I remember thinking I had to solve this to get one of the Triforce pieces. When I gave up and consulted a guide I was not happy to find out that I didn't have to solve the puzzle.
I feel your pain op. They are my Achilles heal as well. I know there is a knack to them and with enough time I can complete them but I just can't be bothered with them.
I dislike them for the opposite reason to the OP: I find them dull. Not because they're too challenging; quite the opposite; they're easy once you've had a bit of practice with them, and horribly overused. All-too-frequently it's three minutes of mild irritation with no challenge in it whatsoever. Stick a nice gimmick in there to make it interestingly different or simply don't bother. You can do better than that.
For the OP: All you need to do is this:
* Solve the top row
* Solve the leftmost column
* Solve the second row
* Solve the second column
* Repeat.
That *will* work. Every time, unless they're mixing something else interesting into the fray. Or if they don't actually understand sliding puzzles and randomly generate the initial tile order, which has a 50/50 chance of making something unsolvable, and that's absolutely a cardinal sin: A puzzle devised by someone who doesn't understand puzzles.
I'll call back to this diatribe I wrote earlier about something that I think is even worse. From a thread helpfully entitled "Puzzles you hate".
I'd say iterations of the basic 15-sliding block puzzles, but for a different reason than the OP: They're a solved puzzle. I know them, I know them well. I can do them with little challenge or excitement, and so, unless you throw some other variation into the mix, they're just a chore.
I've ranted about this before, but as an established fan of puzzles, I've *seen* a lot of them, and some of them are *seriously* overused without any variation. How many Towers of Hanoi have I solved? How many times have I done some implementation of the liars-and-truth-tellers puzzle? How many litres/gallons/quarts/pints of liquid have I poured from one bottle to another to get to an exact measurement? How many groups of incompatible people/livestock/cabbages have I got across a river? And I've ranted elsewhere about the fact that I hatesearching solely for the sake of searching; that is, searching should stem organically from the information available, rather than expecting the player to methodically inspect every element to find the wayward info.
I'm not *that* strict. I've been pleasantly surprised by interesting *variations* on the various concepts - there's some more interestingly challenging combinations of jug sizes for water pouring, and there's some very different versions of the ferry crossing puzzle. But when I see one I've seen before with no variation, I tend to roll my eyes somewhat.
While I started the diatribe talking about the 15-puzzle, at least that's fairly simple (and credit where it's due, I can think of one or two Layton iterations of that puzzle with a nice twist to them, and the ones with more abstract shapes are *much* better - although sometimes too hard, I can't really criticise them for that! I think by far the biggest culprit is the bloody Towers of Hanoi.
But even then there's one text adventure - a small amateur piece - called The Magic Toyshop which then puts a nice twist on the premise - the challenge there is to solve the three-disc Towers of Hanoi in six moves, when it takes seven to do that.
Solution in vague terms:
The theme of the game as a whole is taking classic puzzles but presenting them in an impossible form, with the player having to figure out how to subvert the puzzle using the equipment at their disposal
And in specific terms:
When you're holding one disc, you put glue on it before setting it down - after which you can move that disc and the one below as one
Now *that's* a way to take the Towers of Hanoi and keep it fresh.
So, in short, puzzles I hate? Anything I've solved before, with bonus derision if it's a chore to solve at the best of times. But making me *think* that then subverting that expectation, that is worthy of praise.
Old puzzles are old; no matter how interesting you might make them visually, I've seen them before, and as soon as I recognise them, I'm going to be annoyed. Catch me out or give me something new or simply don't bother.
Old puzzles are old; no matter how interesting you might make them visually, I've seen them before, and as soon as I recognise them, I'm going to be annoyed. Catch me out or give me something new or simply don't bother.
Yeah, whether it's sliding puzzles, towers of hanoi or using two buckets of different size to fill a third container it's been done. Please stop including textbook puzzles, or at least find some that haven't been so overdone :/ (Edit: Thinking a bit more on it it's been a while since any of these popped up in a game I've played so maybe developers have finally realized how boring they are)
I don't mind the puzzle itself (I just randomly move blocks till something clicks or I understand what I'm supposed to do), but what I do hate is how very slow the process is when done in 3D. Nothing feels more tedious than having your character physically maneuver between the blocks and with awkward controls slowly tries combinations. God of War, for instance, immediately comes to mind.
