At their core, all games are puzzles. From Tetris to the Uncharted series, the medium has constantly challenged players to find solutions to problems, whether that problem is fitting the right blocks into a hole or navigating ancient booby traps. In this guide, we’re going to break down the best puzzle games of all time.
Still, even if a game has puzzles, we won’t necessarily call it a puzzle game. No matter how many Riddler puzzles you solve as the world’s greatest detective, Batman: Arkham Knight is still an action game first and foremost. So for this guide, we’re focusing on pure puzzle games, meaning that solving puzzles is the core mechanic of the game. There’s no combat or other systems, unless they relate specifically to solving puzzles.
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Portal 2
92%
4.75/5
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac
Genre
Shooter, Platform, Puzzle, Adventure
Developer
Valve Corporation
Publisher
Valve Corporation, Electronic Arts
Release
April 19, 2011
The two Portal games are some of the best games ever made, but when comparing the two directly, it’s clear that the sequel has the edge. Longer than its predecessor, Portal 2 fleshes out the world of Aperture Science, adding more puzzles, a refined narrative, and loads of interesting set pieces. Even with the new additions, though, the core of Portal 2 remains the same. After playing Portal 2, the original game feels more like a tech demo. The concept of using portals to get around a test chamber is still present in this second entry, but the addition of gels, platforms, and other unique puzzle mechanics makes the game feel larger and more challenging.
Puyo Puyo Tetris
78%
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Puzzle, Strategy
Developer
Sonic Team
Publisher
Sega
Release
February 06, 2014
Puyo Puyo Tetris is actually two games in one: Sega’s cutesy puzzler Puyo Puyo and classic Tetris. If you’ve never played Puyo Puyo, it functions similarly to Dr. Mario. Small, colored blobs known as Puyos will fall from the top of the screen, and it’s your job to match them with the same color. Four or more Puyos of the same color will clear. What’s interesting about Puyo Puyo Tetris is that the two game modes aren’t mutually exclusive. You can choose to face-off against opponents using a different play style and even combine the two for a totally unique experience.
The Witness
83%
4.5/5
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre
Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Thekla, Inc
Publisher
Thekla, Inc
Release
January 26, 2016
The Witness is a puzzle game where you wake up alone on an island with nothing but a few head-scratchers — around 500 — to guide your path. For the most part, the puzzles you’ll encounter will feature lines, and you must move from the start to the end of a grid, touching all of the relevant points on that grid. Those line puzzles work in tandem with environmental puzzles, allowing you to progress farther through the island. Along the way, you pick up clues as to who you are and how you got stranded on the island. The game is simple on its face, with expertly designed puzzles and beautiful environments. That said, the secrets of the mysterious island you’re on are the most intriguing parts of the game.
Baba is You
77%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Puzzle, Indie
Developer
hempuli
Publisher
hempuli
Release
March 13, 2019
Baba Is You is a tough game to describe, as it’s unlike anything else currently available. The basic premise is simple: Each puzzle has a series of rules, e.g., “baba is you,” “wall is stop,” and “flag is win.” With those rules in place, it’s your job to solve the puzzle. In the case described, that would mean reaching the flag as the little rabbit known as Baba. Nothing is set in stone, however. You’re free to move blocks around and change the rules of the puzzle you’re solving. Although the setup seems simple, it quickly becomes mind-bending. Nothing in Baba Is You holds any value, so a reasonable solution to a puzzle could be as simple as allowing you to move past a wall or as complex as becoming the wall itself.
The Talos Principle
87%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre
Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Croteam
Publisher
Devolver Digital
Release
December 11, 2014
In The Talos Principle, you play as a robot whose sole purpose is to solve increasingly difficult puzzles through a series of ancient ruins. At the beginning of the game, your creator, Elohim, tells you to explore the world it has created, but to not climb a certain tower at the center. As the game progresses, however, it’s clear that the beautiful environment you’re exploring isn’t all it seems to be. The Talos Principle asks philosophical questions about artificial intelligence and the human conscience, with some seriously difficult puzzles along the way. It’s not as lighthearted as some of the other entries on this list, but for those looking to explore the questions of the world through the lens of a wonderfully designed video game, it doesn’t get much better than The Talos Principle.
