best problem solving xbox games

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a puzzle game that tests your problem-solving skills and distracts you from the outside world for a few hours. We’ve rounded up 10 of the best puzzle games on Xbox, from puzzle platformers to sci-fi puzzlers.

Jeppe Karlsen, the lead gameplay designer of hits Inside and Limbo, has created a mesmerizing cosmic mystery with Cocoon. You play as a tiny bug-like creature and must combine and carry orbs — each with its own world inside — on your back to solve puzzles and uncover each orb’s unique ability. It’s a strangely calming game, with diverse alien biomes to explore and plenty of secrets to uncover, and you’ll find it addictive once you master the basics. Cocoon is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X, and with an Xbox Game Pass too.

Sometimes, you want a puzzle game with a perfect story, and Venba ticks both boxes. Set in the 1980s, it tells the tale of an Indian family that migrates to Canada, through the cooking of various delicious dishes from the mum’s recipe book, which becomes damaged during the move. Find the ingredients, restore the lost recipes, and get to know the family as you uncover the story. Venba is a beautiful little game with an emotionally engaging narrative, and you’ll get to know the characters through branching conversations and cooking their recipes. You can play Venba on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and it’s also included on Game Pass.

3. Call of the Sea

Set in the 1930s, you play as a woman on the hunt for her husband, who’s missing on an expedition on a lush tropical island in the South Pacific. You’ll explore a diverse and mysterious island, solving puzzles linked to the area’s history and mythology and finding out more about your husband and the island itself along the way. Call of the Sea is visually stunning thanks to its colorful South Pacific setting, and its gameplay is varied enough to suit those who wouldn’t usually enjoy puzzle games, too. It’s available to play on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

4. Superliminal

Superliminal is one of those puzzle games that stays with you long after the end credits roll. This first-person puzzler will see you tackle seemingly impossible puzzles focused on optical illusions and perspective. You’ll need to think outside the box after you wake up without knowing where you are and realize you’re stuck in a strange dream. Things get pretty weird, and we won’t spoil it for you, but the intriguing narrator will help you make sense of what’s happening as you uncover the mysteries of the Pierce Institute and its dream therapy program. You can play Superliminal on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S and it’s now included with Game Pass.

5. Unpacking

Unpacking was one of 2021’s stand-out indie titles, receiving critical acclaim for its storytelling and gameplay. It’s a Zen-like game, and as the title suggests, it’s all about moving into a new home and unpacking your belongings. As the untold narrative unfolds, you’ll move house eight times, getting to know the unseen protagonist through interaction with their belongings. The game is a captivating mix of block-fitting puzzles and home decoration — each item you unpack has a specific place it belongs, and finding it can sometimes prove challenging. You can play Unpacked on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S or enjoy it included with Game Pass.

6. Return of the Obra Dinn

At first glance, Return of the Obra Dinn looks like no game you’ve ever seen before. Its unique monochromatic art style harks back to the early days of Macintosh graphics. This retro vibe works well with the early 1800s setting of the game. You play as an insurance investigator for the East India Company’s London Office. Your job? Find the Obra Dinn, a merchant ship lost at sea on its journey from London to the Orient. You must board the boat and assess the damages — but what happened to the crew, and why was the ship lost in the first place? In this first-person adventure puzzler, you can manipulate time thanks to your pocket watch, which allows you to witness scenes from the past, gather clues, and solve the mystery of the Obra Dinn. You can play the game on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.

From the creators of Limbo, Inside is a 2D puzzle platformer set in an eerie dystopian world. The game features a moody, muted art style and unsettling vibe as you play as a nameless boy who must navigate the various levels by solving puzzles and avoiding obstacles and hazards. These aren’t just simple puzzles, though, and will often require a degree of critical thinking to solve. You’ll piece together the story as you go along, so we won’t spoil anything here, but it’s a pretty dark story with some dark humor to match. You can play Inside on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and it’s also included with Game Pass.

8. Portal 2

Released in 2011, Portal 2 is an older title but makes our list of the top puzzle games as it’s a classic. Though you don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy Portal 2, you’ll meet with a familiar protagonist, Chell, who wakes up in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center. GLaDOS, the AI personality defeated in the first game, reappears and will test you by allowing you to escape using only the Portal gun. This device creates linked portals that allow you to travel through space and time. There’s a lot more to the plot, but the innovative puzzle mechanics and increasingly challenging difficulty level ensure that once you pick up Portal 2, you’ll struggle to put it down. Play it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S.

9. Human Fall Flat

With 23 floating dreamscape levels to crack, Human Fall Flat will keep you entertained for hours. You can play solo or grab up to seven friends for online co-op mode and dive into this physics platformer. You can even play with a friend in couch co-op. You play as Bob, a customizable human who can do simple things like climb ledges and grab objects. Each level has a variety of physics-based puzzles, each with multiple solutions and new environments to navigate, from Aztec temples to snow-capped mountains. Human Fall Flat is available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S and is included with Game Pass. We’d recommend playing with friends for maximum hilarity and chaos!

10. The Turing Test

If you prefer puzzle games with a strong narrative and a sci-fi setting, The Turing Test is a game you can’t afford to miss. In this first-person puzzler, you play as Ava Turing, an International Space Agency engineer who must discover what’s happened on Europa’s ISA research base. You’ll need to think logically and methodically to solve complex puzzles as you take control of AI machines and use your Energy Manipulation Tool to transfer power from one object to another. The story dives deep into human intuition and morality, and at times, the ambiance and narration can be downright spooky — though this isn’t a horror game .

Which of these puzzle games on Xbox will you be playing first? If puzzlers aren’t your thing, you might prefer our roundup of the best sports games on Xbox . Looking for something to play with your other half? Our pick of the best Xbox games for couples has you sorted.

Paula Beaton is a freelance technology and food writer based in Scotland. Before making the move to writing, Paula worked as a call handler for the police, served refreshments on trains, and even trained as a nursery nurse. Since she became a writer in 2012, Paula has written everything from how-to guides to reviews, specialising in Android, Windows, and gaming. She’s also a foodie fascinated by food history and culture.

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by Oli Welsh , Nicole Carpenter , Ana Diaz , Maddy Myers , Zoë Hannah , and Polygon Staff

It’s no understatement to say puzzles form the backbone of video games as a medium of entertainment.

For me, it started with games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past , in which dungeons contained numerous mysteries that pushed me to consider, and then reconsider, how I used Link’s vast arsenal of tools to accomplish a task like, say, opening a secret door to a room. And while several adventure games make problem-solving a key aspect of exploring, just plain old puzzles also have played a large role in the history of video games.

It could be the picture book-esque stylings of point-and-click games like Goragoa or the mind-bending worlds of Cocoon , developers continue to shower fans of games with all kinds of brainteasers. Even in the past two years, I’ve seen word games — still puzzles! — take on a new level of widespread popularity through the breakout success of games like the New York Times’ Wordle and now Connections .

There are truly too many puzzle games to choose from. If we really wanted to get philosophical, we could extend this designation to the vast majority of games. So we here at Polygon decided to start by writing up some of our personal favorite puzzle games. From classic match games like Puyo Puyo to the deviously clever visual puns of Baba Is You , here are Polygon’s favorite puzzle games. — Ana Diaz

Our latest updated added Arranger.

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure

Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure is one of those puzzle games that changes the way you think about all puzzle games — rather than simply shuffling around the grid, you can also loop yourself around to the other side of each row and column, forcing you to get accustomed to a brand new mechanic from the jump. Your movements also impact static items and non-player characters, including the enemies you destroy by configuring weapons to push into them with your next move.

Add the impeccable and appropriately percussive soundtrack by Argentinian composer Tomás Batista and the compelling story told in stunning comic-book-like illustrations and you have one of our favorite puzzle games of 2024 so far. Best of all, the levels are a mix of challenging, rewarding, and relaxing — you can always skip a level if you’re too stuck — making even a few minutes of Arranger between meetings rewarding. —Zoë Hannah

Baba Is You

Where to play: Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

Baba Is You is a word game and an environmental puzzle game, but not in the way that either of those genre terms typically get used.

In this game, the words you select change the environment around you and the entire conditions of the game itself — almost like you’re the level designer. The top-down, 2D game starts simply enough, giving you rules in the form of text on the screen like “Baba is you” (you control a little sprite named Baba), “rock is push” (if you run up against a rock, it’ll move), and “flag is win” (touch the flag to complete the level). But each of those pieces of text can be moved around on screen to spell out different commands, thereby changing the entire world. Pushing these pieces of text to instead make them say “rock is you” turns the rock into a playable character, while Baba simply stands there motionless.

That might not sound too complicated, until the game introduces a ton more objects and actions, thereby allowing you to feel like even more of a galaxy-brained genius upon figuring out how to reorder them in your favor. Like the best puzzle games, Baba Is You will make you feel both smart and stupid constantly — but mostly smart, because you’ll be training your brain to think in ways that are entirely new. — Maddy Myers

Baba is You

The case of the golden idol.

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Windows PC

Much like Return of the Obra Dinn (more on that in a sec), the real work of playing The Case of the Golden Idol doesn’t involve anything you do on screen — it happens in your head as you sort through the clues the game has provided.

In this game, it’s not just one event that you need to unravel, but a whole series of mysterious and fantastical murders to solve, one by one. The killings take place over the course of several years, each of them related in some way to a magical object with extraordinary and lethal powers (the titular Golden Idol). Like Obra Dinn , all you get are glimpses of each murder, but not a whole cutscene — just an unsettling, looping animation of the victim’s final moments. As the omnipresent investigator, you can sort through the character’s pockets and explore the victim’s surroundings, which will allow you to put together clues and make an accusation — in the form of a written logbook that has predetermined phrases for you to select.

In that way, Golden Idol involves some process of elimination, since there are only ever so many words that you can put into your logbook to describe the murder’s events, but those words might not make any sense to you until you’ve fully processed the scene and the clues. Again, this is a game that unfolds in your head and not on screen — because once you know whodunit, selecting the words that describe the solution is a total breeze. This is a game that will have you wishing you could erase your memory and play it again. Luckily, there’s some fantastic DLC for it and a sequel on the way. — MM

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

It’s difficult to communicate the terms of a puzzle without using a single line of dialogue or piece of text, yet that’s precisely what Cocoon does throughout its short (four-to-five-hour) but monumentally impressive run time. You play as a cute little bug exploring a series of strange sci-fi worlds using mysterious, glowing orbs to transport yourself to and fro. Environmental hazards abound, but the path beyond each of them always turns out to be head-slappingly simple, requiring you to just look at the minimal tools at your disposal and using them to your advantage. The pulsing synth soundtrack will accelerate in a hopeful direction whenever you get closer to solving a puzzle, which helps. The only frustrating part is that Cocoon still has boss battles in between its oodles of environmental puzzles, and these are fine but not nearly as fun as, well, the puzzles. That’s why you’re here, after all. — MM

Connections

Where to play: NY Times Games

Sometimes you want a gorgeously rendered puzzle game that you can sink hours into on your PC or your console. And other times, you want “grid on phone.”

“Grid on phone” is having a moment in the puzzle genre — trivia games like the Immaculate Grid or Vulture’s Cinematrix have captured the hearts of nerds of all stripes. But for my money [ Ed. note: Those games are all free] the New York Times’ daily Connections is the most complete and satisfying version of “grid on phone.”

Each day, players are presented with a four-by-four grid of words. The goal is to find four groups of four connected words: Maybe they rhyme, or have to do with a connected topic, or can all use the same prefix or suffix. Some are harder than others — in each set of four groups, typically two are pretty easy and two are pretty difficult — and Connections editor Wyna Liu is quite skilled at tricking you into thinking you’ve found a group where one doesn’t exist. That level of difficulty is what makes Connections challenging and fun, and when you manage to guess the most difficult group of the day first, it’s a great feeling. — Pete Volk

Where to play: iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One

Capybara Games’ Grindstone is one of my go-to games if I’m just traveling with my iPad. You play as an ogre-like miner who slays monsters and collects items called grindstones. To collect these stones and complete each level, you’ll chart a path through a corral of monsters by connecting creatures of the same color. If you slay more than 10 monsters in one turn, you’ll be rewarded with a shiny grindstone that allows you to continue your chain attack with a differently colored monster.

