The puzzle board game genre is defined by Thinkfun‘s game Rush Hour: a board, a few simple geometric pieces, 40 or 50 cards indicating the starting positions for one puzzle, and the object is to move the pieces around in order to accomplish the goal, generally to un-obstruct one piece or one section of the board. We’ve covered some of these games, such as one from FoxMind, and more recently Tilt from Thinkfun.

Thinkfun has several other games in this genre. It’s most popular game here is Solitaire Chess: a board, a few simple pieces (Chess pieces), cards indicating 60 challenges, which all involve capturing all the pieces on the board, leaving only one piece left.

Another new and delicious-looking one is Chocolate Fix. You have nine pieces and clue cards, that, with Sudoku-like logic, you must use to fill the grid.

The good part about puzzle board games is that they only require one player. The bad part is that, once you’ve solved the puzzles in the box, you’re pretty much done with the game, at least until an expansion set comes along.