ASTRA 2014: A Virtual Tour for the Casual Gamer: Page 6 of 9

Single Player Fun from ThinkFun and Smart Games

Sometimes you just want a good puzzle game to solve on your own. ThinkFun and Smart Games both offer many options of single-player puzzle games that are both challenging and creative. Here are some of the better new games that were on display at ASTRA.

Gravity Maze by ThinkFun is a puzzle game in which you are given some information about where to place different towers, then you must fill in the puzzle with the rest of the pieces to complete it. A puzzle is correctly solved when the marble is dropped into the highest tower and ends up in the red cube after rolling around the various passages created by all of the adjacent pieces. This is an interesting game that will most certainly test your spatial reasoning.

Laser Maze is another recent offering by ThinkFun that I was introduced to back in December, after it was sold out almost everywhere. In this puzzle game, you are given information about some of the pieces on the board and what direction they are facing. You then must complete the puzzle by adding in various mirrors to guide the laser from the red piece to one or more end goals that light up when the laser hits them. This is a fantastic optical puzzle that features both mirrors and beam splitters for an extra challenge. Very addictive!

City Maze is a puzzle game by Smart Games that gives you a red and blue starting location and direction, as well as a final destination in the city for each color. To solve the puzzle, place various arrows along the city blocks to direct traffic for that color around the city and finally to the endpoint. The arrows are bright and colorful 2-sided pieces, which can be used for either the red or blue route.

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