Simon, Cat and their friends - some human, some four-legged - begin restoring a wasteland of historic parks nearby to protect the community. In Story Time, a building site project threatens to shatter the tranquility of Simon and Cat's neighborhood. The game provides a fun narrative and soothing tasks of cleaning up and designing a garden (without breaking a sweat or getting dirty) alongside casual, easy-to-pick-up Candy Crush-style gameplay. Simon's Cat: Story TimeĀ is a match-three game that lets you unlock chapters of a story. Tactile Games/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET There's also a mode for colorblind and vision-impaired people. Each chapter brings something different - sounds of rain, the warm glow of sun, the chirping of birds and more. There's no rush, no timers and no one to beat. Each "page" of your sketchbook gets a little more challenging, but doesn't lose its soothing theme. Level up in Tint by mixing watercolors to match colored origami paper creations in your own garden studio. Lykkegaard Europe/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET Through sliding block-style gameplay, you'll redirect rivers, mend tree roots, rearrange gears on a factory floor and save your world from the darkness. With guidance from a red songbird along the way, you'll get help from a web-spinning spider, quirky robots, a hungry frog and others. You'll help her on a journey to repair and heal what's been damaged. The Enchanted World is about a young fairy whose world is wrecked by dark forces. In addition to fixing physical objects, Maria learns about the people of Bellariva's problems and realizes their trinkets aren't the only things in need of mending. The game lets you rotate objects, change batteries, press buttons, rotate screwdrivers and more. The game unfolds like a storybook until Maria meets someone who needs something fixed. While abroad, Maria makes a living by fixing things. In Assemble with Care, you play as Maria, an antiques restorer, who arrives in the town of Bellariva during her world travels. Getting to the doors becomes more challenging as the levels progress - "pinch" the screen to collapse cards and spread your fingers on a deck to build a house. Some cards become doors that let you glimpse various memories - happy, painful and everything in between. You navigate the world by building and collapsing card houses. Where Cards Fall is a coming-of-age puzzle game that uses cards to convey what it's like to grow up. The patterns are created by artists from around the world. You'll start to notice the pattern emerging with the more pieces you add. The more colored pieces you place, the easier the puzzle becomes.
If you don't get the puzzle piece in the right spot, it turns red and you can try again. The game was more difficult than I thought it would be, with intricate patterns like this hot air balloon image. Each puzzle begins as a sketch, and you drag colored pieces onto the screen to layer over the sketch. Patterned is like a jigsaw puzzle combined with a coloring book - simultaneously soothing and challenging. Patternedīorderleap/Screenshot by Shelby Brown/CNET You'll also learn each character's story by watching the cut scenes and paying attention to which objects are in each room. Every level is a bit more challenging as you have to "arrange" more objects - flowers need help getting into vases and cords must be plugged into the wall.
A lamp might look like it's floating, but if you tilt the room a certain way, it will suddenly appear to be on an end table. The trick to solving each puzzle is perspective and spatial awareness - you must view the room from different angles. Possessions is a soothing, minimalist puzzle game with a surprisingly in-depth story.
In its catalog of over 200 games, Apple Arcade has more than two dozen titles in the puzzle category so far (and new games are added weekly). Dig in and build something in the vast expanse of infinity, see the world from a different perspective, and mend broken treasures and broken hearts. The puzzle games on Apple's $5-a-month gaming service have something for everyone and creatively push the boundaries of puzzle gaming.
Jigsaw puzzles with thousands of tiny pieces and Rubik's cubes are fun, but mobile gaming has kicked puzzles up a notch, and Apple Arcade has some great ones.