Color Puzzle 3D – It’s Not Your Average Cube Puzzle

Color Puzzle 3D is a three dimensional, multifacited puzzle block solved by switching and rotating the faces of cubes until all the colors are matched up together. Loosely likened to the famous Rubik’s Cube, Color Puzzle 3D instead features tiles with four triangular color segments per cube face, which can be switched out with another tile anywhere on the object or rotated in position 90 degrees at a time.

As a fan of most every kind of puzzle game, be it the word, picture, or number variety, I had pretty high hopes for Color Puzzle 3D.

On the plus side, it’s definitely challenging. I found it more challenging than Rubik’s simply because the puzzle cube is less of a cube and more of a rectangular prism to start, which means there are more faces to manipulate.

I also found the hint at the beginning to be more confusing than helpful, but those who breeze through this kind of stuff and want a super challenge can adjust the settings to solve a larger cube with even more faces.

By no means a puzzle challenge for the casual puzzler, Color Puzzle 3D requires a great deal of calculation, if not plain dumb luck. Frustration can be high due to the complexity of touch manipulation, which often translates into accidental tile swaps while trying to rotate and study the 3D object. Manipulation options include, single tap to swap tile faces, double tap to rotate, and touch and hold to “lock” or “unlock” a tile into position. A brief tutorial is included to explain these basics.

Color Puzzle 3D won’t make it into my book of favorite iPhone puzzle games — partly because I didn’t derive two dollars worth of entertainment from it and partly because it quickly exceeded my frustration limits. Still, anyone whose interest is piqued by a virtual Rubik’s-Cube-turned-rectangular-prism-puzzle-floating-in-space may very well enjoy it.