Latest news with #puzzlegame
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
"Hello Kitty Merch Match" Launching in 144 countries and regions worldwide in Summer 2025
Collect the "World-famous character items" inside your smartphone TOKYO, May 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Applibot, Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya, Tokyo; President: Koki Ukita) is launching a new smartphone game app "Hello Kitty Merch Match", in 144 countries and regions worldwide this summer. Pre-registration for the game begins today, Thursday, May 22, 2025. "Hello Kitty Merch Match" is a 3D puzzle game, offering simple, accessible gameplay where players find and tap on three matching character items. Over 1,000 different Sanrio character items appear in the game. Players of all ages can enjoy collecting and exploring this extensive virtual collection from nostalgic collectibles to the latest line ups. Ahead of the game's official release, Applibot has launched the official website and social media accounts, alongside revealing the visual and concept movie for the title. "Hello Kitty Merch Match" is scheduled for release in summer 2025 across 144 countries and regions worldwide. Pre-Registration started! Pre-registration is now available on both App Store and Google Play. By pre-registering, users will receive a notification when "Hello Kitty Merch Match" releases, with automatic download available within 24 hours of the release date. More information about "Hello Kitty Merch Match" will be announced via the official "Hello Kitty Merch Match" X (formerly Twitter) account and other channels. *Note: The release date displayed on the App Store link is not the official release date.*If the pre-order button (App Store) or pre-registration button (Google Play) is not active, please try accessing the page again later. Concept Movie Released The visual and concept movie for "Hello Kitty Merch Match" have been unveiled for the first time. In both the visual and movie, various Sanrio characters visit the world of "Sanrio character items". Hello Kitty Merch Match Overview Title: Hello Kitty Merch Match Genre: 3D Match Puzzle Release Date: Summer 2025 Price: Free to play (In-app purchases available) Supported OS: iOS/Android (Availability may vary depending on the device model) Developer and Operator: Applibot Inc. Copyright notice: © '25 SANRIO CO., LTD. APPR. NO. G650141 © Applibot, Inc. 【Official Links】 App Store: Google Play: Official Website: Official X (Twitter): Concept Movie: View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Applibot, Inc. Sign in to access your portfolio
Digital Trends
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Merriam-Webster hops on the Wordle train with new daily puzzle game
Following in The New York Times' footsteps, Merriam-Webster launched a new daily puzzle game called Revealed. The free browser game has players trying to guess a topic from a description filled with redacted words. Considering that Merriam-Webster is behind the world's most iconic dictionary, it makes perfect sense that it would eventually come up with a word game of its own. Though its coming in years after Wordle, a hit that inspired countless daily puzzle games, first took off, Revealed is a clever game in its own right that's worth checking out. Recommended Videos Here's how it works. Each day, players are shown a sheet of paper with a category, such as Arts & Culture, at the top of the page. Below that is an encyclopedia entry where several words are blacked out. Players need to type in what the page is describing by using context clues. That's difficult at a quick glance, but that's where hints come in handy. Each day, players can use up to seven reveals, each of which will uncover a redacted word. Players can also reveal a letter of the topic using a hint. The goal is to guess the topic using as few hints as possible. REVEALED: A Daily Puzzle GameGuess the topic using the fewest reveals and hints! — Merriam-Webster (@ 2025-05-21T13:41:20.902Z So as to not rob you of a real solution, I'll make up an example here. Let's say that that the answer to a puzzle one day is Super Mario Bros. You'd see a page that starts with something like 'Blank is a blank blank released in blank.' You won't be able to reveal that first blank, but say you choose to reveal the second. You'll get the word video, which might clue you in to the fact that the second is game. Rather than wasting a precious reveal confirming that, maybe you'll choose to reveal the next one instead to get the year. You'll do that throughout the page until you feel like you have enough information to make a guess. At the end, you'll get to see your final stats and compare how you did with other players. Lifetime stats like your completion rate and streak are recorded too. If that all sounds enticing, you can try Revealed for free now on Merriam-Webster's website. And if you want more games like it, check out our list of the best games like Wordle.
