Last updated on November 29th, 2025 at 09:06 pm
Cosmic Express – Puzzle Game Review
Cosmic Express is a Puzzle game from Draknek Limited, first launched in 16th March 2017.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 196+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Cosmic Express Stand Out
Cosmic Express is a puzzle game about planning the train route for the world's most awkward space colony, from the minds behind A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build and the art of Tyu from Klondike. It's cute, harder than it looks, and guaranteed to give you hours of frustrating fun across hundreds of levels.
No in-app-purchases or ads.
iPhone 5S, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2 or later recommended.
Awards:
Finalist – IMGA Global, 2017
Finalist – IndiePlus, 2017
Official Selection – Indie Megabooth, GDC 2017
Official Selection – Google Play Indie Corner, PAX 2016
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Cosmic Express is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 7th July 2018
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Updated to add full screen support for iPhone X
Download & Availability
Cosmic Express is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Cosmic Express on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Had to go to Reddit to find this one and Im so glad we did! If you enjoy tricky puzzles, which actually make you think, youll love this game. Sure, there are some weird things (like the difficulty of puzzles being somewhat random), but this game is beyond worth the few bucks it costs. The graphics are cute, the loop satisfying, and our brain feels nicely challenged by the end. Thanks for making such a quality game on mobile, devs, yall rock :).
This game is amazing. It really plays like a well made, thought through game. The puzzles are really hard, but so satisfying when you get it. The only real flaw in the game is the notorious Andromeda 12 and 14. These levels come early, but are very difficult. Instead of going sequentially, we just skip over the map and complete them if we get too stuck. That seems to be the best way to play.
Love this game, its awesome! In the harder levels you really have to think outside the box to figure out how to drop these little dudes off. We got stuck and checked solutions on YouTube. That taught us new techniques so we wouldnt get stuck in the future. Ive been playing on and off for a couple years now and still havent finished it.
The game allows you to unlock all levels AND to reset progress. In other games, Developers dont like to give users this ability in order to force us to buy hints. Game is challenging but excellent.
If you like puzzles this one will keep you working for hours on end….. Love it.
Thanks for your continued service creating amazing and challenging puzzles, we think this is your best work yet. Dont mind the haters who cant stomach a challenge we for one will buy the next draknek game. From one game designers robotic heart to another <3.
Ive been playing a lot of sudoku and been looking for fun quick puzzles. These get really tough its really fun.
We love this game! Challenging but not too hard. Interesting and engaging. No lives to worry about or dumb ads…just great graphics and cute aliens. Lots of levels to play so if you get stuck just try something different. Youll figure out the stick part after a few tries. Love it.
One of the truly best puzzle games we've ever played. Takes a long time to beat. Challenging, but those aha moments are pretty awesome, feeling of completion is pretty grand. We would LOVE LOVE LOVE a level editor mode, so we could cook up our own puzzles and share them. It seems straight forward enough with everything working in the grid system. Please developers, if you see this, please add a level making mode. It could even be an in app purchase, and we will pay for it. Only thing that could make this game so much better.
Ding ding, gotta drive aliens around.
Insanely elegant, brainy, challenging puzzles. So jealous of the design: so simple but so devilishly tough. Out of all the chaff on the App Store, heres a gem worth your time.
Im sure the developers dont need to hear this because they are 100% aware of this but, this game is amazing you could spend hours on it and still wouldnt be bored. The difficulty is intense and thats ok. Ive bought every puzzle game from this developer and am not surprised that they all are amazing.
Im hooked! What a fun little game and a perfect way to challenge the mind. Things start out pretty easy but then quickly advance. However, Im not finding the puzzles to be frustratingly difficult as some of the commenters have claimed, although they are challenging. Of course, Im a Rhodes Scholar and a founding member of Mensa (ha, just kidding!). Seriously, if youre up for a challenging puzzler, give this one a go.
Im a huge fan of puzzle games, and Cosmic Express delivers a true five-star experience. The devs obviously took their time creating unique gameplay mechanics, an absorbing aesthetic, and a first-class array of brain-twisting puzzles. The difficulty ramp is pretty steep, and some of the puzzles will require multiple attempts to complete…and thats exactly how a great puzzle game should be! Its meant to pull you in and bewilder you and defeat the vast majority of your attempts. Because when you finally do crack the solution to a seemingly impossible level, the ego boost is real (even if no one cares but you).
