stands out for the quality of the environments and head...

Isles of Sea and Sky

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: Mac, PC and Switch

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Isles of Sea and Sky is a block-pushing puzzle and exploration game with a look that is inspired by classic games like Zelda, Star Tropics, and Chip’s Challenge. It looks simple but offers rich and complex puzzles backed by visuals and sounds that...

Kine

Release Date: 19/10/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

Kine is a 3D puzzle game where you control three robot instruments: Roo, the accordion; Quat, the drum; and Euler, the trombone. To help them become a band, you solve puzzles that involve their different abilities in various ways.

Down in Bermuda

Release Date: 14/01/2021

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead

Down in Bermuda is a puzzle game where you are stranded on a set of interconnected islands. You push, pull and manipulate objects to solve puzzles and explore the world. Each one you complete brings you closer to getting back home.

Unworded

Release Date: 17/11/2000, updated in 2017

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Unworded is a narrative visual puzzle where you use letter shapes to create objects and solve puzzles. As you progress through the five chapters, you uncover the story of a writer who is in the hospital recovering from a serious accident.

PEGI 7 Video Game Age Rating for QV in UK and Europe

QV

Release Date: 26/11/2020, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

QV (QV: The Dimension Painter on iOS) is a puzzle game about using portals to push buttons with blocks. You are tasked with collecting the shattered crystals to save the realms from impending destruction by solving the series of puzzles. It stands out...

Room to Grow

Release Date: 25/02/2021

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Room to Grow is a puzzle game about movement and expansion. You play a plant that moves by growing and wrapping your way around a maze. You can shift your location by growing into walls which enables you to manoeuvre around obstacles and make room for...

The Last Cube

Release Date: 10/03/2022

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

The Last Cube is a puzzle platform game where you guide a cube through a series of 3D mazes to save the world from destruction. Because you have to get the right side of the cube on the right square to trigger abilities and progress, it creates a...

Bonfire Peaks

Release Date: 30/09/2021

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Blocks and Grid

Bonfire Peaks is a puzzle game where you explore a Minecraft-looking world. Unlike the generalised blocks of that game, here the landscape is lovingly crafted and pulsing with life. It's a tightly designed puzzle game about closure, that invites you to...

Otteretto

Release Date: 28/01/2022

Out Now: Mac, PC and Web

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Grid

Otteretto is a puzzle game where you match blocks to make palindromes. Rather than the usual match-three format, instead you have to find patterns that mirror in the middle, like a palindrome but with colours/shapes rather than letters.

RocketPuzzle

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

RocketPuzzle is a tile-based puzzle set in space. You push and hold blocks so their attached rockets can fire them into the matching coloured space stations. It's a small but tricky game with a retro aesthetic.

Thinkrolls: Kings and Queens

Thinkrolls: Kings and Queens (Series)

Release Date: 16/11/2016, updated in 2021

Out Now: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Grid

Thinkrolls: Kings and Queens is a puzzle game where you roll your character around castles to collect keys, food and gems for the dragon that lives there. Complete a level to be awarded with customising pieces to decorate your ball as a king or queen....

Cosmic Express

Release Date: 16/05/2017

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

Cosmic Express is a puzzle game where you plan a train route to collect the waiting passengers. Although the game looks super simple, as it progresses you have to also deal with different hazards and requirements for your route. It offers a fun but...

Pawnbarian

Release Date: 24/09/2021

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Board and Grid

Pawnbarian is a puzzle game where you attack enemies in a dungeon based on chess moves. You build a deck of different pieces and use them in battles

Sokobond

Release Date: 27/08/2013, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Components: 2D Side-On

Sokobond is a puzzle game where you create chemical molecules by manoeuvring atoms around the screen, avoiding obstacles. The game is streamlined to not need instructions and its minimalistic design enables ease of use. As you move through the levels...

Timelie

Release Date: 21/05/2020

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Timelie is a stealth puzzle game played in a surreal world where a girl and a mysterious cat work together to escape a series of rooms patrolled by enemy robots. The novelty is that you can control and rewind time to help you solve each puzzle. This not...

Tres Undos

Release Date: 03/01/2022

Out Now: Web

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Tres Undos is a hard puzzle game where you move blocks around a maze to fill holes and progress. The twist is that you can rewind time. On top of this the game layers the rewind ability to affect different elements differently. Then there are locations...

Yugo Puzzle

Release Date: 14/10/2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Grid

Yugo Puzzle is a simple puzzle game where you move jelly blocks left and right to combine them with the same colour. The novelty is the ingenious challenges this simple premise is used to create. It's the kind of game where a single level might take you...

Bomb Club

Release Date: 02/08/2021, updated in 2022

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Bomb Club is a puzzle game where you use an arsenal of whacky bombs to clear the board with a chain reaction. You place and trigger the bombs to ensure a single chain and complete the level. It's a novel combination of fun explosions and puzzle solving...

Cinco Paus

Release Date: 25/12/2017, updated in 2021

Out Now: iOS

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Cinco Paus is a puzzle game where you try and get through 5 rooms picking up treasure as you go. What makes it unusual are the magic wands that help you do this. What appears to be a maze game turns out to be a challenge to discover the effects of each...

Corrypt

Release Date: 18/12/2012, updated in 2017

Out Now: Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Pixels

Corrypt is a role-playing puzzle game where you collect items and interact with characters in a maze filled with moveable boxes. In a novel twist, you can push and pull the boxes, but they stick to you, making it a challenge to move them out of the way...

Gridland

Release Date: 25/08/2014

Out Now: Android, Web and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Pixels

Gridland (also Super Gridland on mobile) is a puzzle strategy game where you build a town by day and defend zombie attackers at night. Unusually, resources are gathered by completing match-three puzzles. This puzzle switches from building to defending...

Inner Tao

Release Date: 12/04/2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Inner Tao is a puzzle game where you move two circles, manoeuvring objects to their destinations, marked by small squares. This starts simply but soon has you manipulating multiple elements and moving between the white and black halves of each puzzle....

RoboCo

Release Date: 03/11/2022

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Blocks

RoboCo is a creative physics-based robot-building game where you design and code robots to perform challenging tasks. With the multitude of parts and templates to build from, there are countless ways to approach each situation, be it by creating an...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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