I’ve been enamored by puzzles my entire life. Oddly one of the earlier memories I have of puzzles are when I was in 4th grade, and we were given logic puzzles to complete. It was one of the first times I enjoyed doing schoolwork! 🙂
Growing up I also played a lot of Lemmings, Carmen Sandiego, and then moved on to Myst and Riven (never beat those two without looking at playthrough guides) among others, and now that ALTTP Randomizer is around, it’s great to be able to play a familiar game with a different puzzle each time.
Being a parent, it’s also really cool to work on puzzles with the little ones. My 5 year old can handle some light difficulty, but when I do puzzles with her and my 9 year old son, I help them with some really difficult ones (we love the 1000 piece puzzles from The Magic Puzzle Company), and it’s great to see the excitement on their faces when they finish.
Lately my son has been playing games on the switch other than Smash (finally!), and I introduced him to Picross. Picross has been around for a very long time, and now that my son has that cognitive ability to think more on his own, I love how he can get into his own puzzle games and learn how to solve things. And with smartphones it’s so much easier to pass the time with different puzzle games – some of my favorites over the last 20 years were Bookworm, Candy Crush, Bejeweled, 2048, and Sudoku among others.
When I had the idea for this MSU, it started primarily because of my love for the game Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo. For those of you unfamiliar, its a 1v1 puzzle game kind of like Tetris 99, where instead of lines, you break gemstones to give your opponent gems to fill up their space. I played it a lot, and even entered into an arcade tournament once where I got 3rd place!
The characters are from some of the more famous Capcom entrants (like Street Fighter and Darkstalkers) and the music has remixes from those games. I might end up releasing an MSU from this game, but I’m just glad that it spawned this Puzzle Games MSU instead. When I was thinking “I wonder how I can fit something like Candy Crush in”, I was delighted to be able to not only get it in, but insert tunes from games over the last 30 years.
I really like how it all came together and am happy to share it with you!
Download Pack – Puzzle Games Mix (640.6 MB)
Track Listing
- Opening Theme: Candy Crush Outro 1
- Light World Overworld: Sudoku – Gridmaster 1-01 BGM01
- Rain State (Standard): Tetris (NES) BGM 3
- Bunny State: The Incredible Machine – Euro
- Lost Woods: Picross S6 – BGM 06
- Prologue: Big Brain Academy – BGM Select 01
- Kakariko: Brain Age 2 – BGM Title
- Mirror Transition: Big Brain Academy Wii Degree – Atama Fanfare
- Dark World Overworld: Picross 3D – 15 Challenge
- Pedestal Pull: Yoshi’s Cookie – And the Winner
- File Select Screen: Brain Age 2 – BGM Home
- Guards Summoned: Lemmings – One Way or Another
- Dark Death Mountain: Tetris (NES) BGM 1
- Minigame: Picross 3D 2 – BGM C 0521
- Skull Woods Overworld: Wario’s Woods – Menu
- Castle: Picross e2 – STRM ME B 00
- Light World Dungeon: Rain Blocks – Rainy Day (start 1:19)
- Cave 1: Picross S5 – BGM 02
- Boss Victory: Picross S4 – Jng 06 01
- Sanctuary: Big Brain Academy – NCS BGM Hakari
- Boss Fight: Tetrisphere – Flim Flam
- Dark World Dungeon: Tetrisphere – Learn
- Shop and Fortune Teller: Dr. Mario – Select
- Cave 2: Color Cross – Soft 4
- Zelda Rescue: Yoshi’s Cookie – Almost Done!
- Crystal Cutscene: Picross S2 – Jingle 03
- Fairy Fountain: Picross S4 – BGM 01
- Top of Castle Tower: Rainblocks – Midnight Breeze
- Ganon Reveals Himself: Dr. Mario – Game Over
- Drop Into Ganon: Tetris (NES) BGM 2
- Ganon Fight: Tetris 99 – Game Theme (10 Left)
- Triforce Room: Tetris 99 – Results (1st Place)
- Ending Sequence: Picross 3D – 23 Play 07 (Start Late)
- Ending Credits: Sudoku Gridmaster – 2-BGM02
- Eastern Palace: Yoshi’s Cookie – Two-Player Bakeoff
- Desert Palace: Captain Toad – Ruins (Day)
- Aga Tower: Rain Blocks – Rainy Day (Fast)
- Swamp Palace: Picross S5 – BGM 00
- Palace of Darkness: The Incredible Machine 3 – Detective Theme
- Misery Mire: Tetris 99 – Main Menu
- Skull Woods: Wario’s Woods – Round Game
- Ice Palace: Bejeweled – Data Jack #1
- Tower of Hera: Candy Crush Saga Loop 1
- Thieves Town: Puzzle Fighter – Morrigan
- Turtle Rock: Lemmings – Shadow of the Beast II
- Ganon’s Tower Downstairs: Tetrisphere – Learn
- Eastern Palace Boss: Yoshi’s Cookie – Frantic Factory
- Desert Palace Boss: Captain Toad – Mummy Maze
- Aga Tower Boss: Rainblocks – Rainy Day (Remix)
- Swamp Palace Boss: Picross S5 – BGM04
- Palace of Darkness Boss: The Incredible Machine 3 – Progressive
- Misery Mire Boss: Tetris 99 – Game Theme (50 Left)
- Skull Woods Boss: Wario’s Woods – Versus
- Ice Palace Boss: Bejeweled – Data Jack #4
- Tower of Hera Boss: Candy Crush – Intro2
- Thieves Town Boss: Puzzle Fighter – Akuma
- Turtle Rock Boss: Lemmings – Menace
- Ganon’s Tower Downstairs Boss: Tetrisphere – Phony
- Ganon’s Tower Upstairs: Tetrisphere – Flim Flam
- Light World 2 (Post Ped): Picross 3D 2 – BGM F Final 0604
- Dark World 2 (Post 7 Crystals): Picross 3D 2 – BGM E Final 0520