Nothing beats giving the old grey matter a tease; and even better is when it’s done via the medium of video games. Who says they rot your brain? From maths, to physics, to visual novels, to the tried-and-true point and click, there really is something for everyone in the genre, regardless of which cognitive faculty they’d like to tickle.
TheNintendo Switch, in particular, is a goldmine for puzzle games. Given that it generally angles toward a more casual audience, many developers find it a natural fit for them (as Nintendo hardware has often been in the past). Here’s a look at the cream of the Mensa crop.
Updated June 02, 2025, by Bobby Mills: The Nintendo Switch istheplace to be if you’re a puzzle fanatic. Its hardware and built-in touchscreen make it a perfect facilitator for all things mentally taxing; and to honour that, we’ve decided to add even more top picks to our list. Have fun puzzling out which ones are new!
13Lost In Play
Small Budget, Big Heart
Lost In Play, a little point-and-clicker from Happy Juice Games, flew squarely under the radar on its 2023 debut. Which is a shame, as it’s pure, sunshine joy distilled into videogame form, with a cache of corking brainteasers to boot that’ll get your thought cooker cookin'.
Lost In Play holds the rare distinction ofa 100 percent approval rate on Steam. Thanks to its 4,000+ positive user reviews, it’s maintained a perfect 10/10 since launch. Talk about a sales pitch!
Siblings Toto and Gal find their playtime getting a little out of hand when they wind up stuck in the sugar-addled realm of their own imaginations. Here, seafaring pirate birds challenge you to cards; gnomes hold civilized tea parties; and sea monsters are just part of the furniture. The main selling point here is the gorgeous, fluid animation, which hovers somewhere between Adventure Time and the works of Genndy Tartakovsky.
12Machinarium
Even Robots Can Love
Amanita Design is, quietly, one of the very best indie puzzler studios out there. Based in the Czech Republic, the team has produced such titles as Questionaut and Botanicula, all in a very distinct, chalky art style that oozes charm. Their crowning achievement, however, is Machinarium – and it’s dirt cheap on Switch.
Though it’s been ported countless times, and is far from a new game, Nintendo’s system is undoubtedly the definitive home of Machinarium. You play a tiny robot in a barren, silent wasteland, in pursuit of a lady robot (naturally). Poke and prod around each gorgeously depressing environment to solve conundrums and ensure romance wins the day.
11Tetris 99
High Octane Row-Making
Tetris 99 faced a quandary. How exactly do you take such a well-worn, familiar game as Tetris - that dates back several decades - and inject it with a freshness and modernity that’ll turn heads? The answer was, as ever, battle royale. In Tetris 99, you’ll not only be slotting Ts and Ls into rows by yourself, but doing it against more than ninety other players. No pressure.
It’sa block-eat-block worldout there. The more rows you complete, the more dead weight you may launch into other players' boards, making them drop like flies all the faster. Careful, though; that same harsh treatment could be coming your way too. Fast, frenetic, but still preserving that Tetris goodness, it’s a must-play.
10Ace Attorney
No Objections From Us
Though not officially classified as a ‘puzzle franchise’ by its creator Capcom, the Ace Attorney series of lawyer-em-ups is beloved all over the world by brainteaser enthusiasts. It’s thanks to its fantastic stories, charming and eccentric cast of characters, and genuine stumpers during the trial portions. You’ll be doing as much thinking here as you would in Big Brain Academy (albeit in a fancier suit).
On the Switch, newcomers have two jumping-on points. The first, and the most recommended, is the Ace Attorney Trilogy, which collects the first three of Phoenix Wright’s adventures in a lavish HD remaster. The second is The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a prequel set in Meiji-era Japan that may be a bit lost on those unfamiliar with the series' lore. Once those have been cleared, you can move on to sample theApollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which closes out the saga. Whichever route you choose, prepare for some thrilling courtroom standoffs.
