Summary
- Video games can teach real-world skills like critical thinking and hand-eye coordination.
- Puzzle games like Tetris and Portal can enhance organization, space management and out-of-the-box thinking.
- Games like Blue Prince and Brain Age: Concentration Training improve problem-solving and memory skills.
Video games can be a surprisingly valuable source of learning. Apart from sometimes teaching players about topics like history, diplomacy, and mathematics, they tend to encourage logical thinking, improve hand-eye coordination, and even potentially improve social or language skills. Oftentimes, players learn these abilities without even realizing it, since they are enjoying the game too much to notice.
Puzzle games in particular can provide some of the most transferable skills, encouraging critical thinking and effective use of time management, among other useful techniques to utilize in everyday life. Covering a vast array of competences, some of the best puzzle games teach real-world skills that players can apply to their personal and professional lives.
7 Best Games For People With Bad Hand-Eye Coordination
Not everyone is naturally blessed with great hand-eye coordination. Fortunately, not every great game requires it either.
8 The Typing of the Dead
Improve Typing And Kill Zombies
The Typing of the Dead
- Released
- December 1, 1999
- Developer(s)
- Smilebit, Wow Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Sega
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
- Platform(s)
- Arcade, Sega Dreamcast, PC, PlayStation 2, iOS
A bizarre spin-off of The House of the Dead light-gun shooter horror series, The Typing of the Dead exchanges firearms for keyboards to take down the undead. It’s a surprisingly effective transition, ramping up the difficulty as players progress through the levels and making good use of humor, even commenting on proceedings or mocking players through the words they have to type.
Set in Venice and following much the same structure as The House of the Dead 2, the game even features some of the same bonuses, secrets and rescue challenges. During boss battles, it may be required that a simple question is answered, or a longer passage is written, improving speed and accuracy while typing.
7 Brain Age: Concentration Training
Enhance Memory And Concentration With The Help Of Dr. Kawashima
Brain Age: Concentration Training
- Released
- July 28, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E // Comic Mischief
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Genre(s)
- Educational, Puzzle
- Platform(s)
- 3DS
Known in the PAL regions as Dr. Kawashima’s Devilish Brain Training: Can you stay focused?, Brain Age: Concentration Training is a great way to enhance memory and focus. Using the handheld and touchscreen functionality of the Nintendo 3DS, players will take on brainteasing challenges that are suitable to their current proven difficulty levels.
The minigames are designed to hold attention and upgrade the player’s concentration levels, as well as test their short-term memory capabilities and general mental faculties. Dr. Kawashima, posing as a devil, provides useful information in his lectures for players to keep in mind, and also provides some fun games for players to enjoy in the Relaxation Mode, so that their brains can rest after a tough session.
6 Big Pharma
Learn To Efficiently Manage Production Lines
Big Pharma
- Released
- August 27, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Twice Circled
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle, Management, Simulation
- Platform(s)
- Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Played from an isometric perspective, Big Pharma is a construction and management simulation game focusing on the pharmaceutical industry. Putting together complex production lines, medications can be crafted using raw materials, with various machines enhancing certain effects of the finished product and potentially removing negative side effects.
8 Best Management Simulation Games That Require Deep Thinking, Ranked
Careful consideration is key to avoiding failure in these management simulation games that may punish players for not properly planning.
Successfully constructing an intricate web of conveyor belts and production lines requires a great deal of problem-solving, space management, and effective use of finances. Navigating sales is also a puzzle in itself, requiring players to pay attention to trends and fluctuations, ensuring that they don’t try to sell a drug that has already oversaturated the market.
5 Human Fall Flat
Gain A Better Understanding Of Physics And Good Teamwork
Human Fall Flat
- Released
- July 22, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E for Everyone
- Developer(s)
- No Brakes Games
- Genre(s)
- Platformer, Puzzle
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, Switch, Android, iOS, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS5
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
Almost a decade since its initial release, tens of millions of players have enjoyed the hit puzzle-platform game Human Fall Flat, developed by Lithuanian studio No Brakes Games. The gameplay is fairly open-ended, allowing multiple creative solutions of varying difficulty to advance through each of the dozens of levels, all of which have different themes.
Levels can be completed alone as a customizable human called Bob, learning to climb and jump, as well as using physics-based solutions to reach new areas. However, many players choose to work with others. Communication is key in multiplayer, and some solutions require players to come together as a team if they have any hope of success.
4 Tetris
Efficiently Manage Space And Work Under Pressure
Tetris (1984)
- Released
- June 6, 1984
- ESRB
- E
- Developer(s)
- Alexey Pajitnov
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Game Boy, Android
Among the best-selling video games of all time and still seeing new releases in its franchise to this day, Tetris is one of the most famous video games ever made. The quintessential puzzle game requires players to carefully place falling tetronimo shapes into the space at the bottom of a grid system, with the goal of creating full horizontal lines to eliminate them and prevent the space from filling up completely, which would result in a game over.
As the game progresses, the pieces begin to fall faster, demanding that players work under pressure without making dreadful mistakes. Playing Tetris also helps with efficient space management, which can be used in almost every aspect of daily life, from placing furniture and organizing a refrigerator, to packing for a trip.
3 Blue Prince
Reach Room 46 With Good Management Skills And Attention To Detail
Blue Prince
- Released
- April 10, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Alcohol Reference, Simulated Gambling
- Developer(s)
- Dogubomb
- Genre(s)
- Puzzle, Adventure, Exploration, Strategy
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The 46th room is the target in the roguelike puzzle game Blue Prince. Running out of footsteps and reaching a dead end forces a new day to begin, and players to start all over again. Still, something new is often learned every day, whether it’s a fresh strategy or part of a solution to a puzzle. Taking notes is encouraged right from the beginning, as those with good attention to detail will find more success.
Blue Prince: 8 Early Secrets You Shouldn't Miss
These eight early secrets Blue Prince players should try to find first reveal hidden items, secret areas, and confer permanent effects upon discovery.
Though routes will be different each day, memory, critical thinking, and managing resources are all vital for those hoping to make progress. Every day will present new goals and plenty of puzzles to solve, each requiring a wide variety of skills, and even collaboration with others in some situations.
2 Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Communication In High Pressure Situations
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
- Released
- October 8, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
Certainly not a game for people who struggle in stressful situations, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes sets the unenviable task of defusing an active bomb. A puzzle game that can be played in VR, it requires two players to communicate effectively and quickly if they wish to disarm the explosive unharmed. Only one player has access to the instructions, while only the other can see the bomb.
There are many mechanisms on the bomb, each requiring concise descriptions from the disarmer, so that their colleague with the instruction manual has a chance of figuring out how to solve it. It’s a game that’s sure to stress-test any friendship and the manner in which people convey information when they have limited time.
1 Portal
Aperture Science Encourages Out-Of-the-Box Thinking
Portal
- Released
- October 10, 2007
WHERE TO PLAY
Consistently ranked among the greatest video games ever made, Portal is a puzzle-platformer that demands deep analytical thinking across its many physics-based puzzles. Controlling Chell, armed with a portal gun which can create portals to transfer objects between two flat surfaces, players can get creative as they tackle the problems set out by GLaDOS and the Aperture Science Enrichment Center.
Apart from the excellent puzzles, the story and promises of cake are experiences that all players should enjoy at least once. No game demonstrates critical thinking and out-of-the-box solutions quite like Portal does, and these can be highly transferable skills when applied to daily life and most careers.
16 Best Co-Op Puzzles Games
Co-op games come in many shapes, sizes, and genres, and some of the best multiplayer offerings focus on puzzles.