Grindstone is polished down to the most minute details. The developers honed in on a strong sense of style that leans into colorful, cartoony art and quirky character design. Even small actions, like slicing through monsters, feels oh-so satisfying as your little ogre grunts and rips through all the little creeps.

I also personally like that you can play through the campaign and upgrade your character. So while it’s a puzzle game, the game does have a progression element where you power up your little miner. What’s more is that this part of the game also introduced certain strategy elements, so you might need to plan out what items and upgrades you’ll want depending on the specific challenge of each level. — AD

Lumines Remastered

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

Have you ever loved a game that you absolutely suck at? That’s me with Lumines Remastered . On its face, this game has a rather simple premise that will feel comfortable to fans of other falling-block games, but it never fails to kick my ass.

In the main mode, you work with a generously wide board that’s 16 blocks long and 10 high. As you play, a two-by-two square composed of smaller blocks falls from the top of the screen. Each of these squares has its own combination of two different colors of blocks. For example, the first level has a silver-and-orange theme, so one square might have three orange blocks, and then one silver block in the upper right corner. You clear the board by arranging these smaller squares so that the smaller blocks of the same color stack to form other square and rectangular shapes. You lose the game once the blocks stack up and surpass the height of the board.

Lumines Remastered feels great to play and has a great sense of style to boot. The game has a rhythmic pace to it because the squares and rectangles of the same color don’t clear until a cursor aligned with the beat passes over them. I personally think fans of Tetris Effect will love it for its pulsing electronic beats and dazzling visual effects. I might not always get as far as I want, but I’ll always come back for more. — AD

Where to play: Android, iOS, PlayStation 3, Windows PC, Xbox 360

Peggle was released in 2007 and it’s still one of the best puzzle games of all time. A mix of Japanese gambling arcade game pachinko, pinball machines, and centuries-old billiards game Bagatelle, Peggle is played by launching a ball from the top of the screen to bounce around and clear a board full of pegs. It’s a mix of luck and strategy in deciding where to aim the ball to maximize the amount of pegs that are lit up or cleared. It’s pure serotonin when you make huge combos or clear the board — set to an epic rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, particularly “Ode to Joy.”

I remember playing Peggle on Xbox Live Arcade, but it’s now available on basically all platforms. PopCap eventually released Peggle Nights and Peggle 2 , plus Peggle Blast for mobile devices, among others. From its major success, Peggle has almost become a genre: There’s roguelike Peglin , dungeon crawler Roundguard , and role-playing game Beast Breaker , if you’re looking to spice up the original gameplay. — Nicole Carpenter

Peggle Deluxe

Where to play: Nintendo Switch

Nonograms like Picross are a tried-and-true puzzle format. In Picross games, you fill in boxes on a grid to reveal a picture by using numbered hints assigned to each line. My personal favorite version of it is Sega’s: the Picross S games for Nintendo Switch. Sega released the first Picross S in 2017 and has released more than eight different versions of it since. (I played Picross S4 and 5 , and enjoyed those ones specifically.)

Picross games have a laid-back feel that’s notably less frantic than some of the other options on this list. You can learn the basics in minutes and kick back once you do. I personally appreciate how the Picross S series feels great to play in a digital format since it gives you all the notation tools you need to succeed.

Picross would make the perfect match for the sudoku-inclined. I’d also venture to say that its laid-back gameplay and almost pen-and-paper feel would make it a great next step for any fans of word games wanting to try something new. It is the perfect game to play on a lazy Sunday morning as you drink a giant cup of coffee. —AD

Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!

Where to play: iOS, Nintendo Switch

One of my favorites puzzle game genres is “improbable mashup of solitaire with something else” (see the entry for Regency Solitaire in this list), and you don’t get more improbable than Pokémon developer Game Freak’s collision of frantic, high-speed card-clearing with a surprisingly deep and tactical horse-racing sim. Originally appearing on Nintendo 3DS, Pocket Card Jockey is now available in a remake for iOS (via Apple Arcade) and Nintendo Switch. The game involves clearing hands of cards very quickly against the clock to determine your success in various phases of the horse race, but there’s a load of other stuff going on too, including managing your horse’s positioning on the track, its levels of energy and stamina, and so on. There’s even an involved and lengthy career mode where breeding and stable management comes into play. Super cute and accessible on the surface, Pocket Card Jockey is a deep, hypnotic, and exciting mashup of sports and puzzle game under the surface. —Oli Welsh

Pokémon Puzzle League

Where to play: Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

When I’m hanging out with family around the holidays, there’s always one game that comes out. It’s not a sleepy-eyed Mario Kart or anything like that, no — we just love to play Pokémon Puzzle League .

Originally released on Nintendo 64 in 2000, we now enjoy the game by playing it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription . The game is basically Tetris Attack (also known as Panel de Pon ) with a Pokémon skin. You navigate a one-by-two cursor that flips the blocks from one spot to another. So if you have a red “fire-type” block sitting to the left of a blue “water-type” block, it will swap their spots so the blue one is on the left and red is on the right. Then, you just try to match up lines of three of the same color or more. When you get into it, the game can take on a dizzyingly fast pace that can hook you in for hours.

With a soundtrack that contains cutesy versions of classic tracks like “ Pokémon World ” and crunchy animated visuals from the early era of the franchise, it will tickle any longtime fans of the series. However, it still holds up as a great puzzle game and is a joy to play in local co-op with the non-Pokémon lovers in my life. —AD

Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership (individual, one year)

Puyo puyo tetris.

Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

If there is one game on this list that has an uncanny ability to leave me and my friends red-eyed and wondering how it’s already 3:00 a.m., it’s Puyo Puyo Tetris .

The game combines Puyo Puyo — the beloved color-matching game from Sega — and Tetris , the classic falling-block game with tetrominoes. It’s kind of a matter of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and Tetris certainly doesn’t need any fixing. Puyo Puyo Tetris (and its accompanying sequel) have long been my couch co-op Tetris game of choice.

While the game does have single-player content, I’ve only ever played it with others. In a match, each person gets to choose between playing with the Puyo Puyo mode or Tetris mode. You can play with up to four people at once, and clearing lines on the board in the Tetris version or matching colors in the Puyo Puyo version sends attacks that fill up your competitors’ boards with gray blocks or Puyos.

Puyo Puyo Tetris blends the two classics excellently, even if my groups tend to skew toward the Tetris side of things. I’ve had friends jump in with Puyo and it provides a new kind of challenge as a Tetris player. The one drawback? Some might find the voice-over of its cartoon characters a tad annoying, but even their grating nature can be endearing in its own way, especially if you’re one to shout into the late hours of the night. — AD

Puzzle & Dragons Story

Where to play: iOS

Puzzle & Dragons Story is an Apple Arcade game that combines creature battling and match-3 systems. The classic tile-matching gameplay is where you’ll be attacking the monsters you’re fighting — what you match determines how hard you hit, what element is boosted, or when you heal. It’s one of those games that looks easy, but there’s a lot of strategy involved when you get into the depths.

The franchise has been around since 2012 in several different forms on mobile, but Puzzle & Dragons Story is the latest release, removing the microtransactions from the game — one of the big things the game has been criticized for in the past. Between the dungeons, Puzzle & Dragons Story is filled out with a dramatic narrative that’s easy to consume in small bites, making this one of my top games for whenever I’ve got a spare moment. — NC

Puzzle & Dragons Story

Regency solitaire.

For soothing, smooth-brain puzzling in the true casual-gaming tradition, you can’t do better than this elegant solitaire variant with a Jane Austen-inspired storyline. In 2015’s Regency Solitaire and its 2024 sequel you play Bella, a social-climbing debutante whose pursuit of the perfect marital match is punctuated by lots of attractively arranged tableaux of cards to clear by clicking on them. And the clicking feels great — developer Grey Alien Games is a master of this sort of thing, so the crisp sound effects and light arcade-style scoring systems are perfectly tuned to keep you pleasantly engaged, but not too excited. The Austen pastiche is pretty funny, too. There’s not much to choose between the first and second games, but Regency Solitaire 2 looks better on modern displays, and is a tad more refined. (The original is available on Switch and PC; Regency Solitaire 2 is on PC only.) — OW

Regency Solitaire 2

Return of the obra dinn.

The vessel Obra Dinn left port with 60 souls aboard and returned with none alive. It’s your job to deduce what happened to each member of its crew and how they met their fate. You’re given a crew manifest, some sketches, and a pocket watch. Using this device next to a corpse or other points of interest presents you with a snapshot of how the incident occurred and a bit of dialogue, allowing you to piece together events as you explore more of the ship.

The first handful of deductions are relatively simple, but as you cross names off your list, evidence becomes increasingly obscure, forcing you to fill in the blanks by cross-referencing new information as it becomes available. You have an unlimited amount of time to come to your conclusions before departing, but the Obra Dinn isn’t a particularly hospitable place. From the moment you step aboard, the eerie silence is punctuated only by your footsteps and the groaning of the vessel against the increasingly restless tide. Even with the knowledge that I could leave at any time, I found myself occasionally jumping at shadows and wondering if I wasn’t joined by some spectral passenger.

The first-person perspective might throw someone that’s unfamiliar with the genre, but the simple control scheme and leisurely pace ensure that it remains accessible for anyone looking for a puzzle game that offers an honestly unique experience. — Alice Jovanée

Suika Game was one of my most-played games last year, and will likely be in the running in 2024, too. Even with so many hours logged, I’m not good at Suika Game , and I’m not sure I ever will be . And yet, I keep playing — the fruit-merging game has its hooks deep in me. It’s, again, one of those deceptively simple games: Just combine two of the same fruit and keep fruits from spilling out of the box? Easy, right? No! This is like Tetris if it had bounce physics, so you also have to worry about fruits shooting themselves out of the box with a weird bounce. Though I get frustrated, I keep coming back because it is a compelling mix of skill and luck — but likely mostly luck. You can only play Suika Game on Nintendo Switch in the United States right now, but there’s hope for it coming to mobile. — NC

The Witness

Where to play: Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One

If you want to go on a philosophical journey into the heart of puzzles as an art form — and who doesn’t? — there is perhaps only one game that can take you there: The Witness , the abstract, first-person puzzle adventure that was designer Jonathan Blow’s follow-up to Braid . In a way it recalls Myst ; you wander around a strange, idyllic, deserted island, solving puzzles to unlock new areas. But in The Witness , absolutely all the puzzles, which you access via panels in the game world, are 2D maze puzzles, variations on an original design of Blow’s. Through countless permutations, Blow builds upon this simple puzzle concept, turning it into a language in its own right and a dialogue with the player — like Bach turning a simple melody into the Goldberg Variations. It’s one of the most rigorous and challenging explorations of game design ever, and an essential experience for the true puzzle connoisseur. — OW

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Xbox One isn't known for its puzzle games, but with the recent release of Inside , we decided to rank your best options when it comes to Xbox One puzzle games. Inside is from the same minds behind Limbo , the indie darling that saw huge success on the 360. Another fantastic puzzle game for Xbox One is Pneuma: Breath of Life , a puzzle title that plays with perspective and scope to challenge you one level at a time. If you like traditional puzzle games, there is always Peggle 2 and Tetris Ultimate .

What is your favorite puzzle game on Xbox One? Vote up your top picks below, and downvote any titles that left a bad taste in your mouth, no matter what the reason. Please only downvote these challenging puzzle games for Xbox One if you've actually played them.

The Turing Test

Pneuma: Breath of Life

Tetris Ultimate

The Droid Guy

9 Best Puzzle Games For Xbox in 2024

The Xbox Series X and Series S have become one of the most popular next generation consoles available in the market today due to their Game Pass Ultimate subscription service which allows gamers to pay a low monthly fee to gain access to hundreds of games.

