Tag Archives: iPad

PuzzleNation App Review: Hedgehog Gardens

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Welcome to the another edition of PuzzleNation App Reviews! Today we continue our quest to explore the world of puzzly games and apps for your tablet or smartphone!

Our resident app player and puzzle fiend Sherri has another intriguing game for us today, so let’s get down to business and dive into her review of Hedgehog Gardens for iPad and iPhone!

Hedgehog Gardens is an iOS game that offers a cute twist on a simple counting game. But in this case, it isn’t so simple at all!

A pretty efficient hedgehog has taken up residence in the Back Garden. His goal, and yours, is to clear out all of the vegetables. To do this, you must number the tiles from 1 to 36, while following specific rules. In much higher puzzles, you must count even higher!

[Where would you place a 3 to continue the
hedgehog’s clockwise path around the garden?]

Each Back Garden puzzle is divided into four different sections, each of which is filled with a different vegetable. There are three rules to follow in order to clear the vegetables and number the tiles: you must move clockwise around the board, you must move in a straight line from section to section, and you can’t revisit a tile.

Now don’t panic about where to start because when you start a puzzle, some of the tiles have already been numbered. Your goal is to complete the puzzle by guessing the remaining numbers and having the hedgehog follow a path from 1 to 2 to 3 and so on.

Once you complete enough Back Garden puzzles, you open up the Orchard, which has its own set of rules. There are other sections you can open once you complete enough puzzles.

If you enjoy counting and Sudoku-type games, this is a great game to play. You get over 1,000 puzzles spread over several sections. However, all of the puzzles are not immediately available. The more you play, the more you open. The sheer volume of puzzles will keep a player busy.

Counting and Sudoku-type games aren’t really my thing, but I find myself playing a puzzle here and there because they are puzzling and almost soothing. They are a pleasant way to work the mind. And I have to admit, the rolling hedgehog is very cute.

Ratings for Hedgehog Gardens:

  • Enjoyability: 3/5 — If you enjoy Sudoku-type numbering games, this one is for you. The sheer number of puzzles, over 1,000, should keep you occupied for a quite a while.
  • How well puzzles are incorporated: 4/5 — The puzzles get progressively harder and bigger the later you go into each section. Since each puzzle has a unique solve, you really need to think and puzzle out how to complete each one, especially with the rule changes in other sections.
  • Graphics: 2/5 — They’re pretty basic, just static pictures related to each particular section. For example, pictures of vegetables in the Back Garden. The rolling hedgehog is rather cute.
  • Gameplay: 2/5 — It’s pretty much the same thing through all of the puzzles. There are different rules for each section, but you’re really just counting. There isn’t much variety.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

PuzzleNation App Review: G.O.A.T. – Mow it up!

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Welcome to the another edition of PuzzleNation App Reviews! Today we continue our quest to explore the world of puzzly games and apps for your tablet or smartphone!

Our resident App player and puzzle fiend Sherri has another intriguing game for us today, so let’s get down to business and dive into her review of G.O.A.T – Mow it up! for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices!

Oh no! Farmer Jason’s mower is broken! How is he doing to mow his fields? Well, Mr. Goat is here to the rescue. After all, he is a farmer’s best friend.

G.O.A.T – Mow it up! is a cute twist on a clear-the-grid game. It’s an iOS game in which your goal is to guide the goat through the unmowed grass. All of the grass needs to be cleared, and you can’t mow a space twice.

The game is divided into worlds and chapters. Summertime is the easy world, and it’s divided into 40 levels. Using your finger, you draw your path, dropping carrots along the grassy patches. There are also items of litter that the goat eats. You have to clear all of the litter and the grassy patches, and each path needs to end with a yummy piece of litter.

This is a great game. With the increasing level of difficulty, even in the easy world, I had a blast clearing the levels. They are colorful and bright, and I just love the goat. Once you complete the path, the goat really takes off, and it is a wonderful sight to see. Figuring out the best path to mow all of the grass provides such a good feeling of accomplishment.