Bridge Constructor Portal
72%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Puzzle, Simulator, Strategy
Developer
ClockStone Studios
Publisher
Headup Games
Release
December 20, 2017
Bridge Constructor Portal is a spinoff of the Bridge Constructor series set in the Portal universe. The gist of Bridge Constructor games is that you need to construct a bridge. Using braces, pillars, and platforms, your goal is to move vehicles from one side of the screen to the other. Although simple in the early levels, Bridge Constructor games quickly become difficult as you’re given less and less space to build your bridge. The Portal spinoff is even better, though. Although the premise is the same, this entry adds portals, light bridges, and more, bringing a new level of depth to the series. Furthermore, Portal features a level editor, offering hundreds of hours of playtime through community-made stages.
The Swapper
79%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Mac, Wii U, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Strategy, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Facepalm Games, Curve Studios
Publisher
Facepalm Games, Curve Digital
Release
May 30, 2013
The best puzzle games combine their primary mechanic with the narrative. In The Swapper, that mechanic is cloning yourself to navigate a damaged space station by creating up to four clones of yourself and swapping between them, but only if they are in your line of sight. While this obviously opens the door to many mind-bending puzzles, the narrative implications of what you’re doing is when the game really gets interesting. If you like the more introspective, quiet sci-fi experiences, plus great puzzles in a fantastically realized environment, don’t overlook this one.
The Incredible Machine
81%
Platforms
PC DOS, Mac, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Genre
Puzzle, Strategy
Developer
Jeff Tunnell Productions, Dynamix
Publisher
Dynamix, Sierra On-Line
Release
December 31, 1992
This one goes out to everyone in my generation who got to play this legit great game on some old-school computers. The Incredible Machine is old, yes, but no less fun to play. Each stage is a new puzzle where you need to place different objects to make a Rube Goldberg series of interactions to complete whatever is being asked. You’ll use fans, guns, lights, scissors, cats, and all sorts of crazy objects to create a solution that is never too complex, but always great to solve. The series has gone on to have many sequels, but we have a soft spot for the simple nature of the first.
Zero Escape Trilogy
Genre
Puzzle, Visual Novel
We’re cheating a little by including a bundle of three games, but every part of the Zero Escape Trilogy is worth experiencing. Framed as a visual novel, the bundle includes Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, and Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma. Half the game is obviously the puzzles where you and the other characters need to escape deadly traps, but the other half is unraveling the different mysteries of what is going on. Saying too much would spoil the story, which is among the best in gaming as a whole, not just puzzle games.
Opus Magnum
86%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac
Genre
Puzzle, Simulator, Indie
Developer
Zachtronics
Publisher
Zachtronics
Release
December 07, 2017
Opus Magnum is often referred to as a programming game. In it, you’re an alchemist who must use raw metals and materials to produce a specific result. For the most part, solutions to puzzles are pretty straightforward, tasking you with combining A and B to create C. Opus Magnum isn’t about the end result, however. It’s about the process. In order to produce your result, you’ll need to build a semi-autonomous machine that’s fit with levers, cranes, and switches. After a few hours of playing, Opus Magnum becomes less about if you solved a particular puzzle and more about how you solved it. Even after you’ve beaten the game, you can always go back and improve your machines, removing parts or adding new ones to make them run as optimally as possible.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Puzzle, Adventure
Developer
Capcom
Publisher
Capcom
Release
June 30, 2023
We could make the case for every puzzle game on this list being “the most original,” and yet there really is nothing else quite like Ghost Trick. The premise is you, a ghost who lost their memory, are attempting to prevent future murders. The entire game takes place on a single night where you flip between the real and spirit worlds and possess different objects to open up new paths or alter the actions of the living people. Each puzzle is you attempting to prevent a new character from dying by going back in time four minutes prior to their death and using your “ghost trick” ability to possess objects in such a way that their fate is averted.