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One of the best genres that you can play is the Xbox puzzle games. There are various puzzle video game titles available for this console which should create a challenge for you. We have come up with a list of the best puzzle game you can play on your Xbox.

Why play puzzle games?

Puzzle games allows you to be creative in finding solutions to certain problems. It’s a healthy source of entertainment that’s fun to do and sharpens your mind. There are various puzzle games available no the Xbox which can be played by one player, two players, or even in multiplayer mode.

Here’s our top list of Xbox puzzle games that you should be playing right now.

1. Inside and Limbo Double Pack

You get to enjoy two of the critically acclaimed 2D puzzle games of all time which is Inside and Limbo in one disc.

Inside is puzzle platformer adventure game that’s developed and published by Playdead. This fantastic puzzle game allows you to control an unnamed boy who explored a mostly monochromatic world. you are able to walk, run, swim, climb, and use objects to overcome obstacles and progress in the game. You can even control bodies to solve certain puzzles in the game.

Limbo is a puzzle platform video game made by Playdead and was first released for the Xbox platform. In this game you guide unnamed boy through various dangerous environments and traps as he searches for his missing sister. The game uses black and white tones in a 2D environment.

There are various puzzles and traps you can solve which can sometimes be dangerous and can cause death to your character.

Why you should get the Inside and Limbo Double Pack

• If you like solving puzzles then this bundle can save you a lot.
• It’s one of the best titles in the puzzle genre.
• Has a mature theme and is best suited for adults.

Buy it now on Amazon

2. Unravel Yarny Bundle

This is another two game bundle which you can get huge savings on if you buy. This bundle includes the Unravel as well as Unravel 2 game.

Unravel is a first person puzzle game that allows you to control Yarny, a character made from a single thread of yarn that unravels while you move. These is a visually stunning game that takes its inspiration from the environments of Northern Scandinavia. This physics based puzzle platformer allows you to swing from branch to branch or to hitch a ride on a kite. You not only have to solve puzzles but also have to deal with the physics mechanics of this game.

The first game is made for one player only while Unravel 2 can be played by a single player or two players in local co-op.

Why you should get the Yarny Bundle

• You save a lot if you get this bundle.
• It has unique gameplay mechanics that combines physics and puzzles.
• Has a great art style.

3. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is an adventure game that is presented in the third person view. Each young boy has a unique set of skills that helps in your puzzle solving strategy. The older brother is stronger and can pull levers or boost his younger brother to higher places. The younger brother, although not as strong, can easily pass through narrow bars. There are various puzzles to solve and several boss fights available in this game.

Why you should get Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

• One of the best puzzle solving games available for the Xbox.
• You get to experience co-op play in single player mode.
• The game teaches you strategy and teamwork skills.
• Is an interesting title that has received critical and universal acclaim.

4. Q.U.B.E. 2

Q.U.B.E. 2 is the sequel to the popular Q.U.B.E. game. You play as Amelia Cross who is a stranded archaeologist in an ancient alien landscape. With the help of another survivor, Commander Emma Sutcliffe, you must try find your way back home. The alien landscape is filled with various mind-bending puzzles which you must solve. Helping you is your manipulation gloves which allows you to change and adapt the architectural structure. This is the same gloves that allowed players to solve puzzles in the first game.

Why you should get Q.U.B.E. 2

• You can explore 11 master areas with over 80 individual puzzles.
• Explore different environments.
• The game has color blind support.

5. The Talos Principle

The Talos Principle is a narrative based puzzle video game that can be played in the first person or third person view. You control an unnamed android that’s tasked to explore the world in ruins but with advanced technology and solve puzzles in order to collect sigils. You will need to unlock doors by collecting a number of specific sigil pieces in order to progress forward. There will come a rime where you must decide to continue exploring the environment or defy your orders by going on top of the forbidden tower where the truth is revealed.

Why you should get The Talos Principle

• It’s one of the best Xbox One puzzle games.
• It is an interesting game that has a great storyline.
• You can choose your own path through the game’s non-linear world allowing you to solving puzzles your way.
• Uncover clues about the mysterious environment you are in.

6. The Turing Test

The Turing Test is a first person puzzle game that’s played in the first person perspective. The game is set in Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. You play the role of Ava Turing, an engineer for the International Space Agency, tasked to find out the mystery behind the missing ground crew stationed there. You will encounter several puzzles which you later learn were set by the missing ground crew. Why have they set these and where are they now? As the game progresses certain elements are added such as the ability to observe scenes and activate certain objects using the station’s monitoring cameras. You will also be able to control mobile robots.

Why you should get The Turing Test

• If you want mystery in your puzzle games then you should get this title.
• Has a unique twist on gameplay mechanics and puzzle logic.
• Switch between multiple perspectives to solve the most challenging puzzles.

7. Thimbleweed Park

Thimbleweed Park is another mystery puzzle game where you switch between five playable characters to uncover the truth behind town of Thimbleweed Park. You will meet all sorts of weird characters in this game and explore the vast environment at your own pace.

Why you should get Thimbleweed Park

• The game comes from the creators of Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion.
• Has Casual and Hard modes.
• 5 playable characters who can work together to figure out why thee town is weird.
• Fun game that has a twisty story line.

8. Little Nightmares Complete Edition

Little Nightmares is a puzzle platformer horror game developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The complete edition comes with the base game and the expansion pass. The game take place in a 2.5D world where you have complete control over a young child who must travel and solve various puzzles before you can proceed to a different area. Aside form solving puzzles you must use stealth and rely on the environment to hide from your enemies. A sequel to this title called Little Nightmares II is also worth getting.

Why you should get Little Nightmares

• Has beautiful graphics.
• Allows you to confront your childhood fears.
• Has positive audience insights from those who have played it.

9. The Witness

The Witness is a first person puzzle game developed and published by Thekla, Inc. and first released in 2016. It takes its inspiration from Myst where you are able to explore a vast open world that has lots of natural as well as man-made structures.

You play an unnamed character as you explore an island divided into eleven regions. There are various turrets that you need to activate found on the island to reach your ultimate goal which is the mountain. Once you enter the mountain you have seven minutes to solve a dozen randomly made puzzles.

This game has around 650 puzzles available for you to solve which will take the average player around 80 hours to complete.

Why you should get The Witness

• It’s one of the best Xbox One puzzle games available .
• You are presented with hundreds of different puzzles to solve.
• It is a one player mode only game.
• It has a beautifully generated world.

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10 Best escape room games on the Xbox Series-S/X

Escape room games are becoming increasingly popular due to their immersive nature and exciting puzzles. These games are set in mysterious environments, often with puzzles to solve or obstacles to overcome in order to progress. They can be played with co-workers or friends, making them perfect for those looking for a challenging but fun game night experience. I mean what’s more awesome than a real-life escape room where players can remotely control items in a physical room from all over the world?

But what if the teambuilding budget has been cut short or your friends are just too busy? All you need is an Xbox. It’s one of the most popular gaming systems in the world and has a wide variety of escape room games for all levels of players. Whether you’re looking for something challenging or just a fun way to pass the time, there’s an escape room game out there for everyone on Xbox. These games involve solving puzzles, exploring environments, and using items to progress through a story that keeps you entertained and engaged throughout. With so many different escape room games out there on Xbox, this is the perfect place to find your next challenge and have an exciting time doing it. So here we go!

It Takes Two

It Takes Two is a cooperative platform adventure game developed by Hazelight Studios, an award-winning independent game development studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. The game is designed to be played with a friend, either online or on the same couch, and features a split-screen mode. Players take on the roles of Cody and May, a couple turned into dolls by a magic spell, who must work together to save their fractured relationship while navigating a fantastical world filled with unexpected obstacles and challenges. The game boasts genre-bending gameplay, with new character abilities to master in each level, and a narrative that intertwines with the gameplay in a uniquely metaphorical way. It Takes Two also utilizes Smart Delivery technology, allowing players to purchase the game once and play it on either an Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S.

In RiME, you play as a young boy who has washed ashore on a mysterious island after a storm. As you explore the island, you will encounter wild animals, ancient ruins, and a towering structure that seems to call out to you. With the help of a wise fox, you must use your intelligence and determination to unravel the secrets of the island and reach the peak of the tower. Along the way, you will encounter puzzles that challenge you to use your skills in sound, light and shadow projection, perspective, platforming, and time manipulation to progress. As you delve deeper into the game, you will uncover numerous secrets and collectibles that shed light on the boy’s past. The world of RiME is a stunning and enchanting place, with beautiful Mediterranean-inspired landscapes and a captivating soundtrack. You are free to explore at your own pace and interact with the world around you, whether it be by observing wildlife or searching for hidden items.

Escape Room Fort Beyond

In this kids and family-friendly adventure game, your goal is to escape an old fort that is lost at sea by completing various trials and obstacles. You will need to use your physical skills and mental agility to succeed. You can team up with friends or family to work together and gather clues and keys to solve the final puzzle. However, you must be careful and stay on track, as you only have a certain amount of time to escape before you are imprisoned. The fort is filled with challenges that will test your endurance and dexterity, so be prepared for a thrilling and intense experience. With teamwork and determination, you can beat all the trials and escape the fort with the treasure in hand.

The Witness

In The Witness, you play as a character who has awoken on a mysterious island with no memory of who they are or how they got there. The only thing you can do is explore the island and solve puzzles in the hope of discovering clues, regaining your memory, and finding a way back home. The game is set in an open world with many locations to explore and over 500 puzzles to solve. These puzzles range in difficulty and involve a variety of ideas and mechanics, ensuring that each one brings something new to the table. The Witness values the player’s intelligence and time, so there is no filler or unnecessary content. Instead, every puzzle serves a purpose and contributes to the overall experience. As you progress through the game, you will uncover the secrets of the island and perhaps even learn more about yourself.

Escape Academy

Escape Academy is a school where talented students train to become masters of escape rooms. In this game, you will have the opportunity to play through over a dozen expertly crafted rooms, designed by professionals in the field of real-life escape rooms. You can play through the game solo in single-player mode or with a friend in cooperative play, either locally or online using split-screen. As you explore the campus of Escape Academy, you will meet the faculty, a diverse group of characters who are all experts in the art of escape and may have secrets waiting to be uncovered. The game features music and sound design by someone, a renowned composer and sound designer known for their work on games such as Gang Beasts, SLUDGE LIFE, Disc Room, and Enter the Gungeon. Get ready to test your skills and solve your way to the top of Escape Academy.

The Talos Principle

The Talos Principle is a first-person puzzle game that explores philosophical themes and challenges players to solve complex puzzles. Developed by Croteam, the creators of the Serious Sam series, and written by Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes, the game immerses players in a simulated world filled with humanity’s greatest ruins. You play as a sentient artificial intelligence that must navigate through a series of interconnected puzzles in a cathedral-like setting. As you progress through the game, you will encounter puzzles that become increasingly difficult, forcing you to think critically and creatively to solve them. The Talos Principle is a thought-provoking experience that touches on issues of intelligence, meaning, and the inevitability of an end.

Superliminal

In Superliminal, you find yourself trapped in a dream where perception is reality. As you progress through the game, you will encounter puzzles that challenge your understanding of the world around you and require you to think creatively and outside the box. The game is inspired by perspective and optical illusions, and it features a surreal and strange world that will keep you on your toes. With a subdued and atmospheric aesthetic and an intriguing narrative voice, Superliminal offers a unique and engaging puzzle-solving experience. Get ready to confront the unexpected and unravel the mysteries of the dream world.

In this exciting puzzle game, you play as three friends who have attempted to rob a bank but ended up getting caught by the police. Now, you must use your wits and determination to escape from prison and find your way to freedom. As you progress through the game, you will need to avoid guards, find key cards to unlock doors, and navigate through challenging levels filled with puzzles and traps. Each character has their own unique abilities that will come in handy as you make your escape. With 60 levels to complete, you will need to be strategic and resourceful in order to break out of prison at any cost. Can you outsmart the guards and make it to freedom?

