A less panicked game than its loose inspiration, 1010! challenges players to position Tetris-style shapes in a 10x10 grid. If you form a complete line, that line disappears and creates more space, which you use to make more lines. Don’t let the slow pace of 1010! fool you; without practice, you can quickly find yourself rushing headfirst into a game over. Monument Valley is a thing of beauty that tells its story without words. Maybe that’s why it’s taken home awards such as the BAFTA Award for Mobile & Handheld Games, the Apple Design Award, and the IMGA Grand Prix prize. The challenge comes from having to match pairs that are separated by just one card, and such matches only remove one of the cards in the pair. So if you have two hearts, you only remove the one you touch. If you have two kings, it’s the same story. The goal is to clear as many cards from a standard deck of 52 as possible before you run out of moves. Rules! tests your memory and reflexes in a way no other app does. Each round asks you to clear certain tiles using a specific rule, and then the following round asks you to do the same and introduces a new rule. You’ll need to remember all of the rules in reverse order if you want to see your way to the end. What do imagination-based puzzles look like? Imagine you need to get a star down from a tree. You could give your avatar an ax to chop the tree down, or a ladder to climb to the top. If you can think it, and you can type it, Scribblenauts Remix can make it come true. Players drag adorable, anthropomorphic balls of goo to create structures that, while wobbly, will hopefully stand the test of time. These structures are needed to help rescue other goo that are stranded just out of reach. Unique, charming, and challenging, World of Goo feels like a physics simulation designed by Dr. Seuss, making it an excellent app for kids.
