Five new thinking games — Sudoku, Cube Twist, Block Escape, Arrow Zoom, Gobble Monkey

Five new games landed over the last two weeks. Four are logic puzzles, one is a maze-chase, and all of them lean on thinking rather than speed. Here is the short tour.

Sudoku is a thinking puzzle your child fills in with numbers, but there is no arithmetic in it — a number simply cannot repeat in a row, column, or little box. Grids start tiny at 4×4 and grow to 6×6 and 9×9. No clock, no red marks. Best for ages 5–8.

Cube Twist is a twisty colour cube solved by dragging. Pull a row and the whole row slides together, so one move visibly changes many pieces at once. It starts at 2×2 and grows to 3×3, with an always-on hint so a stuck child is never truly stuck. Best for ages 5–8.

Block Escape is a Rush Hour-style sliding puzzle distilled for kids. Wide blocks slide left and right, tall blocks slide up and down, and the job is to clear a path so the red block can escape. Best for ages 5–7.

Arrow Zoom is a tap-and-clear logic puzzle on a small grid. Every square holds an arrow; tap one with a clear path and it zooms off the edge, opening the way for others. The order you clear them in is the whole puzzle. Best for ages 5–8.

Gobble Monkey is our kid-safe take on the maze-chase classic. Your child swipes to steer a hungry monkey through a maze, gobbling bananas while dodging the ghosts. The ghosts are slower and the maze is more open than the arcade original — a gentler first chase. Best for ages 4–8.

Four of these five sit in the logic-puzzle family, which is quietly becoming the deepest corner of epotli. If your child takes to one, Zip, Tangram, and No-Lift One Line are the natural next steps.