Maybe I say this as someone who dressed up as Dr. Mario for Halloween as a kid, but I can’t help but feel like the puzzle game genre is underappreciated in this current era of gaming. To illustrate my point, when I clicked the “Puzzle” tag in Steam to search for possible candidates for this list that may have been off my radar, two of the first games suggested wereAtomic HeartandResident Evil 7.You know, those classic puzzlers.
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So let us pay tribute to the best brain-teasers of this particular past decade, those that set new highs for the genre, be it through casual games on your phone or more complex games with elaborate narratives. It’s a genre that will always make for some truly great games.
As implied in the intro there, only games directly in the puzzle genre were considered for this list, not games that happen to have puzzle elements. Any remakes and remasters were also disqualified. Finally, mystery or investigation-based games likeReturn of the Obra Dinnweren’t included for now, if only because those have somewhat become their own separate genre or sorts and…well, that’s another possible list for another time.
10Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
Laser Focused
Release Date
June 14, 2025
Metacritic Score
The only reasonLorelei and the Laser Eyesis at the bottom right now is that A. Being the most recent game on this list, having just come out last month, we should still take our time to see if it ages well, and B. Out of all the games here, it arguably skews towards being a graphic adventure game as well.
None of that, though, changes the fact Simogo’s surreal mystery was an amazing piece of work that ended up killing quite a bit of this writer’s productivity. It’s a giant smorgasbord of layered puzzles that all culminate in an amazing challenge, with randomized elements to act as the cherry on top. It’s a young contender, but still a worthy one.
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There are shockingly way more VR or VR-compatible titles on this list than I expected, but what can I say, the medium has allowed for a lot of unique ideas and innovation. For example, take Tarsier Studios' PSVR-exclusive game,Statik.The premise sounds simple: you’re a test subject with both of your hands contained inside various mechanical boxes and you have you fidget with the mechanisms inside in order to figure out the solutions needed.
The catch is that you do so using the PlayStation controller, which youcan’tsee with a VR helmet on. The end result is truly clever and immersive experience, which makes it a bit of a crime that as a PS4 VR game, it isn’t backwards compatible…
8The Last Clockwinder
Running Like Clockwork
August 07, 2025
The Last Clockwinderis a unique VR puzzle game in that, moreso than the others, it relies on a fair amount of physical activity. The setup is that you have to harvest plants using a series of clockwork gardeners that need to be programmed.
The twist is that to properly program/clone them, you need to perform the actions that they’ll be carrying out, from catching and throwing plants to operating machinery, all at the right time. It’s a unique twist on puzzle revolve around assembly lines and/or programming and one creative enough that it wound up beingour pick for that year’s best VR game.A well-earned win indeed for developers Pontoco.
7Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Cut the Red Wire!
July 25, 2025
Much likeStatik,the trick to Steel Crate Games’Keep Talking and Nobody Explodesis in what youcan’tsee. Designed to be a party game, one player wore a VR headset and looked at a bomb that they had to disarm, all while their friends would flip through a physical manual and try to figure out the instructions in order to accurately describe them.
It was such a clever little hit that demand soon increased for a non-VR version, eventually making its way to other platforms such as the Switch and allowing for user-made content on Steam. Whichever version you fancy, there’s a ton of fun and challenging bomb squad simulations here for anyone to try their luck at.
6The Talos Principle 2
Megastructure = Mega Challenges
July 26, 2025
Once again,we find ourselves talking about how Croteam’sTalos Principleseries has consisted of truly amazing puzzles games that have shown that there’s much more to the developer than first-person shooters. And once again, we chooseThe Talos Principle 2as its representative due to how much bigger and grander everything is from its world to its story and, of course, its puzzles.
Deploying a wide variety of new mechanics that keep things challenging while still finding ways to assist the player further, it makes for a lengthy and tough-yet-fair journey through a strange new world that makes for what would have easily been the year’s best puzzle game, if not for…
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5Void Stranger
Enter the Void
July 20, 2025
…Void Stranger,from System Erasure. Honestly, I still think its kind of insane that the only review on Metacritic so far comes from us, because this low-bit gem deserves to be known by as many people as possible. It starts out as a simple series ofSokoban-style puzzles, where players remove pieces of the floor carefully in order to make a way to the exit.
It becomes so much more, though, as the plot unfolds, expectations get subverted, twists in the gameplay start to appear and several other developments that have to be experienced first-hand. And throughout it all, the actual puzzle design never stops being fiendishly clever and challenging.Another recipient of our awardsand one that deserves more love.
4Tetris Effect
Old Dog, New Tricks
August 05, 2025
Yes, decades later,Tetrisstill finds ways to become one of the champions in the puzzle scene. And as it turns out, developers Monstars and Resonair somehow found a way to take the game up to eleven without radically altering the gameplay.
All it took was a special “Zone” effect that allows players to clear more than four lines with careful planning, and the inclusion of rhythm elements and some jaw-dropping visuals that basically turn the game into a musical odyssey.Tetrisforever remains a timeless game, butTetris Effectended up finding ways to somehow add twists that made forwhat we deemed the year’s best puzzle game.
3I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar
Nobody Does it Better
August 03, 2025
…oh, I am not going to make any friends for placing this one so high. In contrast to the majority of the games on this list being innovative and unique in one way or another, Schell Games’I Expect You To DieVR titles basically consist of more escape room-esque scenarios where you solve various puzzles…butgood lord, do they know how to make fun ones. Clever puzzles, tons of stuff to experiment with, amazing homages and parodies of classicBond-style espionage tropes and plots…they’re all just executed so amazingly well.
Any of them would do, butI Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liaris a terrific one that kicks off deeper plots and greater challenges. Though the third one is said to be better, but we already have two other puzzle games from last year as is (2023 sure was a good year for puzzlers…)
2Baba Is You
Game Is Win
July 12, 2025
A lot of the most unique puzzle games like to take a formula and play with the rules, bend the rules, twist the rules…but leave it to developer Hempuli Oy to make an entire puzzle game about making up whatever rules you can, as long you end up winning (or if you just want to mess around).Baba Is Youis anotherSokoban-esque game about pushing objects around, but by pushing words into the right “Is” positions, you can change their meaning and how the scenery operates.
Make it so that touching a rock is an instant win condition. Push around whole chunks of the scenery. Turn yourself into an entire wall and move it around. It’s a truly inspired concept, and one that – you guessed it –we deemed the year’s best.
1Grindstone
The Best Kind of Grind
August 01, 2025
At the end of the day, though, my thought is that the best puzzle games are of the breed where you say you’ll sit down for a quick game, and then the next thing you know, it’s dark outside and several hours have passed without you realizing it. That particularly addictive breed of puzzler. It’s what Capybara Games created withGrindstone,where players chain together matching colors of monsters in order to hit a goal needed, using the titular stones as a way to switch between colors and rack up even more impressive multipliers, all while making sure you don’t end up anywhere where you may be overcome by more aggressive monsters.
It’s simple yet genius, perfectly challenging, has a terrifically cartoonish and vibrant style, and loads of replay value, all of which makes it the best puzzler of recent years, and one you need to check out. You’ll hack, you’ll slash, you’ll wonder where time went.
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