I've not seen it before, but I assume the coloured lines of tiles have to match the 'pipes' on the border. That said, I've absolutely no idea what the intent is for the places where the lines intersect.
Edit: Maybe the tiles where the symbol is also a clear colour, like the blue tile with the yellow 'egg' on it?
Nope. Hate, hate, hate sliding puzzles. Whenever I see one I throw my arms up in disgust, then spend 30 minutes trying to figure them out, give up, then consult a FAQ.
Cogs is the only time in my entire life that I enjoyed sliding puzzles and that was only because it was so delightfully physical and neat to see everything work.
It probably helped that a lot of tiles could go in multiple positions
There was one in Fatal Frame 4, I was stuck for about 30 mins and said "f*ck it, I'm learning the strats to beat this type of puzzle"
I had no problem about them ever since.
I immediately look up the solutions on gamefaqs whenever I encounter them, I don't even make an attempt anymore. I suck at them and I don't care to get better because they're lame
Yeah fuck sliding puzzles. I had to make a program to solve them for a class a year or two ago and it was actually easier than doing the puzzle on its own lol.
Ni.Bi.Ru. (terrible Point and Click Adventure) has the worst sliding puzzle I have ever seen. There isn't an actual picture, the tiles have symbols you need to match to the ones behind the tiles, so it is impossible to have a visual cue unless you mess the puzzle in order to see the whole background and copy it in paper. To make matters worse, the puzzle never resets, so any walthrough or solution you look on the net will be useless if you ever save before touching it for the first time.
In the end I live by "You are so lazy to put a slider puzzle, I don't play your game". In the moment I see one of those I quit. That's how much I hate them.
I hate them too. They're right up there with bad water levels, degrading weapons, no reason timers, or slow movement because of weight or low health. Just lousy and no fun.
I even hate Skylanders a lot because of the dumb ass sliding type puzzles. Fuck card games in games also but they're slightly less infuriating than sliding puzzles.
And while I'm complaining screw Danganronpa for it's stupid mini games as well.
I hate them too. They're right up there with bad water levels, degrading weapons, no reason timers, or slow movement because of weight or low health. Just lousy and no fun.
I even hate Skylanders a lot because of the dumb ass sliding type puzzles. Fuck card games in games also but they're slightly less infuriating than sliding puzzles.
And while I'm complaining screw Danganronpa for it's stupid mini games as well.
The only sliding puzzles I ever liked were the 'princess' ones in Layton because they were tough as nails but there wasn't a lot of breathing space, so it felt original and like you were always progressing.
So, from this thread I found out that generic sliding puzzles just cannot be of optimal difficulty - for most of people, they are either too tough or too generic, and way too overused and lazy for both types of players.
LOATHE them, & I don't usually mind puzzle games. For some damn reason, I could never understand them. I'd get part of it solved, but then nope another area is still screwed up so try to get that taken care of but then the solved area is now unsolved & uuuuuuugggggghhhhh.
I try to resort to a program if I can, but when it's a picture, it's hard to tell which piece should be numbered what.
i dont mind them if they reset when you quit. that way at least you can just find the inevitable solution online. if they don't reset though you're going to have to do it yourself...ugh.
There was a Mickey mouse game on the Gameboy I used to play and love as a kid, until I hit a sliding puzzle and then I just moved things around forever till it completed by luck
This one and the ones from Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie were the worst and I never could 100% WW because of that. Sad thing is even though it's optional, a lot of newbies to the game (Even now 12 years later. My friend and BanansaurusRex.) thought it was mandatory (Who reads dialog to learn that it's not?) and spent a while on them before finally reading the comments (Twitch streaming) telling them they're not required.
I dislike them. The ones where you have to form a picture that is. Too easy to mess up completely.
Other kinds, like those rooms in Twilight Princess with the push blocks, those are fine. I like those.
I was going to mention Runescape. There was a sliding puzzle in one of the gnome quests, maybe Monkey Madness? I absolutely despised them and found them impossible, but I sat and read a guide on how to beat it and it's the same strategy for every sliding puzzle.
I hated that one in Another Code/Trace Memory (I think) where you had to make a picture of a bird or something. It was by pure luck I solved it, as it would reset itself every time.
I hated that one in Another Code/Trace Memory (I think) where you had to make a picture of a bird or something. It was by pure luck I solved it, as it would reset itself every time.
Do you have to match them according to color?
