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U.S. publisher Mattel bought the Blokus line in the late 2000s, and in the past two years it's released two items that use the core concept of the game in new ways: 2019's Blokus Dice Game (which I covered here) and 2018's Blokus Puzzle, this being a logic puzzle instead of a game, with the puzzles being designed by Nick Hayes.
Blokus Puzzle includes 48 challenges, with challenges coming in three types, but all having the same principles: Slide the challenge card into the plastic holder, take the 3-5 pieces depicted on the bottom of that challenge, then place them in the plastic grid to fulfill the current goal. As in Blokus, all the pieces you place must touch at least one other piece of yours — whether one you place or one of the blue pieces printed on the challenge — and your pieces can touch one another only at the corners. You can abut the black pieces printed on the challenge card, but not cover them.
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Here are the three types of challenges:
• Red: Build off the blue piece printed on the challenge to place all of the pieces depicted without covering any of the Xs. I've included a completed challenge above.
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• Yellow: Build off the blue piece printed on the challenge to cover all of the stars printed on the challenge card. Cards have 1-3 stars printed on them.
• Blue: Place the depicted pieces to connect the two pieces printed on the challenge card.
Challenges escalate in difficulty within each type, and each challenge has multiple "false paths" in which pieces seem like they'll achieve whatever the particular goal is — only to discover that the final piece doesn't fit anywhere, which then forces you to backtrack or swap pieces in the hope of finding room for all the bits.
I'm sure that my experience playing Blokus and many other polyomino-based games helps me have an easier time solving these puzzles, but even the first puzzles can be tricky if you don't read them the right way. You need to be open to finding new paths, although in some cases you'll realize that the five-block piece can fit in only a few spaces, which narrows the choices for where you might build.
I've played Blokus Puzzle repeatedly over the nearly two years that I've had it, with Mattel giving me a review copy at Gen Con 2018. The puzzles thread the needle of being challenging, but not impossible. If you want, you can methodically attempt all the possible layouts as the number of possibilities isn't enormous, but it is large enough that you want to avoid that, if possible — and with experience you start to see where pieces can go, their shapes almost popping out of the grid at you.
For more on Blokus Puzzle, check out the video below:
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