We were here

In We Were Here, you and a friend (or a stranger) are stranded in a frozen wasteland and separated inside an abandoned castle. The only connection you have is a walkie-talkie, and it is up to you and your partner to find a way out before it’s too late. This cooperative puzzle adventure game puts a unique twist on communication, as you can only communicate with your partner using your voice. Every room presents a new challenge that tests your ability to work together and think creatively. We Were Here is the first episode in a series of standalone games, and if you enjoy this one, you can check out the later entries in the series: We Were Here Too, We Were Here Together, and the upcoming We Were Here Forever. If you’re looking for something innovative and exciting, give We Were Here a try.

We were here together

Zero escape: the nonary games.

In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999) and its sequel, Virtue’s Last Reward (VLR), you play as one of nine people who have been kidnapped and taken to an unknown location to participate in the Nonary Game, a dangerous life and death game created by an enigmatic mastermind known as Zero. As you try to escape, you will encounter a variety of puzzles and challenges that require you to think critically and work with (or against) the other players. With immersive and atmospheric environments, complex characters, and mind-bending puzzles, these games offer a thrilling and suspenseful escape-the-room experience. 999 has been updated with high-resolution graphics and the option for Japanese or English voice acting, while VLR offers two difficulty settings for a greater challenge. Can you find a way out and survive the Nonary Game?

In Portal 2, you are challenged to use your intelligence and problem-solving skills to navigate through a series of mind-bending puzzles. Set in a humorous and surreal science-filled world, the game tasks you with using a portal device to manipulate the laws of spatial physics and outwit a power-hungry A.I. named GLaDOS. The game features a wide variety of puzzles that will test your creativity and quick thinking, as well as an expansive story that can be played in single-player or co-op mode. Portal 2 is a highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning 2007 game Portal, and it is available in a variety of languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Get ready for a hilarious and challenging adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The best escape room games on Xbox offer a variety of challenging and immersive experiences that are sure to keep players on the edge of their seats. From classic puzzle-solving challenges to thrilling horror-themed experiences, there is something for everyone to enjoy. Whether you’re a seasoned escape room enthusiast or new to the genre, these games are sure to provide hours of entertainment and mind-bending fun. So gather your friends, choose your game, and get ready to put your problem-solving skills to the test in one of these exciting escape room adventures on Xbox.

Best Video Games About Problem Solving | TheReviewGeek Recommends

There are a lot of video games out there and in this age of mobile and home-based gaming, the choices have never been greater.

So how do you cut through the noise and find the “Best of” for any chosen topic? Well, we’re here to help celebrate and shine a spotlight on some of the latest, greatest and unforgettable games through the years.

For our ongoing series of articles depicting the best video games, our attention this time turns to games with a focus on problem-solving. From thought-provoking adventures to lighthearted action-puzzle games, there’s a good choice to whet your appetite.

Of course, if we’ve missed any of your favorites, feel free to comment below and we’ll get them added on!

Professor Layton

While many puzzle games aim for a simple formula like Tetris and Puyo Puyo, others lean toward telling a constructive narrative. The Professor Layton franchise does that with its take on the point-and-click adventure genre through its well-written story beats, characters, and glorious setting.

Professor Layton follows the adventures of Professor Hershel Layton and his partner Luke as they help solve many mysteries regarding missing family heirlooms, murder, and time travel. It’s safe to say that these two are always on their toes regarding case requests. Considering Professor Layton’s excellent detective skills, they have nothing to fear.

Phoenix Wright of the Ace Attorney franchise inspired the idea and concept behind Professor Layton’s gameplay and character. The gameplay utilizes the Nintendo DS’s touch screen to a tea, as players must interact with Professor Layton’s setting, characters, and puzzles.

Some puzzles players encounter are logic, math problems, and maze-based. However, the game offers a memo pad that allows players to work out issues that may be too bothersome to complete in one’s head. Puzzles grant players points that help them progress through the story.

The Professor Layton franchise is remarkable for people looking for a brain-teasing challenge and a good time.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a visual novel adventure game held in high regard by many fans. While some may not agree that it fully replicates the life of a real-life lawyer, the trials, interrogation, and puzzle components are what makes this franchise a grand one.

There have been many games in the Ace Attorney franchise, some with new protagonists. However, the protagonist many people attach this franchise to is Phoenix Wright. Starting as novice defense attorneys, players must help Phoenix thoroughly investigate surroundings for clues. Then they find themselves in the courtroom where it’s their job to either defend or go against the person being held accountable for the crime.

This is where the game’s incredible puzzle-solving mechanics come into play. Essentially, players interrogate witnesses and their attorneys for fallacies and contradictions by picking apart their claims in court. They also have to answer specific questions the judge may have about one of the five particular cases.

The gameplay is simple but requires the player to think carefully before making their argument. Thankfully, the game includes ways to scroll through previous statements to help them identify the fallacy in their opponents’ claims. The characters also have great enthusiasm in their reactions to trials, especially the convicted individual in the said case.

If you’re looking for a visual novel experience that’ll make you use your max brainpower, be sure to purchase any of the Ace Attorney games.

Despite creating violent-oriented franchises like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life, Valve aren’t afraid to tackle new territory. Portal and its sequel Portal 2 have a limited campaign which bothered most at first. However, others have looked past its short story duration and uncovered a game filled with originality, distinct gameplay, and a dark plot.

The Portal franchise follows Chell, who must create portals to solve an AI named GLaDOS’s many puzzles. Mastering the game’s physics is important as players must create portals in a specific way to progress through the game. Momentum, preservation, and redirection are the three elements players must know before diving into this game.

Chell’s vulnerability is at an all-time high, making matters difficult. If she lands on a surface from a high enough distance, she’ll receive damage upon impact. The game also includes various machinery to amp up the challenge via turrets, bouncing energy balls and toxic substances. Players don’t have access to a visible health bar either.

Lastly, the game features well-written characters, and slowly drip feeds hints toward its inevitable conclusion as the player progresses. Valve made GLaDOS’ personality shine in the game, even though it’s a robot that taunts players constantly. It surprisingly never gets stale as the jokes only get funnier.

If you’re looking for a puzzle game with enthusiasm, originality, and mystery, Portal is the one for you.

Baba Is You

While some puzzle games have precise and easy-to-follow gameplay, there are rarely any that allow you to bend the rules. Baba is You is an indie puzzle game that wants its players to break the rules of puzzle-solving.

Baba Is You entails players controlling the animal-like being, Baba, who must solve several word puzzles to reach specified checkpoints. Each level presents players with word blocks they can interact with and manipulate to their heart’s content. While some will leave players with fewer roadblocks in their path, others may give them an experience they hadn’t expected.

Some of these experiences include transforming Baba and her world’s organisms into different objects. You can also change your end goal into something completely different. The game spans 200 uniquely designed levels that encourage players to devise critical ways to manipulate the game’s roadblocks to their liking.

While the title doesn’t offer the most jaw-dropping graphics, it does deliver outstanding puzzles designed to help boost your critical thinking skills.

Famicom Detective Club

The old Famicom Detective Club games have been resurrected on Nintendo Switch as a mystery visual novel. While it didn’t sell as well as Nintendo’s blockbuster franchises, it offers worthwhile cases and interactivity.

The Famicom Detective Club games play like every ordinary visual, but the fascinating aspect of the game is that it used to be a Super Nintendo exclusive in Japan. A component that makes the Famicom Detective Club remakes better than the original is the astonishing voice acting, clever overarching mysteries, and beautiful character sprites and CGs.

Only the first two entries were remade and finally brought to the west. Both games center around a young detective protagonist who must solve two cases involving death. The Missing Heir delves into Kiku Ayashiro’s death, a woman who had inherited her family’s plot. The second game, The Girl Who Stands Behind, discusses the demise of a high school student named Yoko Kojima.

While the gameplay isn’t as interactive as Ace Attorney and others that came out after it, the remakes helped revitalize the world for a newer audience. Unlike most visual novels, the Famicom Detective Club remake contains cinematic cutscenes and superb voice acting. There’s also a subtle yet unique dungeon crawling minigame near the end that helps it stand out from others, including Ace Attorney.

Despite Famicom Detective Club being a niche gem, it’s a puzzle-solving adventur1e game that players shouldn’t skip out on.

Unfortunately, some indie games don’t reach mainstream levels of success. When they do, the reception is either overwhelmingly positive or negative, with many praising it or declaring the game is overhyped. While it spawned millions of “suspicious memes,” Among Us delivers in its addictive gameplay and player interactivity.

While it doesn’t have a deep narrative to accompany its world, Among Us’s simply-designed characters and world serve their purpose well. How players participate and interact with Among Us is where its fun aspect kicks into overdrive since the game requires you to think and manipulate your way to victory.

Among Us allows the player to control one of many crewmates who must complete simple tasks while onboard a ship. However, one or two players take on the role of imposters, deadly hybrid beasts that aim to annihilate every crewmate onboard without being ratted out.

To call out these phonies, players must signal a meeting, where all the players unite to discuss discovered dead bodies or to declare who they believe is an imposter. Often, people make statements that are difficult to confirm or deny, which is where the puzzle-solving comes into play.

While it may not sound like it, the game will make players stress over wrong decisions, further encouraging them to keep their eyes peeled. If you’re a fan of the old murder mystery tropes often depicted in a train-ride setting, then Among Us has you covered.

Human Fall Flat

Portal was a platform puzzle game with a dark storyline and intriguing mechanics, but many may prefer something more lighthearted. Human Fall Flat is a puzzle platformer indie game whose goal is to make your whole friend group or family giggle and smile.

Players can take control of this world’s interpretation of humans and must solve quirky and fun-filled puzzles. While the puzzles start simple, the difficulty rises as you progress further into the game. These difficult puzzles will require some brainpower despite appearing heartwarming and cute.

Players manipulate their human arms to carry and place crates in specific locations to solve these puzzles. Other puzzles include pressing switches or needing to walk backward while onboard a fast-moving vehicle. Therefore, it’s best to expect many failures along the way, but at least you’ll end up with a good chuckle out of it.

As for the characters themselves, players can customize them to their heart’s content. You can make your character look like a dog or one of those driving test dummies. The game also allows you to build puzzles yourself to play alongside friends on a comfortable couch and online co-op play.

While the game doesn’t have a highly sophisticated narrative, the gameplay and wacky shenanigans you’ll end up in make Human Fall Flat a worthwhile purchase.

Catherine: Full Body

The multiple branch trope often finds a home in many story-centric video games like visual novels. These branching paths help players immerse themselves in the world and its characters. While it isn’t a visual novel, Catherine: Full Body contains 13 different endings in a game where problem-solving is your goal.

Catherine: Full Body is a re-release of the original PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Catherine game. Players take on the role of Vincent, a doubtful protagonist who must overcome his romantic struggles. This concerns two females named Catherine, yet one starts with a K. To do so, players must help Vincent settle his quarrels by completing the game’s dating sim and action-platforming elements.

There’s no definitive answer to the dating sim components since it’s up to the player’s decision regarding Vincent’s choices. The players’ choices in the game will lock them into specific endings, including Vincent’s reactions to said scenarios. This allows the game’s storyline to thrive with different outcomes, thus giving players a reason to revisit the title to witness Vincent’s other chosen fates.

As for its action-platforming components, which play out like Tetris to a degree. These puzzles occur in Vincent’s nightmares he’ll endure after each day. Players must help Vincent swiftly climb a tall tower whose goal is to have him crumble. These towers start slow but get inherently fast in time, and several hazards come into play only to make matters worse.

While the game sounds like a breeze, it’ll have your brain wearing with its incredibly fast puzzles and difficult life-oriented choices.

Puzzle-platformers can come in many shapes, but Braid aimed to change things with its time manipulation game mechanic. A premise similar to Super Mario Bros. Braid requires players to rescue a princess while traversing many worlds, each with its puzzles.

Braid allows players to enact different actions regarding time manipulation, involving rewinding events to move immovable objects and discovering parallel realities. Every time players complete a puzzle, they’ll receive something new and intriguing about Braid’s world.