Geek Dad
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
‘A Gentle Rain': A Relaxing Puzzle Game
Calm your brain at this quiet lake. What Is A Gentle Rain ? A Gentle Rain is a tile-laying puzzle game for 1 or more players, ages 8 and up, and takes about 15 minutes to play. It retails for $22.99 and is available directly from Incredible Dream or at your local game store. There is also a Bloom Edition that is a Target exclusive for $15.99; I'll include a little bit about that in the Components section below. While the game is primarily a solo game, it can easily be played cooperatively by more players taking turns. A Gentle Rain was designed by Kevin Wilson and published by Incredible Dream, with illustrations by Wiktor Kozyra. A Gentle Rain components. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu A Gentle Rain Components Here's what comes in the box: There's a lot of variety in the tile backgrounds. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu The components list is very short because it's a small game, but they're also nice components. The tiles are squares with cut-out corners, making them kind of shaped like plus signs, so that when you place four of them together there is a round cut-out where the corners would meet. The tiles are illustrated to look like a top-down view of a lake, with floating lily pads, fish swimming underwater, ducks floating on the surface, and so on. UV gloss creates some reflective ripples. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu The backs of the tiles also have some UV gloss that looks like little ripples on the water from raindrops. Flower tokens. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu On the edges of the tiles are larger lily pad halves with various colored flowers, matching the flowers printed on the round wooden disks. There are 8 different flowers, each with different colors and petal shapes. The whole thing comes in a small box—it's not flat, so it wouldn't fit in your jeans pocket, but it's definitely small enough to carry around easily. Target's Bloom Edition. Image: Target Target's Bloom Edition replaces the wooden disk with plastic 3D flowers. They're very cute, though it looks like there are only two different flower shapes among the eight colors. The box is also a different shape, with proportions more like a small book. Ultimately the difference between the two is a matter of preference, but I personally like the wooden tokens version that I have. How to Play A Gentle Rain You can download a copy of the rulebook here. The Goal The goal of the game is to place all of the flower tokens using as few tiles as possible. Setup is a cinch: just place one tile on the table. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Setup Mix up the tiles and make a face-down stack, and then draw the first tile and place it in face-up. Set the flower tokens nearby. Placing tiles—no completed flowers yet! Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Gameplay Draw tiles one at a time and add them to the lake—you must place tiles so that the flower halves match. If the tile can go somewhere then you must place it. If it doesn't fit anywhere at all, discard it and draw the next one. I could have chosen any of the four completed flowers to place in this space. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Whenever you create a square of four tiles, completing the circular hole in the center, you may place a flower token. The token must match at least one of the four flowers surrounding that hole. If you've already placed all of the matching tokens, then you don't place any additional tokens. If you're playing with multiple players, just take turns placing tiles. With 7 tiles left, my final score is 15. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Game End The game ends when you've either placed all of the flower tokens, or you run out of tiles. Your final score is the number of flower tokens placed plus the number of tiles left in the draw pile. (The maximum possible score is 21.) A Gentle Rain is GeekDad Approved! Why You Should Play A Gentle Rain Okay, in my rules explanation, I did leave out a few instructions. Before the setup step, the rule sheet actually starts with 'Get comfortable' and suggests making some tea, putting on some nice music, maybe getting into comfy clothes. This is a game that isn't just about the play, but is about creating a relaxing atmosphere while you play. According to the website, Kevin Wilson designed A Gentle Rain at a time when he was having anxiety attacks and found that doing jigsaw puzzles helped him, and the game definitely has a bit of the feeling of putting together a puzzle. It's a calm, chill experience as you draw tiles and look for matching flowers. There is a little bit of strategy to consider if you're really trying to increase your score, even though that's not the main focus of the game. For instance, if you make a U-shaped hole, that's going to be tougher to fill in because you'll need to find a piece that matches on all three sides. On the other hand, if you do manage to do so, it's an amazing feeling to draw exactly the right piece—and it completes two flower tokens at once. You also want to watch that you don't create impossible-to-fill spaces: since each tile has four different colored flowers on its edges, you don't want to create a spot that has two of the same color facing it. I also try to avoid making too many spaces with the same combinations, because you probably don't need multiple spots for a blue flower next to a white flower. The space on the left may be difficult to fill; the space on the right is impossible. Photo: Jonathan H. Liu There's also the choice of which flower token to place, because you don't want to get stuck completing a circle and then not having the right token to fill it—or not having enough tiles left with a certain color flower. Generally, I choose a token based on which flower halves have been used the most so far, but that's not a guarantee. There is, of course, some amount of luck involved in the order that tiles come out. Sometimes you might just get stuck making a long straight line because you keep getting things that just don't match well or would create those impossible spots. Other times you may just draw match after match, creating your needed squares every other turn. Although each tile is unique, you won't always get every possible combination of tiles—after all, with 8 flower colors, there are a lot more ways to arrange four of them than there are tiles in the game, which means that it's quite possible to create spaces that can't be filled simply because that tile doesn't exist. Whether you're playing for points or just playing to occupy your hands, A Gentle Rain is the sort of game that you can just pull out and play without being too mentally taxing. You can play while listening to a podcast, or watching a show, or having a conversation with a friend. When Incredible Dream sent me a copy, I showed it to my wife, who generally doesn't play a lot of tabletop games, and she immediately claimed it. It's the one game that lives in our dining room instead of down in the basement game room—not only because it's so compact, but because she's taken to playing it as a way to wind down before bed or just when she has a free moment. It's one that my kids have also borrowed often, and we often take it with us when we're out somewhere where there will be a little bit of table surface to play. If you like puzzles and you need a way to carve out a little chunk of calm during your busy day, I recommend giving A Gentle Rain a try! Visit the Incredible Dream website for more information! Click here to see all our tabletop game reviews. To subscribe to GeekDad's tabletop gaming coverage, please copy this link and add it to your RSS reader. Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes. Liked it? 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