The IQ series by SmartGames is one of their best brands and probably the most diversified in the logic games scene. If you like puzzles, chances are that at least one of the 10+ IQ games available right now is for you. The newest member in the family is the IQ Focus, designed by Raf Peeters. A packing puzzle game for 1 player, which is surely the hardest one yet in the series. This one is only for the bravest puzzlers out there.

What, at first, looks like your average packing puzzle with several polyominoes sizes, is soon discovered to be a much more interesting and complex game. The game is comprised of ten dissimilar polyominoes, each one with a different color combination. You'd think that fitting all the pieces inside the game board would be sufficient, but there's actually a very different concept at play here. The goal is to fit all the pieces inside (of course)...but the trick is to do so in such a way that the nine central squares shall match the same color configuration shown in the challenge. This will be pretty effortless in the first challenges, but wait 'till you get to the "Wizard" ones...

This is one of those games where it's very easy to understand, but a pain to solve - in a good way, if you like a challenge. The first challenges even show you the first few pieces of the solution, so you just have to place a couple of the remaining pieces. The real challenge, however, starts when you won't have nothing but the central color configuration to guide you.

As you can imagine, only the central squares matter for the solution, so any colors outside of it won't be important. You can place a piece anywhere on the board as long as the squares in the middle match the challenge. All pieces must be used in order to have the correct and only solution.

The game box is cleverly designed with a lid that shows a transparent window the size of the central area while it blurs the rest of the game board. In order to guide you as you try to solve a particular challenge, you can close the lid and compare what is shown through the window with what you see in the challenge. There are 120 challenges divided in five levels of difficulty. If you want a challenge, go straight to the Wizard level.

Closing Comments:

IQ Focus is a puzzler's dream when it comes to finding a challenge that really tests your solving skills. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, because frustration would kick in rather soon and you wouldn't enjoy it. You could do fine with the first challenges, but those practically solve themselves, since you can see most of the solution anyway. It's one of the best in the IQ series, in my opinion.

Availability: There are lots of places where you can find the IQ Focus or any other by SmartGames. Amazon usually carries most of their catalog.

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Presented in a small package, perfectly portable, Jump'IN features only eight pieces, three of them stationary and five movable. The pieces are quite small, so it's not recommended for children under the age of seven. The game board features a 5x5 grid and comes with a booklet with 60 challenges, divided in five increasing difficulties. There's much here for anyone, expert or not.

The game can be a little confusing to understand at first, since there are some rules you have to understand before starting, but once they're learned, it becomes rather fun to play.

The main goal here is to have all the rabbits inside the brown holes. Since this is a sequential movement puzzle, there will always be an ideal solution with a minimum number of moves (identified in each challenge). Naturally, on your first try, you won't probably solve a challenge with the ideal number of moves, but once you know the final position for each piece it's easier to find a strategy and improve your solutions. It's also a way to improve your solving skills for the more difficult challenges that await you at the end of the booklet.

The only stationary pieces in the game are the mushrooms. Once you put them on the board you can't move them for the remainder of that challenge. As for the rabbits and the foxes, each has a different kind of movement. The foxes move by sliding them back and forth on the board, whether it's vertically or horizontally, depending on the piece's orientation. The rabbits, as expected, move by jumping around over obstacles found on the board, either foxes, mushrooms or even other rabbits. They always have to jump over a piece and never over an empty space, and always land on another empty space. To better understand this, a minimum move has to be at least two spaces, never an adjacent one. Also, a rabbit inside a hole may not be indicative of its final position, as they can move around anytime if it's necessary.

I found this game to be quite challenging, but still fun whether you're playing at a low or a high level. Because the solution involves a sequential series of moves, you have to be thinking in advance, or there will be times when you're just moving around in trial and error. This can be avoided by simply using a strategy similar to chess, where you're always a few moves ahead. It can be very rewarding to solve a difficult challenge by using logic instead of just trying to see where some particular move leads you.


Closing Comments:

I really liked SmartGames' new puzzle game. It makes you think in a different way and that's pretty good. The concept being so different from what's usually on offer by SmartGames also makes it a worthy addition to your collection.

Availability: You can find the Jump'IN game in your usual puzzle stores, like Amazon. Other games by SmartGames are also worth considering.