Braid’s other fascinating aspect is that players cannot die or technically lose. As a result, Braid’s puzzles challenged gamers to use every ounce of their wit to progress. Some worlds will have players searching for puzzle pieces while others require them to manipulate time or create entrances to different realities.

Moreover, the game delivers a unique experience with its fresh gameplay and mechanics that could ultimately improve a gamer’s thinking capabilities. Therefore, Braid wishes to encourage and increase anyone’s thinking capabilities under the presentation of a time manipulating puzzle game.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

Although it took many years for the mushroom-headed toddler to get a game series, the wait was well worth it. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is an action platformer that started as a minigame for the Wii U’s Super Mario 3D World game. It later received an enhanced port via the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS.

This game’s story contains three chapters. The first chapter has players controlling Toad to save Toadette from Wingo, a villainous bird. The next chapter goes in the opposite direction while the endgame features a boss fight with Wingo and later Draggadon, a royal dragon. While the story is a bit convoluted, the gameplay and puzzles are imaginative and fun.

You guide Toad or Toadette through various distinct platform puzzles. Some feature conveyor belts, stairs, and the Mario Bros. franchise’s iconic enemies. Players have no access to jumping and will lose if Toad or Toadette receive damage at any point.

Fear not, as Toad regains health by finding mushrooms. Also, he can defend himself with his trusty Super Pickax and turnip pulling abilities from Super Mario Bros. 2. As for level design, each puzzle feels uniquely designed for each world. The extra content in the Nintendo Switch and 3DS versions also make it more worth the money.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a great game to kickstart younger fans’ dive into the puzzle genre of video games.

So, there we have it, our pick for the best games through the years about problem-solving!

What do you think of our picks? Do you agree? Are there any notable omissions? Let us know in the comments below!

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The Best Co-Operative Puzzle Games

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Although it's fun gaming solo, sometimes you want to get someone else in on the action with you, whether it be a close friend, partner, or complete stranger. Luckily, cooperative games seem to be on the up, with some amazing new additions finding their way onto shelves and digital libraries in the last few years.

The Best Puzzle Games On Steam

The best puzzle games can hook even the most resilient players, and these puzzlers on Steam are some of the best ones available.

Many of these cooperative adventures contain puzzle-solving elements, requiring you to work together and communicate well to reach your end goal. So whether you're looking to escape a frightening labyrinth, work out a gravity-defying world, or even play as two geese waddling their way to village overlords, here are some of the best cooperative puzzle-solving games out there, all fantastic for an evening on the sofa together.

Updated on January 25, 2024, by Jouanna Bondakji: Gaming by yourself is fun, but being able to share that joy with others makes it all the better. Neither you nor your friend(s) need to be video game experts to enjoy cooperative puzzle games. We've added even more entries for you and your loved ones to enjoy together.

23 Never Alone

Lots of co-op puzzle games focus on the funny hijinks you and your co-op buddy can get into, but Never Alone is a bit different. You play as a young Iñupiaq girl named Nuna and her fox companion as you venture to put an end to an eternal blizzard that threatens her village.

The developers collaborated with members of the Iñupiat to bring the game's story and environment to life, and it shows. Not only is the gameplay itself immersive and challenging, but you'll learn a lot about the Iñupiaq along the way.

22 Boxboy + Boxgirl

Part of the Boxboy series and at least as good as the other games, Boxboy + Boxgirl is a co-op puzzle platformer where you create boxes to overcome obstacles and complete levels. The catch is that you can't make as many boxes as you please; every level has a certain limit on the amount you can create.

You and your co-op partner will have to put your heads together to figure out how to make the best possible use of the boxes you can make. And if you like collecting things, good news: you can collect crowns to purchase power-ups, accessories, and even bonus levels that up the challenge.

21 Heave Ho

If you're looking for something you can play with a group in gatherings, Heave Ho fits the bill. It's a silly platforming game with one goal: don't fall. The puzzle aspect comes from finding out how to best move along the level while being attached to three other people. The platforms you stick to come in all shapes and sizes, from hooks to boulders to see-saws, and some even have spikes you can't touch.

The levels aren't easy, but the humor factor will make you and your friends laugh out loud instead of yelling in frustration. You can customize your characters to more easily differentiate who each person is supposed to be (and to look cool), but that won't totally save you from plummeting to your deaths more times than you can count.

20 Very Very Valet

Very Very Valet is a wacky party puzzle game that is dripping with off-the-wall shenanigans. If you haven't guessed from the game's title, you play as a valet driver. Your chosen cartoony valet driver works diligently to wrangle up as many cars as possible to park them and eventually retrieve them for your patrons.

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While that setup may sound undeniably simple and even mundane, nothing could be farther from the truth, especially when playing this one in zany co-op. Adding two or more players to the mix really makes this game a blast as you work with your chosen co-op partner to drive around the vehicles, which end up basically being puzzles since you have to navigate them through specific stage-based hazards and scenarios.

19 Good Job!

If you haven't played the downright hilarious puzzle adventure game Good Job!, you should be sure to remedy that right away. It's equal parts fun and hilarious, especially in co-op. In this game, you play as the heir to a successful CEO, and it's now up to you to work your way to the top, literally and figuratively.

Good Job! relishes in physics-based mayhem where your goal is to move through different stages of a large office building, solving environmental puzzles, interacting with objects, and, of course, causing tons of destruction. While the game is fun solo, adding a friend to the mix turns this game from a simple puzzle experience to a bonkers one.

18 39 Days To Mars

This Kickstarter-funded project by It's Anecdotal finally came to fruition after years in limbo, flying under the radar as a particularly innovative indie puzzler. The charming co-op game forces two players to work together through a series of creative brain-busters as they embark on a short but memorable trip to Mars by airship.

These 19th-century explorers must scramble to solve problems on board so they can reach their destination in one piece. Whimsical themes and stylized, hand-drawn visuals add a sense of character to the experience, engrossing you as you tinker with clever puzzles to maintain the ship. Tasks range from churning mechanical contraptions to assembling maps—and even the simple act of making tea.

17 Shift Happens

Shift Happens is a puzzle-platformer game. It's really best experienced with two people, but the developers also ensured there was a single-player mode available

The two creatures that the players control (named Bismo and Plom) are made out of jelly, which allows them to do chaotic and creative things! One of the main mechanics is "shifting," which allows you to trade jelly to adjust your size between a big version and a small version of your jelly creature. There are four worlds to explore, each requiring your unique talents.

16 Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together

This delightful puzzler channels that feeling of playing around in elementary school art class. Similar to that experience—just about anything goes in Snipperclips, as two players must use intuition and improvisation on the spot to solve crafty puzzles.

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These puzzles are so difficult that they're more frustrating than fun.

The game's puzzles revolve around rotating and overlapping controllable shapes to snip out new ones, which are used to transport or otherwise interact with other objects. Communication is key here, as both players will be working through a slew of random scenarios on the spot with little to no guidance. This colorful co-op romp makes for a fun little diversion that's good for some laughs.

15 Death Squared

Released by SMG Studio in early 2017, this mechanical game harkens back to the old-school puzzler feel, standing out in an era when bigger and more bombastic seemingly equals better. But while this blocky title seems simple on the surface, Death Squared offers some deceptively tricky tasks that keep folks coming back for more.

Two players will need to be precise and work in synchronicity to progress through the dozens of unique block mazes. This includes clearing obstacles and platforms by triggering contraptions and matching with switches of the same color.

14 Human Fall Flat

Fumbling through these courses may seem counter-productive and silly due to the clumsy ragdoll physics—but in No Brakes Games' co-op journey, this is the point. The aptly named Human Fall Flat drops loads of online players into a set of progressively tricky stages. From there, they'll hop, stumble, and crawl their way through various puzzles while dealing with impeding obstacles, mostly themselves and each other.

One can imagine the laughs this goofy experience brings—with the blend of drunken physics, bustling crowds, and the relative precision the game demands to progress. Something as simple as dropping a plank for a bridge and scurrying across can be a tough, treacherous act.

13 A Way Out

Those seeking a cooperative game with a slightly grittier, cinematic blend should look no further than this 2018 effort from Hazelight Studios and EA. Though more action-adventure than a straight-up puzzle game, A Way Out tasks you with coming up with solutions and working through tasks together in order to progress.

It's a fun and intense experience with much on the line—as you must work together to sneak, fight, and maneuver your way out of prison while steering clear of the authorities. Uniquely, this memorable game stresses local split-screen play , as many of these actions require discussion and knowledge about what your fellow prisoner is currently up to.

12 Labyrinthine

One for horror fans, Labyrinthine is unique. It combines fan-favorite survival horror with some classic puzzle-solving as you seek to escape a creepy children's hedge-maze together and hopefully survive the bloodcurdling horrors calling it home.

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Labyrinthine was built for cooperative play between four players and plays like a classic puzzle-solver. Everyone must know what they're doing and work together to uncover the dark secrets lurking around every corner and escape the maze in one piece.

A journey for two players, Dyo has you assume the role of two Minotaurs both trapped on either side of a split-screen who must work together to escape the cursed labyrinth they've been trapped within.

You each need to control your Minotaur and use your ability to hop over the split-screen to mix up and manipulate levels, working together to solve platforming puzzles and carve out a path to your freedom. There are no enemies and no time limits, so sit back, get puzzling, and try not to yell at each other as you both attempt to solve this maze's tricks and traps together.

10 Tick Tock: A Tale For Two

Tick Tock: A Tale For Two is a game where playing solo is not an option, as you'll need both of you working in unison to escape this escape room-style game together.

The story is based on Scandinavian folklore, creating a beautiful, if not slightly eerie, setting. The key to freedom is in cooperation, with you both needing to share information to get the full picture of what's going on and solve the story's mysteries in tandem.

9 We Were Here Series

We Were Here is unique, having you and your partner separated and needing to work on puzzles both independently and together through your communicative walkie-talkies in order to work out your locations and (hopefully) escape.

We Were Here plays as an immersive first-person cooperative adventure, with both of you needing to discover useful items and communicate well in order to solve each other's puzzles and reach the end. It's great for those looking for a short escape room style of adventure game, and with a trilogy and fourth game due to be released, there's no time like the present to be picking this title up.

An older entry in the cooperative puzzle genre, but one still going strong as a two-player co-op adventure for you and a friend to spend hours upon hours puzzling over.

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Portal 2 's cooperative mode offers an entirely separate campaign mode with a unique story, portal mechanics, and two new characters to play as. The trick to success is teamwork, as in working together, you'll discover new ways to use portals and hopefully create a means of escape from the test chambers before Glados turns you against one another.

7 Ibb and Obb

Ibb and Obb is a delightfully cute and creative cooperative puzzle game using gravity-changing mechanics to have you working together to move past obstacles and have some innovative level-solving fun.

With stylish art and sound, it's great for an easy game to play together on the couch , and will keep you coming back again and again with some tough and challenging puzzles - but nothing your teamwork can't solve.

6 Unravel 2

Unravel 2 is arguably perfection in couch co-op, needing you and another player to solve platforming puzzles in order to progress through the stages and save two children running away from unreliable adults looking to hurt them.

The game is beautiful, with breathtaking scenery and gameplay surrounding a sad but enlightening tale. The puzzles featured in the game vary from needing to escape a crazed pheasant, using objects to get to hard-to-reach places, and most of all, making sure to never leave one another behind.

5 Heavenly Bodies

Heavenly Bodies is a wonderful game about space exploration where you play as cosmonauts! (Did you know that a person who travels to space from America or the rest of the western world is known as an astronaut, while one who travels from the Soviet or Russian space programs are known as cosmonauts? If they were launched from China, they're called taikonauts.)

In space, you'll need to help people on the ground by installing and maintaining solar arrays, doing research, and building telescopes, among other things! It's not quite like any other game you've played before; the physics in space are unfamiliar and you're performing fairly precise tasks, so it'll take some practice before you're perfect.

