Free online spatial reasoning games: rotation, mazes
Visuospatial perception · 31 games
Visuospatial perception, or spatial orientation, lets you picture shapes and where they are: rotating an object in your head, reading a map, finding your way, estimating a quantity at a glance. It is what you use to park a car or assemble furniture.
How these games use it
These games ask you to rotate a letter in your mind, find a path, split a grid into rectangles or estimate a number of dots shown for a moment. Everything happens in your mental picture of space.
Play nowThe games
- Mirror or Turn
- Is the letter on the right just turned, or flipped like in a mirror?
- How Many Dots?
- The dots only stay on screen for a moment: estimate how many and pick the right answer.
- Maze
- Find the way to the flag: drag your finger and the token follows it (or tap a neighbouring cell, or use the arrow keys). Hitting a wall costs time.
- What Time Is It?
- Read the clock and pick the right time. Watch out for traps!
- Rectangles
- Drag to split the grid into rectangles: each holds exactly one number, equal to its number of squares.
- Mahjong
- Remove matching tiles in pairs. A tile is free only if nothing sits on it and its left or right side is open. Stuck? Shuffle the remaining tiles (+10 s). Clear the board!
- Blocks
- Place the pieces on the grid. A full row or column clears and scores points (even more when several go at once). The game ends after the last hand, or when no piece fits.
- Pipes
- Tap a tile to turn it a quarter turn. Every pipe end must meet its neighbour's, nothing may point at the edge, and all the cells must form a single network.
- 6 or 9
- A 9 is hiding among the 6s. Find it, round after round.
- Smile
- One smile isn't like the others. Find it, round after round.
- Slide Puzzle
- Slide the tiles to put the numbers back in order, from smallest to largest.
- Pairs
- Turn the cards over two at a time and find all the pairs as fast as you can.
- Flash Memory
- Some squares light up together for a moment: find them all, in any order.
- Crowns
- One crown per row, column and colour zone, and no two crowns may touch. Tap once for ✕, twice for 👑.
- Flood
- Pick a color: your area (top left) takes it and grows. Cover the whole grid before you run out of moves.
- Nonogram
- Find the picture: the numbers give, in order, the blocks of black cells in each row and column.
- Skyscrapers
- Place buildings, each height once per row and column. A clue on the edge says how many buildings you can see from there: tall ones hide short ones.
- Light Bulbs
- Place bulbs to light every white cell: a bulb lights its row and column up to a wall, two bulbs must not see each other, and a number tells how many bulbs touch that wall.
- Tents
- Pitch one tent next to each tree (above, below, left or right). Tents never touch, not even diagonally, and the numbers on the edge count the tents in each row and column.
- Word Search
- Find every hidden word in the grid: across, down or diagonally, sometimes backwards. Drag from the first letter to the last.
- Connect
- Drag from a dot to its twin, cell by cell, without diagonals. Pipes never cross: drawing over one cuts it, and no pipe goes through a wall. You win when every pair is connected and no cell is empty.
- Peg Solitaire
- Tap a peg, then the empty hole two steps away in a straight line: the jumped peg is removed. You win when a single peg is left, anywhere. Every position can be solved; undo and restart are available.
- Islands
- Shade cells: the sea must be all in one piece, with no 2 × 2 fully shaded square, and each island (block of white cells) holds a single number equal to its number of cells. Tap: shaded, then dot (island), then empty. One solution only.
- Battleships
- Ships are straight and never touch, not even diagonally. Each number on the edge tells how many ship cells its row or column holds. Tap: ship, then water, then empty.
- Slitherlink
- Join the dots with one closed loop, with no crossings or branches. Each number says how many sides of its cell the loop uses; a cell without a number can have any.
- Masyu
- Draw one closed loop through the centres of the cells, with no crossings, passing through every pearl. On a black pearl it turns and goes straight through the next two cells; on a white pearl it goes straight and turns just before or just after.
- Dominosa
- The grid is fully covered by a complete set of dominoes, from double 0 to the double of the highest number, each once; only the numbers remain. Slide from a cell to its neighbour to place a domino: no two dominoes may carry the same pair of numbers.
- Mosaic
- Each number tells how many cells are black in the 3 × 3 square around it, its own cell included. Tap a cell to shade it, again to mark it with a dot (surely white), then to clear it; slide to paint several.
- Sokoban
- Move with the arrows, by swiping on the grid or by tapping a cell. You push a crate by walking into it, but can't pull it: a crate in a corner is lost. “Undo” takes back the last step. Fastest wins.
- Route Memory
- The car leaves the flag and drives square by square. When it is back at the start, repeat its route by tapping neighbouring squares one at a time. Route right: one point and one more square; wrong square: one life, and a new route. Most routes right wins.
- Chimp Test
- Numbers from 1 to n appear on the grid. Take your time to memorize them, then tap the 1: the others hide. Tap the cells in order. Grid cleared: one point and one more number; mistake: one life. Most grids cleared wins; on a tie, the fastest.
Getting the most out of it
Play a few minutes regularly rather than one long session; start on easy, then move up a level once your time settles; compare yourself with yourself from one day to the next. These games are first and foremost entertainment: they draw on these abilities, but they are not a medical device, and progress in a game does not guarantee progress elsewhere. What they offer: a few minutes of active focus, measured, that you can compare from one day to the next and with your friends.