If you love Japanese culture or Asian architecture in general, SmartGames' new puzzle game is the right choice to occupy your free time for a while. Designed by Raf Peeters, this stunning game successfully captures the fascinating world of temples in its many shapes and forms. Do you dare enter this realm?

I really like the presentation in the Temple Connection. The design has this emphasis on contrast between the gray concrete and the red wood, and I think it works really well. There aren't many pieces to work with and that's the beauty of the game as well. With a minimalist design, you only need to concentrate on what's important. The main goal of the game is to connect the temples with roads and bridges. Sounds simple, but don't underestimate it just yet. Wait until you attempt one of the hardest challenges...

The rules, as always, are very easy to understand, which means that anybody, puzzler or not, can jump right in, regardless of experience.

Three different temples comprise the main game, with seven other different pieces that represent stretches of roads and bridges that can be connected on both ends. To easily identify the temples, you just need to notice the number of rooftops they have (1, 2 or 3).

Each temple has two doors, but not all doors are used at the same time, which means that some doors might not have a road connecting to them. This greatly affects the difficulty of the game, since you won't know beforehand which doors are used and which ones are unused.

As you set up a challenge, notice the orientation of the temples and their doors, and also which doors are on the ground floor and which ones on the second floor. A black or white arrow will indicate which floor you should see, respectively.

With a total of 80 challenges spread across five different difficulty levels, there's something for everyone here. Because there's only one solution per challenge, it's easy (figuratively speaking) to know when a puzzle should be solved. You don't need to use all the pieces to solve a particular challenge, but there should be a continuous path connecting each temple. Roads can pass underneath bridges, which creates a beautiful effect when solved.

Closing Comments:

What's not to like in the new Temple Connection puzzle game? Lots of challenges to solve and a gorgeous design made with high quality materials. It's what we've come to expect with SmartGames, and this one is no exception. Perfect for those looking for a challenge or simply to enrich your puzzle game's collection.

Availability: The Temple Connection can be found at Amazon. Look for other designs by SmartGames, also worth playing.

Ever since I started my puzzle collection, slide puzzles were among my favorites. Any puzzle that has a sliding mechanism to solve fascinates me. Be it wood, plastic, metal or glass, the material is not important. Size doesn't matter either, as anything from a 3x3 grid onward will interest me the all the same.

Design and execution is what I value most in a slide puzzle. The actual concept and how that idea was translated to the final product is what in the end will captivate my attention. After all, a puzzle is eye-candy, too. This and more is why Butterflies by Raf Peeters is among my top 5 favorite SmartGames ever.

Simplicity wins over complex and overthought concepts this time. How a mere 3x3 slide puzzle could have this effect on me is hard to explain in words, but I'll do my best. If not to justify my love and enthusiasm for this puzzle, at least I'll try to convince you on why you should add this puzzle to your collection.

Let's start by packaging and design.

SmartGames have introduced recently their latest packaging, which not only reduces materials and size, but is also very practical for on the go puzzling. The puzzle itself is bigger than your traditional pocket-sized slide puzzles (15cm or 5.9"), but in this case it actually works best, because you need a bigger puzzle to appreciate the artwork.

Each of the eight tiles is decorated on one side with a unique configuration of different butterflies and half butterflies (we'll go into that in a moment). The other side is empty, because you won't need artwork on all eight tiles at the same time on many of the included 48 challenges. The actual sliding of the tiles, which is the most important part in a sliding puzzle, is smooth and without any blocking or jamming.

How does it work?

In essence, Butterflies is not that different from the classic numbers sliding puzzle. The main goal, however, is a little different. Instead of trying to put the tiles in a specific order, the Butterflies puzzle works with edge-matching. It's not as straightforward as ordering numbers, because you need to study the tiles and work out where each one belongs. I'd say that it's a tad more difficult than a numbers puzzle, but if you can solve those you'll be fine with this one as well - It just takes some time to adjust how you think about this logic.

Each tile will have at least half a butterfly. After you set up a desired challenge from the booklet, the goal is work out how to put all the butterflies in their complete and symmetrical shape, just by sliding the tiles. Only sliding movements are permitted. Also, you can't leave half butterflies next to the boarders - That would be mean...

Another interesting aspect of this puzzle is that all 48 challenges can be solved in 32 moves or less. Can you do it for all of them?