4 Untitled Goose Game

The world's (least) favorite goose is back, and this time he's got company. The incredible open-world cooperative game for two players, Untitled Goose Game co-op allows for two geese to travel through the village's story together; solving problems, chasing villagers and of course, endlessly honking.

Nintendo Switch: The Most Relaxing Games To Play That Aren't Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing isn't the only chill and relaxing game you can play on your Nintendo Switch.

This is a great relaxing game for two, with you able to work together to solve your list of errands without a time limit. So whether it be chasing a boy into a phone box, wearing a fancy bow, or stealing an old man's slipper - why not do it together? Just don't forget to HONK.

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8 Xbox Games for Improving Students’ Creativity

In today’s digital age, video games are more than just entertainment; they’re a vibrant canvas for creativity. Among these, Xbox games stand out as a remarkable tool for creative development. As a student, engaging with these games can spark imagination, foster problem-solving skills, and offer unique learning experiences. This article explores how certain Xbox games can enhance your creative abilities, providing a fun and interactive way to develop crucial skills that extend beyond the virtual world.

Minecraft is more than a game; it’s a playground for the imagination. Its open-ended gameplay invites you to build and explore worlds limited only by your creativity. Whether you’re constructing intricate cities or simple cottages, Minecraft encourages you to think outside the box. It’s like a digital form of Lego, offering endless possibilities in architectural design and creative problem-solving. 

While you take a break from academic tasks with the help of pay for essay writing services, Minecraft offers a relaxing yet stimulating environment. The game also fosters collaboration, as you can join friends in building and adventuring together, making it not just a solitary experience but a shared journey of creativity.

Portal 2 takes puzzle-solving to a new level, blending it with a witty narrative that keeps you engaged and entertained. The game’s puzzles aren’t just about finding the right solution; they challenge you to think laterally and creatively. 

Each level introduces new elements that require innovative approaches to navigate. As you manipulate portals and interact with various environmental elements, your problem-solving and strategic planning skills are sharpened. This lateral thinking is crucial in both academic and real-life scenarios. Additionally, Portal 2’s humorous story and characters add to the creative experience, making it not only a brain-teaser but also a delightful adventure that stirs your imagination and keeps you coming back for more.

The Sims 4 is a digital canvas for storytelling and role-playing. In this game, you become the architect of your own world, crafting not only the environment but also the characters who inhabit it. Each Sim you create has its own personality, goals, and life story, allowing for diverse narratives. This aspect of the game encourages social and emotional creativity as you navigate through various human experiences and relationships. The Sims 4 is more than a game; it’s a simulation of life that lets you experiment with different social dynamics and scenarios. It’s an excellent tool for understanding human behavior, developing empathy, and exploring a wide range of emotional and social situations in a safe and controlled environment.

Kerbal Space Program

Kerbal Space Program is an innovative game that blends space exploration with the intricacies of spacecraft construction. It challenges you to build functional spacecraft using realistic physics principles. This game is not just about launching rockets; it’s about understanding the science behind them. By experimenting with different designs and dealing with the challenges of space travel, you enhance your scientific creativity and grasp complex concepts in physics and engineering. The educational value of Kerbal Space Program lies in its ability to turn complex scientific theories into an engaging and interactive experience. It’s a unique blend of learning and fun, where each failure is a lesson and each success a triumph of creative problem-solving.

LittleBigPlanet 3

LittleBigPlanet 3 is a platformer game celebrated for its emphasis on user-generated content. It allows you to not only play through levels but also create your own, using a wide range of tools and materials provided in the game. This feature nurtures a creative community where players can showcase their levels and engage with others’ creations, fostering a culture of collaboration and sharing. The game’s level editor is a playground for imagination, where you can bring your wildest game ideas to life. LittleBigPlanet 3 demonstrates the power of community in creativity, as players from around the world share, inspire, and build upon each other’s work, creating a diverse and ever-evolving universe of content.

Lego Worlds

Lego Worlds is a vibrant game that takes the timeless fun of Lego bricks and brings it into a boundless digital universe. In this game, you’re empowered to construct intricate worlds brick by brick, just like you would with physical Legos. It’s an amazing platform for honing your architectural and design skills, as it offers complete freedom to build whatever you can imagine. As you delve into creating your unique worlds, you might find it akin to organizing your thoughts for a project or an essay, much like when seeking the best essay writing service for guidance. Lego Worlds encourages not just play, but a form of expression, allowing you to bring your most creative ideas to life without limitations.

Child of Light

Child of Light is a testament to the artistic power of video games. Its stunning hand-drawn art style and poetic narrative immerse players in a world that feels like an interactive fairy tale. This game encourages artistic appreciation and narrative creativity, inviting players to engage deeply with its story and characters. The game’s visuals and storytelling elements work in harmony, creating an atmosphere that inspires and captivates. Child of Light is more than just a game; it’s an artistic journey that stimulates the imagination and offers a unique way to explore and appreciate the art of storytelling.

Xbox games like Minecraft, Portal 2, The Sims 4, and others demonstrate immense potential in enhancing creativity among students. These games blend entertainment with skill development, providing a dynamic platform for creative expression and problem-solving. They prove that video games can be more than leisure activities; they can be instrumental in fostering imaginative thinking and innovative problem-solving abilities. As students engage with these games, they develop skills that are valuable in both academic and real-life scenarios. It’s important, however, to maintain a balanced approach to gaming, recognizing its educational benefits while ensuring it complements other aspects of learning and personal development.

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15 Best Puzzle Games On PS4 Or Xbox One So Far

Creating a ranked list of the best puzzle games on PS4 or Xbox One was a difficult task. Many of these puzzle games are different from each other and provide various levels of puzzle solving difficulty. Some games will have you adventuring through levels while solving a series of smaller easier puzzles. While other games are based solely on challenging puzzle solving rooms. Depending on what types of puzzle games you like, the numbered rankings in this article should be taken with a grain of salt. This top list should give gamers an idea of what’s available and which games are worth looking into. When new worthy games are released, this article will be updated.

Page Contents:

15. Unmechanical: Extended Edition

– Gameplay Video

14. MouseCraft

13. Infinifactory (PS4 Exclusive)

11. Thimbleweed Park

10. Unravel

9. Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut

8. The Turing Test

7. The Sexy Brutale

4. The Swapper

3.The Last Guardian (PS4 Exclusive)

2. The Witness

1. The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition

* Honorable Mentions *

The following games either barley missed our top list, are older Xbox 360 backwards compatible on Xbox One games, are traditional puzzle games, or are loosely related to the puzzle genre.

Portal 2 (Xbox One Backwards Compatible) – My favorite puzzle game for the Xbox 360. It also plays perfectly on the Xbox One :D. Armed with a portal gun, solve all kinds of crazy puzzles accompanied by a humorous robotic voice. If you haven’t played this game, you are missing out. Remember one thing though, “The cake is a lie”.

Portal 1 in The Orange Box (Xbox One Backwards Compatible) – The Orange Box is a great compilation game that includes all the main Half-Life 2 games, along with Portal 1 and Team Fortress 2. It’s a great pack of games, and Portal is a nice puzzler.

Braid (Xbox One Backwards Compatible) – Braid is a fantastic time twisting 2D platforming puzzler created by the same indie developer ( Jonathan Blow ) that created The Witness. At first glance it kind of resembles Super Mario Bros. I guess Braid is the more mature Super Mario Bros with crazier enemies, intelligent puzzles, the ability to control time and has an awesome story.

Uncharted Series (PS4 Exclusives) – Uncharted is known for it’s great cinematic style graphics, story and action packed gameplay. All the games in the series have a nice mix of puzzles also, that are fun to solve.

Trine Series – The Trine series are pretty good 2D platform games that have magical characters. There are a lot of small puzzles to solve merged into every levels gameplay.

Puyo Puyo Tetris – The best Tetris game on PS4 or Xbox One if you are looking for a more traditional puzzler.

Escape Plan (PS4 Exclusive) – A simple 2D puzzle game where you have to survive through a labyrinth full of traps. It’s ok I guess.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War – The war story is amazing in Valiant Hearts. It’s gameplay is full of simple puzzles to solve that are perfect for how slow paced the gameplay is.

Snake Pass – A good 3D Snake Platformer :D. There’s not really any puzzles in it. The trial and error involved and learning how to slither through difficult areas, can make it feel like a puzzle game at times.

Tricky Towers – A simple yet addicting Tetris style stacking game. It’s really fun when playing against someone else locally.

Oddworld New N Tasty – The remade version of the classic PS1 game. For a simple 2D game it does have some nice puzzles in it, the gameplay feels a bit aged though. I think I played the classic game so many times already, that I am a bit tired of it, lol.

Rime – The atmosphere is great, but the puzzles were a bit too easy, played out, and predicable for me. It’s still a good game, just don’t expect an amazing puzzle solving experience.

Grim Fandango Remastered (PS4 Exclusive) – The remastered version of the classic PS1 game. There is some decent puzzles in this one, however, I don’t think the game aged too well!

Road Not Taken – Play as a wandering ranger. The mayor gives you a job to save captured children. Besides the town management, Road Not Taken has some decent item puzzles in it.

SuperHyperCube (PS VR Exclusive) – A cool PS VR game where you have to match puzzle piece shapes that are coming at you fast.

Contrast – Like Rime, I thought the puzzles were a bit too easy. I really didn’t like Contrast at all as a puzzler or a game in general. I just added it here because other gamers seem to like it and it is mentioned every now and then.

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15 Best Detective Games for Xbox Series X / S

Mystery games were some of the very first games to come out. This was mainly due to their point-and-click nature, as the weak hardware that was available when video games were becoming mainstream could easily play such games.

Now, mystery games encompass a wide variety of subgenres. One of the most popular subgenres is where you get to play as a detective and solve a case. There have been a lot of detective games over the years, and Series X has received its fair share since it was launched.

Having gone through all the major titles available on the console, we have handpicked the 15 best detective games for Xbox Series X / S. Whether you want to play as a detective working for the police or an anti-hero hell-bent on personal revenge, this list should help you get your fix.

Disco Elysium

Disco Elysium truly is a masterpiece. It is difficult to imagine what was going on in the minds of the developers when they created the game. The story feels fairly simple at first: You are a policeman who is tasked with solving a crime. However, you also suffer from numerous other issues that will come into play as you move toward the end of the story.

The best thing about Disco Elysium is that it is completely up to you what you decide to do. With innumerable characters that are both intelligent and entertaining, you can play the story at your own pace. In between finding the person behind the crime, you can do everything from writing poetry to simply making conversation with an endless number of people.

All of these reasons led to Disco Elysium also being a part of our list of the best indie games for Xbox . With a lot of character customization, it is possible for your protagonist to be completely different in subsequent playthroughs. As such, you probably have an almost endless stream of content to experience in this game.

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

You know that we would have a Sherlock Holmes game on our list of the best Xbox detective games. In fact, there are two Sherlock Holmes games on our list, with the second one coming towards the end of the list.

Crimes and Punishments is a collection of six cases that you get to solve as Sherlock Holmes. All six of these cases are completely unique and will have you thinking in completely different ways. While Disco Elysium provides more content overall, Crimes and Punishments has that classic detective game feel.

The six cases take a significant time to complete. However, there isn’t a lot to do once you are done with them. We also mentioned this problem when this game made our list of the most underrated games for Xbox Series X and S .

The Wolf Among Us

The Wolf Among Us is a game by Telltale. If you have ever played a game by the studio prior to this, you will have a fairly good idea of how the game will play. Simply put, the game is an episodic adventure that almost feels like a graphic novel. It is based on the Fables comic book series, although it interprets the characters in a slightly different and darker way than the comic books do.

While your official title is not a detective in the game, the entire five-part series revolves around you trying to solve a mystery. As such, the game plays like you would expect the average detective game to.

If you have read the comic books, then you will be very interested in the adventures of all the characters. Even if you haven’t, the gameplay is standard Telltale (you either like it or you don’t), and the story is intriguing enough. As such, chances are that fans of mysteries will like The Wolf Among Us.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing series is a great example of how to mix a detective game with themes usually found in action games. When it comes to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, you will find that there are a lot of occult themes in the game, and they end up playing a huge part in you solving the mystery.