9Snipperclips
Snip, Clip, Snip Some More
A very early Switch title, Snipperclips had the unenviable task of moving hardware while also convincing gamers of the utility of the Joy-Con. It aimed to achieve this by having the two halves of the controller quite literally personified, in the form of a duo of geometric characters – who, horrifyingly, can rip dirty great chunks out of one another.
Snipperclips is a co-op puzzler where, as the name implies, snipping and clipping are the order of the day. By aligning yourself in various ways, you’re able to reshape your partner, allowing them to fit into certain gaps, machinery, and so on.It’s a cute, kid-friendly concept; and though it does grow rather stale near the end, its quirkiness makes it absolutely worth the asking price.
8Humongous Entertainment Classic Collection
Education Is Elementary
If there’s a company responsible for more formative childhood PC games than Humongous Entertainment, we ain’t met ‘em. Most gamers of a certain age can recount a memory they’ll have had with at leastoneof these colourful characters: Spy Fox, Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish, and Putt-Putt, whose surprisingly wry dialogue and charming animation made them Windows 98 mainstays.
Now, if you fancy paying them another visit, (most of) their adventures come compiled in the Switch’s Humongous Classic Collection. Note that they arenot remasters, and are instead straight ports of the originals, warts and all; so whether that’s worth the asking price is up to you.
7Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training
Glasses, Glasses!
An absolute staple of the DS era, Dr. Kawashima, in all his polygonal, slightly judgmental glory, returns for an HD outing on the Switch. Many of the classic exercises you remember from the original are back, now with a far chunkier handheld to scribble on. Endlessly scrolling math equations, number and word association, memory tests, that bloody impossible colour matching one; they’re all here.
For double-dippers, there are some new modes too. One will have you counting on your fingers via the Joy-Con’s camera, while another has you totting up the number of boxes in 3D space. There’s even local multiplayer, if you’re the kind of person who brags about their smarts to their mates.
6Sam And Max
Patience Is A Sharp Razor To Swallow, Little Buddy
Sam and Max, as protagonists, are about as venerable as the puzzle game genre itself. Though they started life as unhinged comic book characters, a couple of LucasArts PC adventure titles in the 1990s would rocket the duo to stardom. The IP remained dormant until Telltale Games hoovered it up in the mid-2000s and got to work on a fresh batch of Freelance Police adventures. That long, long road has led us to this: Sam and Max, remastered in HD for Switch.
Presently available are two of this eccentric duo’s most popular offerings, Sam and Max Save The World and Sam and Max: Beyond Time and Space. They’re your typical Telltale Games ‘talk to everyone, click on every object, andstillhave no idea what to do’ fare, but they’re elevated by some of the most genuinely hysterical satire in gaming history. Everything from politics to entertainment to the very videogame medium itself is lampooned, and Sam and Max themselves are unbeatable fun to hang with.
Third Port’s The Charm
When Super Mario 3D World was launched back on the Wii U, a standout feature was the Captain Toad side story. Every so often, you’d come across a level where you’d play as the diminutive fungi, whose inability to jump and plodding pace made for more cerebral stage design. Fans were hooked, and Nintendo soon delivered a solo quest for Captain Toad; the definitive version of which is on Switch.
This remaster packs in all the stages from the original, with all the noggin-busting puzzles you could ask for, and adds some new content for good measure. Stages based on Mario Odyssey put in appearances, as does an entire DLC campaign with Toadette. Time for adventure!
4Layton’s Mystery Journey
When Hershel’s Away, The Kat Will Play
A list like this just wouldn’t be complete without Hershel Layton himself. Practically synonymous with the puzzle genre on Nintendo systems, the eponymous gentleman and his protégé Luke have beenentertaining (and confounding) players for almost two decades, and will continue to do so in 2025’s Professor Layton and the World of Steam.
In this Switch entry, you’ll largely be playing as Katrielle, the good professor’s adoptive daughter. Hershel has gone missing, and it’s down to Kat and her ever-expanding posse of loveable chums to discover why – and how it all connects to the mysterious ‘Millionaire’s Conspiracy.’