Here's a tip for when you run out of challenges:

1- place some tiles on the board like you were setting up any of the other challenges, but make sure to leave only complete butterflies. Remember, you're setting up the final stage as if the puzzle were already complete.

2- now place any remaining tiles on their empty side so that the board is filled.

3- take a photo of the complete pattern.

4- Finally, mix all the tiles so that they appear to be all scrambled and take another photo.

Do this a dozen times or more and you'll have several new puzzles to solve!

Closing Comments:

If you haven't worked it out by now, I absolutely loved the Butterflies puzzle. It's such an enjoyable little puzzle, and very hard to put it down once you start. I'm a sucker for sliding puzzles, and the design and concept of the Butterflies has it all in its favor. I'd love to see other grid sizes with the same design, maybe a 4x4 and a 5x5 - bigger sizes would start to feel overwhelming.

I highly recommend this one if you have an interest for sliding puzzles.

Availability: You can find the Butterflies puzzle at Amazon.com and many others from SmartGames.

With Summer fast approaching, nothing better than a cool breeze from the Antarctic with the company of a few penguins for a Pool Party. "Organized" by Raf Peeters and "hosted" by SmartGames, Pool Party is a fun packing puzzle game for all kids aged 6 and up.

For anyone that likes packing puzzles, Penguins Pool Party is a simple but fun little game with just four pieces and four tokens. Don't underestimate it though, because the most difficult challenges will make you think hard and use your solving skills to the max.

The design is, as always, flawless. A beautiful presentation with high quality materials combine to deliver a great game that's accessible even to someone who's not used to play puzzle games on a regular basis. Each piece consists of four slanted hexagonal ice blocks joined at different angles to provide four non-identical shapes. These pieces will then have to be placed in the game board with the penguin tokens taking the other four empty spaces left on the board. Since the more difficult challenges use less penguins than the easier ones, some empty places will remain on the board.

Solving the first challenges is quite easy: just choose any of the provided 60 puzzles in the booklet and place the penguins as shown. The goal is to place the four pieces around the penguins without covering them. Seems easy, but the unusual shapes of the blocks will certainly confuse you. To make matters worse in later challenges, less penguins means empty spaces, but as you're solving a challenge you won't know which spaces are supposed to be empty, you just know how many. It's this uncertainty, however, that makes the game so interesting and fun to solve. As usually, there's only one solution per challenge, so if you can place all pieces around the penguins you'll know you've solved it.

Closing Comments:

A perfect puzzle to take with you on your summer vacation, Penguins Pool Party is another great example of what makes SmartGames' games so appealing. The themes are well chosen and presented to a high and careful attention to detail that makes each game very unique and have its own personality.  Can't recommend it enough.

Availability: You can find the Penguins Pool Party at Amazon or any other major puzzle store. For more SmartGames check out their extensive catalog.

Just when you thought Dinosaurs were extinct, Raf Peeters manages to go back in time and capture a few of them to be featured in one of SmartGames' latest puzzle games. Can you save the green dinosaurs from the bad red carnivores? The fate of ancient Earth is in your hands.

Dinosaurs - Mystic Islands is a rather interesting take on the traditional packing puzzle with some edge-matching elements. The game is beautifully presented in the new SmartGames' packaging, much more practical to use and to take with you on your travels. Six identically-sized pieces fill up the entirety of the game board, which is also nicely decorated with tiny islands and palm trees.

As usually, the game already comes with a plethora of different challenges for you to solve (80), divided in four difficulties. The game rules are simple and easy to understand. The main goal is to solve any given challenge by matching the shapes on that challenge with the six game pieces. For that, you have to keep in mind the following rules:

• You can leave empty islands or dinosaurs of the same species sharing one

• The pieces can be place either horizontally or vertically

• The pieces should match the edges of the game board

Closing Comments:

Dinosaurs - Mystic Islands was a joy to play from start to finish. The concept seems clever and fresh, as if this wasn't something we already expected from SmartGames. Overall, a really nice puzzle game, with just the right amount of challenge. But, we all like a good challenge, am I right?

Availability: You can find the Dinosaurs - Mystic Islands on Amazon or any other major puzzle store. Check out other cool puzzles by SmartGames.

