One of the more popular types of computer games are puzzle games. These types of games provide players with problems in logic and a certain type of addictiveness that makes playing good ones always worth the time it takes to play. Ingenious is a puzzle game for one to up to four players at a time. Play revolves around placing colored tiles on a hexagonal grid with scoring for the correct color combinations. The objective is to fill the entire game board with the correct colors to earn points and the eventual victory.

These types of games are designed around teaching and applying long-term strategy and recognizing the potential for immediate openings. As you place chips you receive new ones and you try to score points in the colors every turn if you hope to win.

Another of the rules is you must score points in all the colors to win the game. You cannot ignore a color no matter how well you are doing in other colors or the game will be lost. As you play a graph shows both your progress and your opponent’s progress in each color group. You can score more points for placing colored tiles along paths already on the board. Sometimes you can earn a double move doing this and this will greatly enhance your chances of victory in the game.

When playing there is a game timer for each move but there is usually enough time to place tiles. Each tile is actually two spaces and can be rotated and have various color combinations. You cannot place tiles in the open areas in the singles game but can do so in the multiplayer version.

The game moves along quite quickly and only takes a few minutes to finish so you can play many games at a sitting. Since the draw of chips is random no two games will be exactly alike and like many familiar puzzle games of the past the start is always the same and where the game goes from there is up to you.

Overall this is a fun little puzzle game that can provide a nice diversion and is a bit of a challenge in logic. The replay ability is a little light but it can be more fun playing against a human player or players. The game board is colorful and the pace moves right along, making this a nice effort.

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