Human: Fall Flat
70%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Google Stadia
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Simulator, Adventure, Indie
Developer
No Brakes Games
Publisher
Curve Digital
Release
July 22, 2016
Human Fall Flat is a co-op, physics-based puzzle game where you play as Bob. As Bob, you’re tasked with exploring various landscapes and solving puzzles along the way, with the only goal being to reach the exit. Thanks to the advanced physics engine, there are countless ways to solve puzzles. You can take on the experience alone, but Human Fall Flat is best played with friends. The game features a two-player couch co-op, as well as online multiplayer for up to eight players. Outside of solving puzzles, you can experiment with Human Fall Flat’s physics engine, too. Everything in the game world is up for grabs, allowing you to play and experiment to your heart’s content.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
87%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Windows Mixed Reality, SteamVR, Daydream, PlayStation VR, Meta Quest, Meta Rift, Gear VR
Genre
Puzzle, Simulator, Indie, Card & Board Game
Developer
Steel Crate Games
Publisher
Steel Crate Games
Release
July 16, 2015
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes tasks you and a group of friends with disarming a bomb. The catch, however, is that not everyone has access to the same information. At the start of a round, you’re given a bomb that’s fit with a timer and various units featuring puzzles. Your friends are given a disarming document that explains how to solve the puzzles but doesn’t provide much in the way of a visual reference. The game quickly becomes less about the bomb and more about communication. You and your friends will be shouting at each other trying to figure out not only how to solve certain puzzles, but also what section of the bomb you’re even talking about. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is frantic and wildly entertaining, and it’s even available in VR.
Return of the Obra Dinn
89%
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Lucas Pope, 3909
Publisher
Lucas Pope, 3909
Release
October 18, 2018
Return of the Obra Dinn is a mystery puzzle game where you play as an East India Company insurance adjuster in 1807. Five years after going missing, Obra Dinn returns to port, and all of the crew is either dead or missing. As the insurance adjuster, it’s your job to determine what happened when the ship was at sea. The only tool to aid you in this is your Memento Mortem pocket watch, which can provide a glimpse into how certain crew members met their fate. As you experience frozen-in-time flashbacks of the events at sea, you must determine who the crew members of the ship are, how they connect to each other, how they died, and, of course, who killed who.
Unheard
71%
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows)
Genre
Role-playing (RPG), Simulator, Indie
Developer
NEXT Studio
Publisher
NEXT Studio
Release
March 29, 2019
In Unheard, you play as a detective trying to solve crimes. Unlike games like Return of the Obra Dinn, however, there aren’t any visuals to guide your path. Instead, you take the role of an “acoustic detective,” using sound alone to understand what happened. The experience is unlike any other, forcing you to constantly listen closely. You’re not reconstructing a crime scene from evidence, but rather experiencing it in real time, and cases overflow with irrelevant information and red herrings. Careful, though — events in the audio log can become important in the blink of an eye (or ear).
Catherine
78%
Platforms
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Adventure
Developer
Atlus
Publisher
Atlus, Deep Silver
Release
February 17, 2011
From Atlus, the creators of the Persona series, Catherine is a unique puzzle-dating sim hybrid. You play as Vincent Brooks, a 32-year-old systems engineer who’s been dodging marrying his longtime girlfriend, Katherine with a “K.” One late night, Vincent encounters Catherine, who’s the antithesis of his controlling girlfriend. After a one-night stand, Vincent starts having terrifying dreams where he must outrun demons. Of course, these dreams mirror the double-life Vincent is leading in reality, as he’s joined by other men who’ve fallen to infidelity. The dream sequences are where Catherine comes into its own, offering ruthlessly fast and mind-bending puzzles built on the simple premise of moving blocks.
Lemmings
76%
Platforms
PlayStation 3, PC DOS, Amiga, Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Amstrad CPC, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Sega Game Gear, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Atari Lynx, Atari ST/STE, Sega Master System, Amiga CD32, Satellaview
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Strategy
Developer
DMA Design
Publisher
Psygnosis, Sunsoft
Release
February 14, 1991
Puzzle games have only improved with time and better graphics, but we have to acknowledge some of the all-time greats that were amazingly fun and challenging for their day, even if they aren’t much to look at now. Released in 1991, Lemmings is a puzzle-platformer that challenges you to rescue as many lemmings as possible. Playing off the myth that the lemming mammal willingly follows its pack off of cliffs, the game challenges you to guide and protect humanoid lemmings that will keep walking forward even to their deaths unless you protect them. Usually, that means sacrificing some lemmings to build a path for others. One of the bestselling games of the early ’90s, Lemmings had multiple sequels and was recently remastered for iOS and Android. Plus, many puzzle games like Bridge Constructor Portal rely on a similar gameplay mechanic: Directly controlling the environment but having no control of the characters’ actions within that world.
