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Nurikabe World

Nurikabe World Game Cover
100%Game Brain Score
graphics, music
gameplay, grinding
100% User Score Based on 152 reviews

Platforms

LinuxPCMac OSSteam DeckWindows
Buy Nowfrom €5.99
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Nurikabe World Game Cover

About

Nurikabe World is a single player casual puzzle game. It was developed by Hemisquare and was released on January 13, 2025. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Nurikabe World is a relaxing logic puzzle game where you solve puzzles by creating islands and connecting rivers to create beautiful sceneries. Nurikabe World reimagines the classic Japanese pen-and-paper puzzle Nurikabe as a 3D game, where islands spring to life with trees and structures. Either play handcrafted puzzles, immerse yourself in the flow of infinitely generated maps or create and shar…

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Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
Nurikabe World screenshot
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100%
Audience ScoreBased on 152 reviews
graphics25 positive mentions
grinding2 negative mentions
  • Beautiful and relaxing presentation with charming visuals and soothing music that enhance the puzzle experience.
  • Well-designed and varied puzzles with a smooth learning curve that caters to both newcomers and veteran Nurikabe players.
  • Extensive content including 300 handcrafted campaign puzzles, daily puzzles, infinite generated puzzles at multiple difficulties, and robust user-generated levels and level editor support.
  • Early campaign stages contain many easy and repetitive puzzles, which may feel too lengthy and cause some players to lose interest before reaching advanced challenges.
  • Lack of a hint system or detailed in-game guidance for very challenging puzzles, making certain levels potentially frustrating to solve without external help.
  • Some features like marking certain water tiles as confirmed and replaying daily puzzles without workarounds are missing, limiting certain quality-of-life options for puzzle solving.
  • graphics
    41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Nurikabe World features beautiful, soothing visuals with gorgeous 3D graphics and charming, hand-drawn art that enhance the traditional nurikabe puzzle experience. The colorful, clean aesthetics combined with relaxing animations create a calming and satisfying atmosphere, making gameplay both engaging and visually pleasing. Additionally, customizable graphic settings ensure smooth performance across different systems without sacrificing quality.

    • “Nurikabe World takes the classic pen-and-paper spatial reasoning puzzle, adds gorgeous 3D visuals that blossom to life on your screen, and gently hums spa music at you regardless of whether you're cruising along or wondering how the actual puzzle is supposed to work.”
    • “Beautiful implementation of a classic Japanese puzzle - gorgeous graphics, relaxing music, and cleverly constructed hand-drawn puzzles, all at a reasonable price.”
    • “The visuals and music are soothing, providing a calming experience that truly stands out among puzzle games.”
  • music
    38 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is consistently praised for its calming, ambient, and serene qualities, featuring soft piano, biwa, and synthesizer tunes that enhance concentration and relaxation. Combined with soothing visuals, the soundtrack creates a tranquil atmosphere that elevates the puzzle-solving experience and makes the game perfect for unwinding or self-care.

    • “Soft ambient audio and gentle musical cues create a calm backdrop that supports concentration rather than distracting from it.”
    • “Completing an island also makes it grow trees and buildings; combined with the incredibly soothing music, this game probably has the most relaxing atmosphere I've seen in a puzzle game.”
    • “The visuals and music are soothing, providing a calming experience that truly stands out among puzzle games.”
  • gameplay
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay in Nurikabe World offers well-designed, logic-driven puzzles that build complexity through gradual introduction of mechanics, maintaining a balance between traditional Nurikabe rules and engaging twists. It features clear tutorials, varied levels grouped by mechanics, and an elegant presentation that makes the experience both mentally stimulating and accessible. While some players desire more levels or late-game variations, the game successfully delivers intuitive, bug-free, and thoughtfully paced puzzle gameplay.

    • “The mechanics may not be original, but the puzzle design is well done and I really enjoyed the theming.”
    • “It succeeds by combining elegant presentation with deep, rule-driven gameplay, offering an experience that is both mentally stimulating and emotionally calming.”
    • “The levels are grouped by mechanics, and carefully stringed together to make Nurikabe as easy to learn as possible.”
    • “I would have liked more levels and some gameplay changes in the later levels.”
    • “There are some neat variations on the mechanics in the back half of the campaign which mix things up a little bit as well.”
    • “There are four campaign worlds, starting with a long tutorial explaining the rules in detail and with plenty of easy levels, then some moderate difficulty levels, then two new mechanics not part of the classic nurikabe rules, and finally a harder world with bigger levels.”
  • atmosphere
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers a calm, serene, and visually pleasant atmosphere enhanced by soothing music and relaxing sound design. Its tranquil environment, featuring natural elements like trees and ambient noises such as cicadas, creates a uniquely relaxing experience perfect for both short and extended play sessions. Overall, the atmosphere is frequently praised as one of the most soothing and immersive in puzzle games.

    • “Completing an island also makes it grow trees and buildings; combined with the incredibly soothing music, this game probably has the most relaxing atmosphere I've seen in a puzzle game.”
    • “Fun, atmospheric and pretty - this has plenty of content for diving in for a few minutes at a time between tasks or more extended periods along with relaxing background noise and visuals.”
    • “The game also provides a relaxing and visually pleasant atmosphere along the way.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is well-received, with players enjoying the cleverly designed, amusing levels that encourage creative thinking and often elicit genuine laughter.

    • “My favorite levels are the funny shaped ones, really makes you think outside the box!”
    • “A bunch of puzzles actually made me laugh.”
  • grinding
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is noticeable, with achievements often feeling grindy, especially those tied to daily tasks or requiring completion of many puzzles.

    • “Achievements are clear but grindy, especially the daily-related ones or those requiring a certain number of completed puzzles.”
    • “Grindy achievements.”
  • replayability
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Replayability is enhanced by the game's structure, where each world is divided into smaller level areas and progression requires completing a significant portion of levels, encouraging multiple playthroughs and exploration.

    • “Replayability is another strong point.”
    • “Each world is split into smaller 8-12 level areas. While all levels in an area are playable, unlocking the next area requires solving about half of the levels in the current one.”
  • emotional
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game delivers a balanced emotional experience by blending sophisticated visuals with intricate, rule-based gameplay, resulting in both intellectual engagement and a soothing atmosphere.

    • “It succeeds by combining elegant presentation with deep, rule-driven gameplay, offering an experience that is both mentally stimulating and emotionally calming.”
  • story
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story aspect is highlighted for its rich narrative, appealing to fans of casual crafting, life simulation, management, and strategy games. It offers an engaging and immersive experience through well-developed storytelling elements.

  • stability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game runs smoothly and is well-optimized on the Steam Deck, ensuring a stable and enjoyable experience on this platform.

    • “Runs great on Steam Deck”
  • optimization
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is well-optimized, running smoothly even on older, less powerful laptops like the ThinkPad T460.

    • “And it runs smoothly on my old potato of a laptop (a ThinkPad T460).”
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12h Median play time
12h Average play time
11-12h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Nurikabe World is a casual puzzle game.

Nurikabe World is available on PC, Mac OS, Steam Deck, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 12 hours playing Nurikabe World.

Nurikabe World was released on January 13, 2025.

Nurikabe World was developed by Hemisquare.

Nurikabe World has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its graphics but disliked it for its gameplay.

Nurikabe World is a single player game.

Similar games include Hexcells Infinite, Hexologic, Pictopix, Voxelgram, hexceed and others.