There’s something familiar about the gameplay on Lambda Mu’s Shady Puzzle: Super Awesome Compilation Edition! for the iPhone. I can’t put my finger on it, but while I’ve definitely seen this gameplay before, Shady Puzzle’s art style, like  pages torn-out of a grid-based exercise book for the background with magic marker shadings, and sub-gameplay modes make things interesting.

In each level, players are presented with a bunch of rows and columns, forming boxes that need to be shaded based on the given values both horizontally and vertically. Now that I’m writing this, Picross comes to mind. Anyone who’s familiar with Picross should take to Shady Puzzle like ducks to water.

To add spice to the proceedings, there are different types of levels in the game. While the gist is still shading and solving puzzles, some levels have a time limit, while others will end at the very first wrong move. It’s in the latter that Shady Puzzle adds a new innovation with the “guess” mode in which you get to simulate solutions without being penalised.

Each puzzle shouldn’t take long to solve, making the game perfect for short bursts of gaming. With iOS 4 support, I can even resume my game where I left it. The puzzle selection screen is pretty cool, tap any of the blocks to start a  level.

Like Picross, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith when it comes to playing some of the levels in Shady Puzzle, and that’s what I really like about the game. The current edition of the Shady Puzzle features an all new holiday pack, with 36 new puzzles. The game is tied up with the new Game Center and this should be even more fun once I can get a to a free WiFi hotspot around here in Jakarta (I’m overseas for a week long business trip).

Shady Puzzle is now available on the App Store for USD 0.99, which is a damn good bargain. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shady-puzzle-super-awesome/id381032015?mt=8. Highly recommended.