You play the role of Paul Prospero. After receiving a letter from Ethan Carter, you travel to his house. Only when you get there do you realize that he has been murdered. Thus begins your journey to find out who was behind the brutal killing.

There are numerous stories that have ended up inspiring the story behind this game, and you see all of them as you play. With just enough elements of horror to make some moments a bit jittery, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a very unique detective game that fans of the genre are sure to like.

Demon Hunter: Ascendance

Speaking of games that borrow heavily from lore and strange events, Demon Hunter: Ascendance is the perfect game for people that want to play a detective game that also has strong elements of action and adventure.

In the game, you play the role of a freelance demon hunter. This means that it is not only your job to track down the demon, but also to take care of it once you know where it is. In Ascendance, you have to investigate the disappearance of a museum visitor.

This will take you on a complex tale where you almost always get the feeling that you are being watched by someone or something. Just like the previous game on the list, Ascendance also has a few elements of horror mixed into the game, making it a fascinating blend of multiple genres.

Lacuna is the next game on our list of the best Xbox detective games. The developers describe the game as a sci-fi noir adventure, and that is as accurate a description as there can be. When it comes to games about solving mysteries, Lacuna basically throws all of the predetermined rules out of the window.

You play the role of a CDI agent by the name of Neil Conrad. Investigating murders and other crimes is par for the course in your job. However, you are about to begin working on a case that will change your life as you know it.

Don’t let the graphics fool you, Lacuna is a game that has had a lot of work done on it. This shows in the fact that there are a lot of endings, and you can play the game multiple times to experience them all. However, you will not be able to go back once you have made a decision and will have to live with the consequences.

L. A. Noire

Let’s be honest, everybody knew L.A. Noire was going to be on our list. We knew, you knew, and so did your neighbor who doesn’t even own an Xbox. L.A. Noire wasn’t particularly revolutionary in terms of the concepts it introduced. However, it managed to combine airtight gameplay with an amazing story to create one of the most memorable detective games of all time.

Although the game has been out since 2017, it was enhanced for the Xbox Series X. Despite that, we would be lying if we didn’t say that the game looks outdated in terms of the visuals.

As for the game itself, you play the role of Cole Phelps, a detective in the LAPD who has to investigate a series of crimes, all of which are related to the LA underworld. What you end up finding may have huge ramifications for the city, and your life.

What Remains of Edith Finch

While you don’t play a detective in What Remains of Edith Finch, there is a fascinating mystery that you have to solve. You are Edith, and you will wander your house looking for clues as to why you are the last person in your family still alive.

What makes the game really fun is that you also get to experience the last day of each family member from their perspective. Over time, you have to piece together a cohesive narrative about your family.

The story of each family member is so different from the last that the game never becomes boring. Towards the end, will your world finally begin to make sense?

The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark

The Darkside Detective series are not that well-known in the genre, but they are great games that everyone should try. This game is actually a sequel to the original Darkside Detective and continues the story while adding new gameplay mechanics.

The game manages to combine humor with a serious narrative. Using point-and-click mechanics, A Fumble in the Dark will lead you on a journey that will have you stifling a laugh from the beginning to the end. While the art style and the graphics are quite uninspired, we believe the gameplay still makes the title worth playing.

Return of the Obra Dinn

As we continue our list of the best detective games for Xbox Series X / S, the next game is Return of the Obra Dinn. It seems that games of this nature are always the ones that seem to experiment with weird art styles. This game is set in 1802 and tries to look like a movie made in that year (if movies existed at that time).

In the game, you play the role of an insurance investigator for the East India Company. After a ship that was declared lost at sea shows up without a crew, it is up to you to figure out what exactly happened.

You will need to explore the ship and figure out what’s going on. The only problem is that the game is too short. And the nature of the game is such that multiple playthroughs are not worth it.

Blacksad: Under the Skin

We are going from the early 1800s to the 1950s with Blacksad: Under the Skin. The game is based around the world of boxing, with you being a detective who has to figure out what’s going on when a fighter disappears.

There is a lot of complexity to the story, with multiple characters being the focal point of the story at different times. The characters are anthropomorphic, meaning that your character is basically a cat. This adds another layer of detail to the game, as you can use your feline senses to help you in your investigations.

Of course, since all the characters are anthropomorphic, other characters can use their special senses too. This means that you will need to be extra careful as you maneuver the corrupt world of boxing in the 1950s.

Lastly, the game is almost completely open-ended. It is up to you in which order you decide to tackle the investigation, and there are multiple pathways to ending the game.

Beat Cop is one of our favorite games from our list of the best detective games for Xbox. It is insane how the game manages to combine a story that almost everyone will find relatable in some way with intriguing detective gameplay.

Not only are you a beat cop, but you are a cop who is beaten about by the world. Your name is Jack Kelly, and you are a former detective who has been demoted down to a cop. Your job now involves writing tickets and doing standard cop stuff. Oh, and you are being framed for murder, and it is entirely up to you to absolve yourself.

Your friends have left you, your wife does not care about you, and there is a price on your head. As you work alone to try and find who the real culprit behind the murder is, you will also need to keep an eye out for anyone who does not want the truth to be known.

Just like many other games on this list, Beat Cop has a unique art style that is based on life in New York City. That, combined with a story that is long enough for the game to be worth its price, make Beat Cop a great detective adventure.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

Chapter One is the second Sherlock Holmes game to make this list. In this game, you get to play the role of Sherlock Holmes long before he became famous and 221B Baker Street became a symbol for truth.

You have yet to prove yourself. As you go to the place where you lost your mother, you soon find yourself at a place where nothing is as it seems, and it is up to you to find out what is going on in the city.

Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is an open-world game and plays a bit like L.A Noire rather than other games in the Sherlock Holmes series. if you are a fan of the detective, then you will find this to be a completely unique Sherlock Holmes experience. While John Watson is not present in the game, you do have Jon, a sidekick almost equally as worthy.

Although detached from the lore of the books, Chapter One still provides an alternative reality for the fans of Sherlock Holmes that is bound to be an entertaining experience.

The Darkside Detective

We have already discussed the sequel of the game, known as Fumble in the Dark. Overall, Fumble in the Dark is a much better game than the original. It has a lot of new mechanics that make the overall experience of the game much better.

That said, the original game is also not bad. In fact, if the series seems like something that you may want to try, we would recommend that you play the original game first. The Darkside Detective is tasked with investigating demons and the occults. However, he soon discovers that the depth of the problem is much greater than it initially seemed. There isn’t just a single occult to deal with, but rather multiple.

Thankfully, the humorous tinge present in the sequel is also present in The Darkside Detective. You should expect a few laughs as you slowly move towards the end of the game.

AI: The Somnium Files

AI: The Somnium Files is the last game on our list of the best detective games for Xbox Series X / S. If you are looking for a detective game that is inspired by the Japanese culture, you will like The Somnium Files.

The story revolves around a woman who has been stabbed to death and a little girl that was found at the scene of the crime. You are the detective who is tasked with solving the crime. The twist is that you knew the woman, and this leads to complications in the case. With numerous mini-games that can have different outcomes, the game allows for multiple endings.

Overall, the developers claim that there are over 30 hours of gameplay in The Somnium Files. Of course, you can also go through the story multiple times to play all of the endings. With sci-fi elements, The Somnium Files is not purely a detective game but has enough elements of mystery and intrigue to keep you hooked.

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15 Best Co-Op Puzzles Games

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11 Best Puzzle Games On Xbox Game Pass

5 best dark fantasy puzzle games, best 4-player fps games for local co-op, ranked, key takeaways.

• Puzzle co-op games are still alive, with indie projects like Human: Fall Flat and Unrailed! pushing the genre forward.
• Trine series and KeyWe offer charming and engaging co-op experiences catering to players looking for fun and teamwork.
• From classics like Portal 2 to newer titles like It Takes Two, co-op puzzle games continue to provide unique and challenging gameplay experiences.

Local co-op might not be as common as it was during the '90s, but the practice has not completely died down either. Similarly, the puzzle genre continues to produce new projects at a reasonable rate, even if the releases tend to be indie projects that do not attract too much mainstream attention.

10 Puzzle Games Like Puyo Puyo Tetris 2

If you enjoyed Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 then these puzzle games should be right up your alley.

There are plenty of games to get people talking and thinking together. Some are more mechanics oriented while others have a little more story and narrative involved. Puzzles can take many forms, whether it be about shapes, instructions, physics, and/or portals. As time passes, puzzle co-op games will continue to evolve and grow.

Updated on May 28, 2024 by Mark Sammut : Co-op puzzle games are relatively common, even if they tend to be mostly produced by the indie market. Whether played with siblings, friends, or a partner, these upcoming titles should be able to challenge the mind and maybe provide a few giggles along the way.

15 Human: Fall Flat

Metacritic: 73.

Human: Fall Flat

• 2-Player Local Co-Op
• 8-Player Online Co-Op

Lovers of funky physics will likely get a kick out of Human: Fall Flat . One to eight players can play, and there are multiple solutions to the puzzles. Due to the physics as well as having the ability to mess with other players, the game is a great pick if someone is craving a bit of laughter, although they should be prepared for the occasional bout of frustration.

Human: Fall Flat is one of those multiplayer games that gets more chaotic and fun as more players join in. With no real narrative to speak of, the game drops players into fairly open levels and gives them small hints on how to overcome the area's puzzles.

Metacritic: 81

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

• 4-Player Local Co-Op
• 4-Player Online Co-Op

Trine is generally awesome. Except for the somewhat maligned third entry, which is not devoid of charm either, all the games in the series are decent starting points for newcomers. If push comes to shove, Trine 2 is probably the franchise's most popular game , but there is little separating it from Trine 4 . Once again, the latter allows players to go on a fantastical journey as three fantasy archetypes (wizard, thief, and knight); this time, their goal is to find a lost prince.

Best Local Co-Op & Split-Screen Games On Steam

Steam has plenty of online multiplayer PC titles, but Valve's store is not lacking in great couch co-op games either.

As an adventure co-op game, Trine 4 is an unquestionable triumph; however, when analyzed purely on the quality of its puzzles, the title is merely good with moments of brilliance.

The other Trine games, including 2023's fifth entry, are also great picks. That said, Trine 3 is the weakest game in the series.

13 Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes

Metacritic: 88.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

This is a game with a lot of talking involved between the players, so it is not for everyone. Basically, there is a bomb that needs to be diffused. Only one person can see the bomb, and they have to guide the remaining players through the process of defusing it.

Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes will get the adrenaline pumping, as the bomb has a time limit before it explodes. Things can get stressful quickly as the group tries to solve the destructive puzzle in front of them. For some though, that is a fun and unforgettable way to spend an evening.

12 Never Alone

Never Alone

Players can enjoy this title solo or with a friend. It is quite special, as it is based on a traditional Iñupiaq tale. In fact, it was made from a partnership between the Cook Inlet Tribal Council and E-Line Media. This makes the game a wealth of cultural insights.

Never Alone has eight chapters that focus on a little Iñupiaq girl, Nuna, and her arctic fox companion. In co-op, one player can control Nuna and the other can control the fox. The game has the two characters solve puzzles together and, with completion, literally unlock cultural insights about the Iñupiaq. For even more content, check out the game's expansion Foxtales.

11 It Takes Two

Metacritic: 89.

It Takes Two

• 2-Player Online Co-Op

Hazelight specializes in co-op games, with both A Way Out and It Takes Two requiring two players. While the decision to omit single-player support might have limited the potential audiences for both games, it also means that these campaigns are designed entirely around co-op, ensuring that teamwork and coordination are not only central to the mechanics but also the stories.

Both titles are very good, but It Takes Two gets the nod as it is slightly more polished and features more puzzles. That said, Hazelight loves to play around with genres, so neither game is purely a puzzle experience. After another fight, a married couple are on the brink of a divorce, only to find themselves inhabiting their daughter's dolls. This turn of events paves the way for a wild and creative adventure that blends mini-games, platforming, puzzles, and storytelling to perfection.