Deducktion, another clever design by Raf Peeters and produced by SmartGames, is a logic game where you can play with numbers in a fun way, and it's also very educational for the young and growing minds. If you like mathematical puzzles and games, keep reading to find out how it works.

The game is nicely presented in a notebook style with clasp. Inside you'll find two sets of booklets with 48 challenges on the left, divided by four difficulty levels -- could've been more, but it's enough to get you busy for a while -- and a magnetic board with 12 duck magnets on the right. The ducks are grouped in three families, each color representing one family comprised of a mother duck and its corresponding ducklings. There's a 3x4 grid which shall be filled entirely by the 12 ducks, although there are some rules to take into account before you start:

- When starting a challenge pay attention to the numbers and colors on the squares.

- There can be an isolated number without a specific color, or just a color, or even both (more common on the starting challenges). These squares can indicate that a specific duck with that number should be placed on that same square, but may not indicate its color, or the opposite, where you are given the color but not the actual number - You have to figure out for yourself. If there's a square with a color and a number, no "deducktion" is necessary - it's that specific duck.

- Each duck family must be placed on the board in a chain. This chain may not be straight, but the numbers do have to be adjacent (for example, you can't have duck #4 next to #2 and so on). The chain needs to have the correct number sequence (horizontally or vertically).

The logic behind this game reminds of Sudoku, because you have to use strategic planning and deductive reasoning skills. Since I love Sudoku so much, it's easy to understand why I also enjoyed Deducktion. The subtle but creative way that the designer found to have bigger and smaller duck families allows you to find the correct logic in every challenge to solve them (green family has only three ducks; red family has four and yellow family has five ducks). You'll have just the necessary information to solve all 48 challenges.

Closing Comments:

Deducktion is one of the most educational games you can find in the SmartGames catalog. It's a great tool to exercise your brain, whether it's for a growing 6 year-old or a 66+ year-old that needs to keep their brain as sharp as possible. If you know anyone that can't have enough Sudoku puzzles, this is a great gift for them.

Availability: Amazon is your best bet to find the Deducktion game or any other by SmartGames.

Do you believe in ghosts? You better, because SmartGames' latest logic game is haunted, and your task is to hunt every single one until you're ghost-free.  Are you brave enough to move forward? Keep on reading...

Made with the same high quality and effort SmartGames puts in all their products, Ghost Hunters promises a scary but fun ghost-hunting adventure. Presented in their new packaging, which is more practical and travel-friendly, the game shines with personality. The artwork is cartoonish, light-hearted, and the pieces have this translucent effect that enhances the visual effect the flashlights have on the ghosts. It's really well thought-out to the tiniest detail.

The game is pretty simple to understand. There are 30 challenge cards, each with a challenge on both sides, which makes a total of 60 different challenges with four levels of difficulty. The higher the number on a challenge card the harder will be to solve it. There are only six pieces that fill the entire game board (4x4 grid), but the difficulty of this game is not filling the board with the pieces, it's how you do it by following a small set of rules: each piece contains at least one flashlight painted on one side, meaning you can only use that side for the solution; you can successfully capture all ghosts in a given challenge by strategically placing the pieces so that the transparent circles of the light beams cover every ghost; if there's any ghost left covered by the blue part of a puzzle piece or the flashlight design itself, you're doing it wrong.

As usually, the game starts with some challenges that are very easy to solve, to get you acquainted with the game's rules. This means that most pieces' outlines in the starter challenges will be visible, telling you the shape and position of the pieces. Later challenges will only reveal colored flashlights but not the outline of the pieces. Some will only show the flashlights but not their actual color, just position and orientation. But the most challenging ones will only show the actual position of the ghosts. You will have to figure out the rest all by yourself. These are the ones that will put your solving skills to the test, and also your patience.

Closing Comments:

Essentially a packing puzzle with some elements of pattern recognition, this game however, is much more than the sum of its parts. It's a journey of discovery, with many satisfying moments, especially when you finally catch the last ghost of any given challenge. It's quite a fun experience, whether you're a 6 year-old kid or a young at heart 106 year-old chap. It's highly recommended for the whole family.

Availability: You can find the Ghost Hunters game at PuzzleMaster for $22.99 CAD. Check out other fun games by SmartGames as well. They have many different games that will delight any puzzle enthusiast.