Graphically, this game is great. The levels are colorful, with various obstacles to get around, and there’s a variety of litter items like sandals and tires. Mr. Goat just gobbles them all up. And carrots. He loves carrots. If you enjoy games where you have to clear a grid, this is a good one to play.

Ratings for G.O.A.T – Mow it up!:

  • Enjoyability: 3/5 — This is a really cute and colorful game but each level is essentially the same gameplay-wise, which can grow tedious over time.
  • Puzzle incorporation: 4/5 — The levels increase in difficulty, and you need to think logically to clear all of the grass. Plotting your route really works your brain, and that was just in easy mode!
  • Graphics: 4/5 — The graphics are bright and colorful, and the goat is great. It’s awesome seeing him zip through your path once you’ve cleared the board, although one big drawback is the continue screen that obscures the fast mowing.
  • Gameplay: 3/5 — It can get a bit monotonous, but the increasing difficulty and the need to puzzle out your path keeps you on your toes.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

The new Penny Dell Crosswords App update is here!

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I’ve been teasing this announcement for a little while now, and today’s the day! (Well, technically, the DAY happened this past weekend, but today’s the day I’m announcing it. You know what I mean…)

ANYWAY, today I’m proud to announce the release of our new update to the Penny Dell Crosswords App!

Not only have we streamlined the user interface, but we’ve improved our smart navigation system AND updated our puzzle library and puzzle store sections!

[Here’s a side-by-side image of the solving screen
and the puzzle store screen for the iPhone version.]

There’s 150 all-new puzzles for your enjoyment, complete with our signature alt-clue feature! All kinds of puzzle fun awaits you!

And that’s not all! To celebrate the release of the update, for a very limited time, ALL puzzle sets are over 60% off!

PuzzleNation has always been committed to providing the highest quality puzzles and solving experience possible, and with this new update, we are continuing that proud tradition. We hope you enjoy!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out our library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

PuzzleNation App Review: Spy Mouse

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Welcome to the fifth edition of PuzzleNation App Reviews! Today we continue our quest to explore the world of puzzly games and apps for your tablet or smartphone!

Our resident App player and puzzle fiend Sherri has another intriguing game for us today, so without further ado, let’s dive into her review of Spy Mouse for iPad, iPhone, and Android devices!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to assume the role of Agent Squeak and to gather as much cheese as you can, all the while evading stealthy cats…

Spy Mouse is an action-packed strategy game for iOS that is great for the logical mind.

This is a great game. I am a huge James Bond fan, so playing as a mouse spy was right up my ally. The game is divided into several worlds, and each world is divided into 12 levels, one of which is a secret level. In order to open up later worlds, you need to collect a certain number of blue ribbons.

Each level consists of a building in which you must gather all of the cheese while eluding cats that don’t want you to escape. To earn the three ribbons per level, you really need to think logically. You have to plot just the right path around the cats to get the cheese and attain those coveted ribbons. Luckily, you don’t have to earn all those ribbons in one shot, as earning some of those ribbons can be quite tricky! You need patience, and you need to think very strategically.

All of that cheese is gathered for a very good reason. You can buy power-ups with your earned cheese that will help you in your quest to earn those ribbons and get more cheese! You buy the power-ups from Digger the Dog, who is quite the salesdog.

This game also has one element that sets it apart from many other strategic level games. Each world ends with a boss battle! These boss battles touched the RPG bone in me, and I quite enjoyed playing them.

Spy Mouse has so much to offer to the puzzle game lover. You have hidden areas to explore in each level and dossiers to collect. If you connect to Facebook, you have a secret level to open in each world, too. There are many achievements to earn and just a lot of fun to be had, so go get your secret agent on and go be a spy!

Ratings for Spy Mouse:

  • Enjoyability: 4/5 — This is a very cute game. I enjoyed playing Agent Squeak and outsmarting the cats.
  • How well puzzles are incorporated: 4/5 — This game requires a lot of strategy. In order to earn all of the blue ribbons, you need to logically plot your route around the cats.
  • Graphics: 4/5 — The graphics are great. Agent Squeak is adorable, and the cats are suitably menacing, but still cute. The rooms are rendered beautifully, if a bit simply. This is not a flat game.
  • Gameplay: 4/5 — There are three different ribbons to earn for each level, and there are several worlds to play. This is a game that will keep you on your toes for quite a while.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Apps and Alex edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today, I’ve got two terrific announcements for you all!

