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Samorost 3 ($4.99) by Amanita Design is the latest exploration adventure puzzle game from the makers of Machinarium and Botanicula. If you love a good point-and-click adventure, then Samorost 3 is worth taking a gander at.

Life is great, but it can be super stressful at times. For me, personally, I find relaxation in playing video games, specifically the ones that don’t add more stress to my life (you know those kinds of games). I’ve gone through a ton of different titles, but the types of games that help me mellow out are definitely puzzles, and even more so when they’re an adventure with exploration involved. I’ve been a fan of Amanita Design when they first released Machinarium several years ago, because their unique art style and charming characters captivated me. So naturally, when I saw that they were back at it again with Samorost 3, I had to check it out for myself, even though I did not play indie hits Samorost 1 or 2.

Like their other titles, Samorost 3 is visually stunning. Players will find themselves in a distinctive world in space that is full of gorgeous, lush environments that make you feel as if you are truly there, complete with depth-of-field effects. The artwork for each area is insanely detailed with fine textures and the colors range from dark and rich to vibrant, soft, and dreamlike hues as you make your way through the game. The animations of your space gnome character, as well as other living beings, are buttery smooth and fluid, and everything is just bouncing with their own personality and charm. The ambient soundtrack in Samorost is atmospheric and truly engaging, so you’ll want to whip out your favorite earbuds for an immersive experience. And since the game revolves around a magic flute to listen to special tunes from objects, sound is a pretty big part of this game.

Like most other games of the genre, you’ll find yourself dropped into a beautiful world without too much direction. You control a little space gnome who ends up with a magic flute, and you set out on a journey to discover the flute’s origins. In Samorost 3, there are nine total alien worlds that you’ll be able to discover and explore, with each of them having their own special alien life form inhabiting it. And since it is also a puzzle adventure game, there will be plenty of challenges that you’ll come across that need to be solved before you can move on.

The controls in Samorost 3 are simple enough to understand, and if you’ve ever played any point-and-click adventure in the past, then you know how it works. You can zoom in or out of an area by doing the pinching gesture. Dragging your finger across the screen lets you pan the scene left or right. To have your space gnome move, just tap on where you want him to go to. If it’s impossible, he lets you know by shaking his head. You can interact with other objects and characters in the environment by tapping on them and seeing what happens. When you see an object with pulsating white rings, that indicates that you can drag the magic flute from the top right corner to the object, and your gnome will listen to the tune of the object. This is the key to discovering the various alien life forms that you can find. In order to get far into the game, you will have to explore and interact with everything that you can on the screen.

I’m not always into these types of games, but Samorost 3 did catch my attention over the past few days (after all of the excitement of new iPhones, of course). I found the game to be rather relaxing, even with the tricky puzzles that you come across. Plus, the graphics are truly exquisite and even look realistic with the blurred depth-of-field parts in the foreground. The music and sounds are top notch, and this is a great game to just kick back and relax with after a long, hectic day.

The only thing that could be improved is the lack of text to describe all of the menu options when you pause the game, as I don’t think all of the icons are clear enough, and it is entirely possible to accidentally reset your progress if you aren’t careful. Hopefully the developers can consider this and improve it in a future update.

I recommend checking out Samorost 3 if you’re a fan of exploration adventure puzzle games and like Amanita Design’s previous titles. You can find Samorost 3 on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $4.99. There are no in-app purchases.

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makenines (Free) by Force Of Habit is an ambient logic game about the number nine. Even if you’re not a math person, but just get a kick out of logic puzzles, then makenines is worth a look, especially as it’s free with a unique pay-what-you-want system, like a tip jar. Regardless of whether you decide to pay or not, makenines is a fun and challenging puzzle game that makes you think, so it will appeal to fans of the genre. It is similar to other games out there, such as Noda, Threes!, Divide By Sheep, and The Mesh.

Even though I did relatively well in math classes while in school, I was never particularly fond of it. Math was not too difficult for me (with some exceptions), but as I went to school mainly for the liberal arts side of things, I’ll admit I got a bit lazy when it came to mathematics. As a writer, I don’t deal with math too often, so I got rusty. But I’m a huge sucker for puzzle games, so even if numbers are involved, I’ll give it a go anyway. And since I’m actually going back to school for computer programming, refreshing my brain with math-related things is not a bad thing. Even with all of the hubbub around here lately with the release of new iPhones, Apple Watches, and their respective software updates, I’ve been finding time to sit down with makenines, and it’s definitely worth a look.

Visually, makenines sports a gorgeous, minimalistic look and feel that reminds me of Threes, except with much more color. The dark black and gray houndstooth background is nice and subtle, with some fantastic animations as you go through the game’s menus and level selection screens. The number tiles themselves are colorful with various pastel shades, and the other types of tiles are easily distinguishable from the rest due to their color (gray) and special symbols. Even though makenines appears to be flat, there’s a bit of depth added due to the angle of the tiles, as well as shadows. All animations, like when you go through the level selection screen to combining tiles in each puzzle, are buttery smooth and fluid, and there is no lag on my iPhone 6s Plus. The game also comes with an captivating, atmospheric soundtrack that is rather calming, so it will help you focus on finding the solutions for every puzzle. Overall, I’m impressed with the quality of the visuals and sound for makenines, especially since it’s such a divergent path for the developers, who are known for the popular Toast Time game.

At the moment, makenines has three difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, and Hard, and all of these have 20 puzzles each. The greatest thing is the fact that you can start wherever you want, and you can also play the levels out of order, since everything is available to you from the get-go. The goal of the game is simple enough: clear the board of all number tiles by combining the tiles so that they make nine. It sounds easy enough, but things get more challenging as you progress — think of the game like sudoku, as it is a process of elimination. And while there are no hints at all in the game (like a true challenge), you can undo and redo moves as many times as you need, or just restart the puzzle without any penalties. Once all of the tiles have been cleared out, you can move directly to the next puzzle or go pick your own. There is also a set of daily casual puzzles for those who prefer something new every day.

So how do you play makenines? It’s rather elementary. Each board will be filled with number tiles that are not nine, so your job is to combine tiles until they equal nine to clear them off from the board. To do this, just slide your finger on a tile to make it move up, down, left, or right into an adjacent number tile. In the beginning, the patterns are pretty easy to spot, but the puzzles get trickier as you go, so you have to spot the patterns before you make your move. There will be different tiles introduced, which include: slides, pushers, exchangers, rotators, and stacks. But these are all implemented at a fairly gradual pace, so it’s never overwhelming.

During the little downtime I have nowadays, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying makenines. It is reminiscent of Threes, but that’s not a bad thing considering the different gameplay mechanics, and the fact that it is level-based. It’s great that it’s not linear, so you can dive into the good stuff right away, and having daily puzzles is nice for variety. I’ll be keeping makenines around on my devices for a while, and I think it’s worth contributing a few bucks to the developer for continued support and even more content in the future.

I highly recommend giving makenines a try if you’re a fan of logic puzzles and don’t mind numbers. You can find makenines on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for free with a pay-what-you-want system.

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