Nurikabe World

I really enjoy how this engages my brain without breaking it and yet relaxes me at the same time. The visuals are so calming and the music is mellow too. And the various puzzles offer a variety of challenges to keep my mind sharp. A great game to play on breaks to unwind and decompress. Highly recommend!

Exactly what it says. I really like it when puzzle games get into this flowy state of subconscious solving, rather than pushing my brain to its limits to try to find the solution.

Nurikabe has quickly become one of my favourite puzzles after learning about it through a daily puzzle game called Thinky Dailies (it rotates puzzle types, and one day it happened to be introducing Nurikabe). The way you place down walls (rivers, in this game) to create rooms (islands) is simple but quickly leads to interesting logic as you have to consider reachability, connection, and whether you're going to create any 2x2s. Desiring more Nurikabe to sate my ever-growing hunger for these puzzles, I went searching for games, upon which I landed on this one. It met all of my expectations for a game of this nature. It has a good amount of puzzles, split into multiple campaigns, which ramp up in difficulty very nicely. The first campaign is all about teaching the basics, but people who are already familiar with the puzzle and techniques for solving can just skip through quickly while newbies are taught the rules and mechanics. Then later puzzles start introducing different hints and tips for solving more complex puzzles. There are even some side puzzles that are a bit more tricky but don't rely on techniques the player hasn't been taught yet. One thing I enjoy is that the puzzles aren't always on a basic square or rectangular grid - there are also puzzles on unusually shaped grids which provide extra considerations. Outside of the main campaigns, you also have daily puzzles, user-generated puzzles, and an infinite mode. These all provide extra long-term content for the game, and I can see myself coming back regularly to do the dailies, or going through some user-generated campaigns. The presentation of this game also merits special mention - it absolutely nails it in this department. The visuals are lovely, and feel far less dry than you'd probably expect a logic puzzle to be. Seeing the buildings and flora sprouting up on completed islands is very satisfying and gives a slightly more visceral feel to the simple action of surrounding an island with water. Little attention to detail is also appreciated, such as whirlpools forming when you create a 2x2 of water, providing a clear visual signifier of your error. There are also multiple seasonal themes, which each have their own unique visuals and music. Said music is great - it's very calm and relaxed which is perfect for thinking about more complex puzzles. All said, this is just about the perfect Nurikabe game, and I would recommend getting it even at full price. The amount of content here should keep you busy for a while, and it's easily the most visually satisfying way to solve Nurikabe puzzles that I'm aware of.