First and foremost, we’ve updated our Apps and iBooks page to reflect the latest puzzles and platforms available! Crosswords, Classic Word Search, and Sudoku puzzles await you there, ready for your mobile devices! Enjoy!

And second, since we’ve been talking about trivia recently, it seems utterly apropos that I stumbled across this video on the Guinness Book of World Records website this week.

It’s host Alex Trebek accepting the certificate for Most Game Show Episodes Hosted by the Same Presenter (Same Program), officially documented by Guinness (hardly the show’s first world record, but easily its most impressive).

For the record (and the Record!), Alex zoomed into first place by hosting his 6,829th episode of Jeopardy!:

Thank you for checking out Follow-Up Friday! If there have been any posts or puzzle-centric stories featured here that you’d like us to follow up on, let us know! It could be the subject of next week’s Follow-Up Friday post!

PuzzleNation App Review: Puppy Sanctuary

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Welcome to our fourth edition of PuzzleNation App Reviews! Today we continue our quest to explore the world of puzzly games and apps for your tablet or smartphone!

Our resident App player and puzzle fiend Sherri has another intriguing game for us today, so without further ado, let’s dive into her review of Puppy Sanctuary for the iPad and iPhone!

If you enjoy cute and adorable puppies, then Puppy Sanctuary is the game for you. It is a match-3 iOS game (in the vein of Candy Crush) that is much more than a simple match-3 game.

Puppy Island has been invaded! Your mission, should you accept it, is to rescue the trapped puppies and keep them safe and happy in your sanctuary. This is an incredible game, seeming so simple yet surprisingly complex. It starts off as a match-3 game and morphs into something much more interactive.

You can play the game in a relaxed or timed mode. To rescue the puppies, you have to remove all of the red tiles from the game board by making matches of 3 or more tiles.

You can swap tiles in any direction, and you create power-ups when you make matches of 4 or more. The longer the match, the stronger the power-up. In these levels, your matches fill an energy meter that, once full, you use to blast a large chunk of tiles. Once the red tiles are gone, the puppy is rescued and placed in your sanctuary.

There is more to do in this game than just rescuing puppies. You have gem levels where you earn gems to spend in the sanctuary store and you earn special gifts. In these levels, you match the gems in groups of 3 or more in order to drop the gifts to the bottom of the board.

This game also has hidden object levels, where you earn food, water, and other stores for your puppies. You can also find hidden gems in these levels. Yet another level type is the bubble shooter. In these levels, you must stop an alien from creating a puppy trap. If you have a ball you can’t use, you can shoot the alien!

The levels get progressively more complex as you progress in the game, so the game boards don’t get stale. Also, once you have saved puppies, your saved puppies keep the trapped puppy company at the bottom of the board. You can even interact with the pups, and they will do tricks!

All that makes for a great game and I haven’t even gotten to the sanctuary part of the yet!

Once you have saved some puppies, they get placed in a sanctuary where it’s your goal to keep them happy. With the gems you accumulate, you can buy toys and decorations for them. The decorations get placed in the sanctuary, and you use the toys to interact with the pups. Tapping on each puppy will bring up its profile and heart meter. A full heart meter makes for a very happy puppy.

There is just so much to do in this game that I cannot see how one can get bored playing. The game map is awesome. Each variety of level has an icon, so you can see what level is coming, and each level provides a preview. There is just so much more to see and do with this game. I just cannot recommend this game more.

Ratings for Puppy Sanctuary:

  • Enjoyability: 5/5 — I loved this game. The puppies are absolutely adorable, and there are a good variety of game types.
  • How well puzzles are incorporated: 4/5 — With the variety of game styles and challenges, this is much more than a match-3 game.
  • Graphics: 4/5 — The puppies are distinctive and have their own personalities, and the game boards are eye-catching and interactive.
  • Gameplay: 5/5 — There is so much to do in this game and one shouldn’t get bored.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!