10 Portal 2

Metacritic: 95.

Portal 2 is rightfully hailed as one of the best single-player puzzle games of all time, and it completely deserves that reputation. However, Valve's project also comes with a co-op campaign that is almost as fantastic. Cast as two robots, players must work their way through a series of levels while GLaDOS provides a running commentary that tries to (not so) subtly pit the partners against each other.

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As with most co-op puzzle games , Portal 2 steadily ramps up the complexity with each new challenge; however, the game also tweaks the nature of the puzzles' solutions. While initially they are designed in a way that could lead to one person taking charge, the later stages are far more concerned with teamwork.

9 Snipperclips: Cut It Out, Together!

Metacritic: 80.

Snipperclips: Cut It Out Together

This underrated Switch game has two players solve various shape and physics-based puzzles together, as they can change the shape of the characters they play as. A lot of the puzzles involve moving objects or making themselves into the perfect shape to do various tasks.

The puzzles are diverse enough and cover a fairly decent range in terms of difficulty. That said, Snipperclips is ultimately a family-oriented game that is accessible to children.

8 Unrailed!

Metacritic: 77.

This chaotic game tasks players with building a railway while a train is moving. Gamers should be prepared for a lot of panicked yelling among themselves as they try to keep the train from going off the rails.

In terms of puzzle games, Unrailed! is all about quick thinking, although people can ease themselves into the experience as there are four levels of difficulty. While the premise might sound simple on the surface, the title can get pretty challenging.

Metacritic: 74

A cute co-op game about two kiwis who manage a postal office, KeyWe takes a silly concept and creates a charming campaign that can keep someone entertained for a couple of hours. For more than 30 levels, players will have to work together to ensure packages get to where they need to go, and the developers do a good job of shaking up the formula to ensure things remain interesting.

KeyWe 's puzzles are not extremely difficult, but they are not braindead either and complement co-op well. While solo runs are possible, they are not the ideal way to experience this delightful little title.

6 Shift Happens

Metacritic: 69.

Shift Happens

Meant for two people, Shift Happens is a game with four stages and plenty of puzzles to solve. While players can work together, the game also lets you stab each other in the back if fancied. After all, friends sometimes love to mess with each other.

Puzzle-game enthusiasts are spoiled for choice when it comes to the Xbox Game Pass, with several great titles available.

Although Shift Happens has a cute, minimalist design, the levels do get more complex as the campaign progresses. For a group of friends who are looking for a compelling narrative though, this game may not be for them.

5 Knights And Bikes

Metacritic: 83.

Knights and Bikes

If someone wants a co-op puzzle game that follows a story with interesting characters, Knights and Bikes is the title for them. Players take on the role of childhood friends, Nessa and Demelza, as they explore an ancient island. They also have a pet goose named Captain Honkers.

The characters have different skills that are required for the various puzzles in the game. Besides the brain-teasers and story, there are fun little bits like customizing your bike. There is also a single-player mode where the player can team up with an AI. Although packed with puzzles, it should be said that they are not particularly challenging, and they tend to take a backseat to exploration and the story. Consequently, Knights and Bikes is a great co-op game with puzzles rather than a great co-op puzzle game.

4 Tick Tock: A Tale For Two

Steam user rating: 86%.

Tick Tock: A Tale for Two

As the title describes, this game is for two people. The players can be remote or local, but they do need to be able to talk to each other. Story-wise, Tick Tock: A Tale For Two took some inspiration from Scandinavian fairy tales. The players are trapped in an eerie world that was created by a clockmaker, and they have to solve various puzzles to escape.

These puzzle games go beyond their fantasy settings and include some frightening dark fantasy themes.

Tick Tock: A Tale For Two sets itself apart by walking the line between single-player and multiplayer. Two people need to own the game on separate hardware and then start a campaign. They will need to work together to complete their playthroughs, but Tick Tock does not provide any way for them to communicate. Consequently, they will need to arrange their system.

3 Death Squared

Death Squared

• 2-Player Local Co-Op Story Mode

Death Squared is an addictive puzzle game that is an easy recommendation for both solo players and people craving co-op goodness. The goal sounds simple: move the colored blocks to their allocated spots. Naturally, things get complicated rather quickly due to the introduction of obstacles like traps or lasers, most of which are tied to the movement of the blocks. Consequently, players have to analyze their respective blocks' influence on the environment and then coordinate their movements to ensure they all arrive at their destinations in one piece. Either everyone succeeds or nobody does.

Death Squared has a Story Mode that supports two players, with one person taking charge of a blue block while the other controls the red variant. While not containing much of a narrative, this mode provides some context through a voice-over conversation between an AI and a human operator, and they are generally entertaining. There is also Party Mode, which presents a plethora of fresh stages for four players to tackle.

2 Ibb & Obb

ibb & obb

Unlike some co-op puzzle games , Ibb & Obb does not have a single-player option; therefore, it is multiplayer or nothing. All puzzles in this game are based on gravity, with the world being split into two mirror realms with inverted pulls. Consequently, ibb and obb must coordinate and sync their movements, a process that demands constant communication.

While there are 15 levels to complete, players also have secret stages to find that should add a few more hours to the gameplay. Along with cute graphics, well-done co-op, and challenging but not frustrating puzzles, Ibb & Obb also has great music. Kick back with a friend, and solve some puzzles together to these relaxing electronic tunes by Kettel.

1 We Were Here Forever

We Were Here Forever

What makes We Were Here stand out from other puzzle co-op games is that the players are separated, although their collective goal is to escape a castle (although We Were Here Forever expands on that setting). What connects the two players is just a walkie-talkie and the need to help each other out with the clues they find in the abandoned castle they are trapped in.

All the games are a blast to play through, but We Were Here Forever is generally regarded as the franchise's crowning achievement, and it is an absolute blast to play. The puzzles are challenging but not particularly obtuse, especially since their difficulty largely comes down to the players' communication skills.

Test your friendship with these thrilling FPS games that accommodate 4 players in co-op and can be played locally.

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Video Game News, Lists & Guides

14 Best Xbox Series X|S Detective Games

Investigate some mysteries in these immersive Xbox Series X/S games.

#14 The Darkside Detective

#13 sherlock holmes chapter one, #12 murdered: soul suspect, #10 life is strange, #9 the sinking city, #8 l.a. noire, #7 the wolf among us, #6 return of the obra dinn, #5 the vanishing of ethan carter, #4 batman arkham series, #3 disco elysium – the final cut, #2 judgment, #1 lost judgment.

We all like to play Detective every now and again, channeling our inner Sherlock Holmes. What better way to do so than from the comfort of your own home? To find out if you can be the next Columbo , check out our picks for the 14 best detective games for the Xbox Series X/S.

PC | Xbox | PlayStation | Nintendo

The Darkside Detective is a classic point & click adventure game in which you take on the role of Detective Mcqueen as you join the Darkside Division on a mission to investigate the paranormal. You’ll encounter zombies, tentacles, and more in this bizarre multi-award-winning adventure. The Xbox version includes the complete first season. If you enjoyed this one, you should also take a look at the second game in the series, The Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark.

PC | Xbox | PlayStation

Take the role of one of the world’s greatest detectives, Sherlock Holmes. You may ask yourself why this specific game made the cut and not the countless others that have blessed our screens over the years. The answer is simple: Sherlock Holmes Chapter One sees you playing as a younger Sherlock, not the Mr. Holmes we all know and love. This open-world detective game will see you making vital decisions in an intriguing story of crime, murder, and corruption. With two sides to every story, you must do your best to uncover the truth – for better or for worse – and let it shape you into the man you are today.

Blending investigative gameplay with the paranormal, Murdered: Soul Suspect is Square Enix’s supernatural thriller with a unique twist. The murder you’re investigating? It’s your own. As if being murdered itself wasn’t enough, you must now solve your own murder as a ghost. You play as Ronan O’Connor, a former detective with the Salem Police, and solving your murder will undoubtedly be your biggest case yet. A captivating story paired with a unique gameplay style will keep you hooked until the bitter end.

The first installment in a series of four games, Kona is an interactive tale in which you play as a private detective exploring a spooky village and investigating supernatural occurrences. Experience a story told through a third-person storyteller along with an extremely atmospheric soundtrack you’ll want to keep blasting after the credits roll. Get a glimpse at 1970s Northern Canada and find out the truth of this town once and for all.

A five-part episodic adventure, Life is Strange sets out to revolutionize story-based choice and consequence games by adding a gameplay mechanic rarely seen – the ability to manipulate time with the press of a button. You play as Max, a photography-obsessed senior who saves the life of her old best friend Chloe by discovering her ability to rewind time. The pair then find themselves in a number of bad situations as they travel across Arcadia Bay. Players can discover multiple endings as they make plenty of difficult decisions, realizing that changing the past can massively alter the future.

An investigative adventure game set in the vast open world of the half-submerged city of Oakmont, The Sinking City sees you playing as a private investigator on a mission to uncover the truth of the city and to discover why it’s plagued by supernatural forces. Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, the title has an oppressive atmosphere and includes an open investigation system where each case you embark on can be solved in a number of ways.

Perhaps the most realistic detective game on this list, L.A. Noire is an open-world crime game set in the 1940s. You play as Cole Phelps, a young LAPD detective striving to work his way up in the force. As you progress through the game, you’ll progress from a traffic cop to a homicide detective. Search for evidence, question suspects, and arrest your culprit in this open-world game from Rockstar. The Xbox Series X version of the game now offers 4K graphics, so there has never been a better time to play.

From Telltale Games comes The Wolf Among Us , a dark and mature take on the creatures and characters from fairytales and legends. This five-episode choice-heavy game is based on the award-winning Fables comic series and sees players take control of Bigby Wolf, better known as the Big Bad Wolf. As the Sheriff of Fabletown, you’re going to have to delve into some dirty business, with murder being the least of your problems.

A completely unique mystery adventure with minimal color, Return of the Obra Dinn sees players piece together what exactly happened on the Obra Dinn ship when it was declared lost at sea. When it drifts into a port five years later with no visible crew and damaged sails, an insurance investigator must investigate each person’s death one by one and solve the mystery once and for all.

A first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses on exploration and discovery, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter sees players investigating the case of a young boy missing after the events of a brutal murder. An occult-minded detective known as Paul Prospero receives a disturbing letter from Ethan himself and travels to find him. His detective skills mixed with his ability to communicate with the dead will allow Paul to see what events have taken place and to discover Ethan’s fate.

Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Batman: Arkham Knight all allow players to channel their inner Batman and investigate the goings-on in Gotham City. Come face-to-face with some of the biggest and baddest enemies from the franchise such as the Joker and Scarecrow and solve the Riddlers many riddles as you live your dark knight dreams. This series introduces a brand new storyline and it’s entirely worth playing on Xbox Series consoles.

A winner of multiple game awards, Disco Elysium – The Final Cut is a take on a tabletop RPG game where players become a detective with a unique skill system. Decide what you want to do and how you want to do it, and find out whether it goes according to plan with a dice-rolling system. This RPG will see you singing karaoke, threatening citizens, dancing, bribing everyone in your path, romancing whoever you can, and more. You name it, you can do it. As well as all that, you have a revolutionary dialog system that lets you say almost anything you can imagine, no matter how offensive.

Xbox | PlayStation

From the team that brought us Yakuza comes Judgment , a gritty tale of a disgraced attorney on his quest for redemption. Now taking on a new career path as a private investigator, players must investigate a string of murders. Find evidence, track and tail suspects, and bring the evidence to court all in this mystery adventure game. The Xbox Series version of the game will include improved visuals as well as all previously released DLC.

The sequel to the previous game, Lost Judgment once again follows the story of a reformed private investigator through some seriously grisly times. Use a range of hi-tech gadgets such as listening devices and drones, go undercover to gain a deeper knowledge of your suspects, and even take in some of the nightlife–you never know what trouble you’ll find yourself in.

About Chelsea Beardsmore