Are you bored of 2048 and lost in the desert of listless mobile gaming? Are you are drearily dragging your finger over yet another level of Candy Crush because… well just because it’s there? Not to worry. I know just how you feel. Here are three new games that quenched my yearning for some new mobile puzzle action.
Bonza
If a jigsaw and a crossword puzzle had an app baby on a lovely spring day… that’d be Bonza. It’s a delightful new mobile puzzle game. Each level is a field of chopped up words, some letters float off on their own and others come stuck together in two or three letter chunks. Your job is to rearrange the pieces until you find a word that goes with the clue. See, much like a crossword puzzle gives you clues to fill in the blanks, each level of Bonza has a central theme. The puzzle with the clue “chain,” for example, is solved by piecing together words like: bicycle, smoker, daisy, mail, reaction, and saw. Go as slow or as fast as you like, there’s no time limit.
And beyond just the fresh feel of the mechanics, Bonza is beautiful. It has none of the cloying color of games trying too hard to attract women’s attention, but rich ombré gradients and relaxing typefaces that are easy on the eyes. My only gripe? The game doesn’t save your progress if you have to quit mid level. It just feels like work to retread the same steps I completed last time I played.