FlipPix games are a rarity on the Kindle, games that depends on pure logic to solve, virtually without gimmicks, and with various difficulty levels that make them playable by the whole family. They are the type of games that keep people up far too late at night, solving one puzzle and then convincing themselves to play "just one more" before calling it a night.



The operation of the game is quite simple. Each puzzle is a grid (in "Sports," there are 5 x 5, 10 x 10, 15 x 15, and 20 x 20 grids). Players must color in the right squares in the grid to solve the puzzle. They are told how many colored squares there are in each row or column, but not, of course, the location of the squares. If a row has the number "3" beside it, that means that somewhere on that row is a line of three straight colored squares, but none of the other squares are colored. On the other hand, if a row has the numbers "4 2" beside it, that means that somewhere in that row is a line of four colored squares, followed by one or more non-colored squares, followed by another line of two colored squares. Once a player figures out where all the colored squares are in a particular row (or column), he can cross out the remaining squares in that row, making the remainder of that puzzle easier to solve.



In the standard game, players are allowed to make two mistakes in coloring squares; if they make a third mistake, they must start the game over (there is an easier play option that allows players to continue playing despite making multiple mistakes). The game features a short video tutorial that walks players through a basic 5 x 5 puzzle, shows them how to color squares, and gives some rudimentary strategy. That tutorial should teach players all they need about the mechanics of the game, but figuring out the ins and outs of strategy can be much more involved. The game features 68 puzzles at each of the four difficulty levels (for a total of 272 puzzles). Even at the regular price of $1.99, this game provides excellent value for the money.



Most of the puzzles can be solved through pure deduction. Based on the number of colored squares in each row or column, players can deduce that certain squares must be colored, which then allows players to deduce other squares that must be colored. A few of the most difficult puzzles require some inductive reasoning. Players assume certain squares are colored and continue to play from there until they encounter an impossibility (such as a square that must be colored to have the right number of squares in a row but not colored to have the right number of squares in a column), so they know their initial assumption was incorrect and can mark out some squares as definitely not colored.



The game has one gimmick that's a minor annoyance and one more serious annoyance. Instead of merely presenting players with 272 puzzles to solve, the game provides a series of generic paintings of sports scenes (there are no team or league logos shown since they obviously didn't want to pay licensing fees) each of which has five to eight question marks at different spots in the painting. Players click on a question mark to play a puzzle, and when they solve the puzzle, the question mark is replaced by an object that belongs in the painting. It's a completely unnecessary and somewhat silly gimmick, but, in the grand scheme, it's only a minor annoyance.



The major annoyance is size of the 20 x 20 grid. I liked the more challenging puzzles at this level, but the grid is too big to display entirely on my seven-inch Kindle. As a result, I had to scroll from side to side to see the entire grid and I sometimes made mistakes because I couldn't see the entire puzzle at one time. It took me about twice as long to get through this level as a result, which was definitely a bother (the earlier FlipPix game I played didn't have 20 x 20 puzzles).



I like puzzle types of games in general, and logic games in particular. FlipPix is the best logic puzzle game I've found for the Kindle. I was fortunate enough to get this as a free app of the day, but, now that I'm finished, but it's easily worth the asking price. The company could have done a better job of designing the highest level puzzles, but overall, it's a terrific, challenging game that's one of the few out there that can be solved by sheer logic.