All categories

Zen Puzzle Garden 1.3

Free An enchanting and challenging pixel-graphic puzzle game.
4 
Latest version:
1.3 See all
Collect

Zen Puzzle Garden is a game in which you are presented with a sand garden containing several items. These items - immobile rocks, sliding stone lanterns, and order-sensitive fallen leaves - interfere with your ability to rake the entire garden without crossing over the path you've taken, a task which just so happens to be your goal.

The puzzles start out fairly simple, but quickly increase in difficulty. A key source of the difficulty is, as in the game of Go, the seemingly endless variety of possibilities presented by the initial empty state. But once the player has done some fiddling around, patterns to the problem-solving become apparent and make each level approachable. Those who wish to cut to the chase can visit the hints and solutions page on the developer's website.

Zen Puzzle Garden has the unassuming depth and quality of a haiku, but its 100 built-in puzzles are sure to keep you playing longer than it would take to read a three-line poem. Toss in the level designer that comes with the program and you've got all the tranquilly frustrating sand-raking you could ever ask for.

Review summary

Pros

  • Easy to skip a challenging level for a while when stuck
  • Effective, unassuming graphics
  • Level editor included
  • Undo, restart, and speed up shortcuts do wonders for smoothing out gameplay

Cons

  • Difficulty may be too high for some

Comments

Suggestions

Angry Birds Rio
Angry Birds Rio

Travel to Brazil in the latest Angry Birds adventure

Bookworm
Bookworm

Tough Scrabble-style word game

Storyteller
Storyteller

Create your story in this puzzle game

Swift Playgrounds
Swift Playgrounds

A full version app for Mac, by Apple.

Lost in Play
Lost in Play

Experience an enchanting puzzle adventure

A little to the Left
A little to the Left

A relaxing game about organizing

Download
Free