We know you're tired of games that advertise themselves as challenging, only to fall short when you beat them in an hour or two. You want a real puzzle game that is going to bend your brain, you want something that is going to make you work for every victory. Well, you're in luck, because that's the premise behind
Minimal: Deluxe.
As the name implies, the game boasts a concept that is very simple in theory, but in practice is quite a bit more difficult to grasp. Tapping a square will cause the six squares that surround it to flip to another color. Tapping on it again will reverse them back to the original color. The game's difficulty comes from trying to recreate the design pictured above the puzzle, often requiring you to flip multiple combinations of tiles between the two available colors. In later levels, additional colors are added, which ramps up the difficulty quite a bit.
Visually, this is a well designed game. It features a minimalist aesthetic, with just a few boxes and a pattern to imitate. The UI is attractive, with its soft glow and bold colors that stand out against a dark background. The music suits the intended ambiance, with an ambient track that hums quietly in the background, with soft chimes that play every time you flip a tile.
Minimal: Deluxe is one half logic thinking puzzle, one half spacial awareness puzzle. You'll need to keep track of what tiles will flip with each tap, and juggling multiple colors quickly becomes more of a challenge as the patterns you'll need to make become more and more intricate. There were several times when we had to put the game down for a while and come back to it later with a fresh perspective.
Minimal: Deluxe is one of the more difficult games we've come across as far as puzzles go, and those of you who like to be challenged should give this one a look.
Minimal: Deluxe is available for both iPhone and iPad and will cost you $1.
Who Minimal: Deluxe is geared toward:
If you love logic puzzles that require a keen eye and lots of planning ahead, this is for you.
Who may want to pass on Minimal: Deluxe:
If you don't like your puzzle games to be brain-bendingly hard, you might want to pass on this.
-Amber Neely (
@SurferAmber)
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