SpaceChem
83%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), Mac, Android, iOS
Genre
Puzzle, Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Developer
Zachtronics Industries
Publisher
Zachtronics Industries
Release
January 01, 2011
Many puzzle game challenges tend to be somewhat unfair, with leaps in logic that are designed to be nearly unsolvable. SpaceChem offers truly challenging puzzles that require you to perfect your skills in programming and circuitry, but solutions never feel hidden or unfair — they just require trial and error, like any scientific enterprise. There’s no prerequisite required to play SpaceChem— you don’t need a college degree to enjoy the game. It’s mentally stimulating, for sure, but it’s way more fun than the stressful screenshot above may suggest. In the game, players are asked to build circuits that can generate specific molecular structures indefinitely. From there, you can begin to combine several circuits to create a complex factory web. The ultimate goal is to make this complicated factory before your circuits fall apart. If you’re successful, your creation will appear on the leaderboard ranking, which may give you a bit of inspiration to try and create something even more stellar next time.
Braid
86%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Strategy, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Number None Inc.
Publisher
Number None Inc., Microsoft Game Studios
Release
August 06, 2008
Braid starts as a seemingly standard platformer. But as you move through the game, it progressively becomes more challenging to continue; Every new world you enter can add new time flow-related machines into the mix. Every section becomes a puzzle that you have to solve to move on. In one world, time moves forward or backward depending on whether you walk right or left, and another world lets you rewind and have a shadow of yourself re-perform your previous actions while you do something else. Gamers highly regard Braid as one of the best puzzle games available today. It’s no shock then that the game’s creator, Jonathan Blow, also developed one of our other favorite games: The Witness. If you’re able to make it to the end of Braid, you’ll get to witness an intriguing and dark ending that could leave you with several interpretations.
Fez
80%
Platforms
Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Mac, iOS, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
Genre
Platform, Puzzle, Adventure, Indie
Developer
Polytron Corporation
Publisher
Microsoft Studios, Trapdoor, Polytron Corporation
Release
April 13, 2012
Right next to Braid, Fez stands as one of the most important early indie puzzle platformers of all time. Also made by a team of just two individuals, this game put a literal twist on your usual puzzle platformer by allowing you to spin your perspective in 3D to completely alter how you interact and view the world. Aside from some genius puzzles that require out of the box thinking, there’s also a very deep and hidden puzzle within the game for anyone looking to really go down tthe rabbit hole
Humanity
83%
Platforms
PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2
Genre
Puzzle, Indie
Developer
tha ltd.
Publisher
Enhance
Release
May 15, 2023
The newest game on the list takes plenty of cues from older puzzle classics we’ve talked about, such as Lemmings. In Humanity you control a Shiba Inu who must direct mindless masses of people through various 3D environments to reach a set goal. Just like Lemmings, you will lay commands down on the environment that the stream of people will follow, with new and more complex commands introduced as you go deeper. If you’re really into it, the game also has a full level editor mode where you can build your own stages to challenge others, or just take on other community member-made puzzles.
Picross 3D: Round 2
88%
Platforms
Nintendo 3DS
Genre
Puzzle
Developer
HAL Labs, Nintendo
Publisher
Nintendo
Release
October 01, 2015
If you think the idea of a Sodoku is cool, but want something more visually stimulating, Picross 3D: Round 2 is exactly what you’re looking for. The rules are just as simple as that classic pen-and-paper puzzle game, but rather than ending up with a grid of numbers at the end, your prize is a fully 3D object, such as a penguin, or even iconic video game characters. This makes the result more satisfying but also can help you work out the puzzle by figuring out what object you’re uncovering.
