Computer puzzle game

Before there ever were videogames (well, as we would recognise them) there were the likes of Connect 4[?] and Rubiks Cube, today's puzzle game forefathers. The genre is a little bit hard to describe: the gameplay is usually abstract (but not always) often involving arranging geometric shapes to fulfil some goal or constraint. Often edge matching or colour matching plays an important role. Puzzle games usually strive to have a pick-up-and-play accessibility to them and to have an addictive quality.

Puzzle games are relatively easy to develop and to take from dedicated arcade units, to home consoles, to personal digital assistants and mobile phones.

Tetris is widely regarded as the pinnacle of its genre, despite not having any real advertising nor a cute character to lust after. Solitaire and Minesweeper is worth a mention merely because of its huge installed user base (it comes bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system).

See also: Video game, List of computer puzzle games