Simple rules – challenging puzzles. And there arent 50 easy puzzle to sift though first… Youre jumping in the deep end.
Fun, not frustrating. Aliens are adorable, and puzzles are satisfying. More, please.
A very entertaining puzzle game. Puzzles range from fairly easy to very challenging. Dont expect to finish in a couple of days. Or even a week.
The best puzzle game on our iPad.
This game is awesome. It requires that you use your brain and think through possible solutions. Random guessing may do it occasionally but mostly you need to think. Very addictive.
We are so glad we purchased this game. It is definitely challenging us with a variety of puzzles, some simple, some very complex, but all of them are so much fun to figure out.
This game is difficult but not complex, which is how puzzle games should be if you ask us. No paragraphs of tutorial to read and remember. No timers. No hints. No filler levels. Good game. Not to spoil too much, but try to catch yourself making the same mistakes and rethink your first assumptions about which boxes the little guys should go in. It's really satisfying when the solution to a level clicks in your brain. We give Cosmic Express 5 aliens out of a possible 5 aliens. Highly recommend.
Alan "Draknek" Hazelden is perhaps the most consistently excellent puzzle-maestro in gaming. His previous works have set a high standard that Cosmic Express easily meets. Cute but tough but fair.
We love this game. Contrary to some reviews, we like how rapidly the levels became difficult. However there is a bug: Delphinus 6 has no way to get a gold star. We solved it a couple of ways, and have even exactly imitated several online solutions (which give gold stars, on YouTube), but our version of the program always gives just a white star. So there are two levels in Delphinus we will never reach! Developer help.
This game is good but level 14 on the first set of puzzles appears to be impossible. We have solved all the other levels up to that point in a reasonable time. This level seems physically impossible even after hours of trying. They really need solutions available even as an in app purchase so we can see what the solution is. It is frustrating after several hours on one level. We would give it 5 stars if it werent for this.
If youre in the mood for casual puzzling, this will only scratch that itch for a few levels. Im obviously in the mood for something more casual right now because Im going to delete this game until we feel like more thinky puzzles. Its a good game and theres nothing missing from the tutorial. The user experience is good, and would be great with the option to switch to a different editing mode for deletion/edition of track. The only complaint being: after a few handholding stages, this is clearly not made for people who want to even semi-quickly complete a level. Another words, The games difficulty curve turns too quickly toward too puzzling. At least for people who dont want that.
Every time we take a break from it, we find ourselves coming back to it. Amazing puzzles and mind blowing entertainment in such a simple interface. Simply stunning game.
Loving this game. Yes, some levels are really tough, but its super satisfying when you finally solve the puzzle. Our tip for players when solving is to think less about varying your path and instead try to change the order you pick up the aliens. Im on the last few levels and going to be sad when we finish the game.
This is one of the games that actually makes you puzzle over it (in a pleasant way that justifies the puzzle genre of games) and solve it. That being said, the game is not very hard comparing to classical puzzles, but its far better than no-brainers nowadays which give you no satisfaction in solving them.
Dont let the cute art fool you, this game is ruthless. There are plenty enough puzzles to justify the price, divided into clusters of galaxies with each puzzle numbered according to its difficulty. The levels follow a path: beat one, unlock one or more others. The progress isnt linear, you can go in multiple directions and even go around puzzles that you cant solve. Each galaxy has its own twist on the formula, adding another rule or another condition that complicates the players strategy but never feels gimmicky or forced. In the first galaxy, for example, the strategy revolves around clever use of space through pathing, while in another you have to manage more than one type of alien, and in the next you also have to pick up those different types of aliens in a certain order. Its perfect puzzling: the game gets more difficult not because theres only one right answer thats hard to figure out, nor because things just get more and more complicated. Rather, the galaxies add new rules and complicate old rules, thereby rewarding creativity and not random experimentation. In addition to the creativity of the puzzles, what really separates this game from most of the iOS games in this genre is that you actually have to solve the puzzles. There are no hints, help, or IAP shortcuts. And the puzzles are not easyin fact, we still havent solved some of them after hours of effort. Its genuinely satisfying to finally figure out how to beat a level, but you arent required to solve the hardest puzzles in order to advance in the game. And, if youre truly stuck and unable to get to the next galaxy, theres an option to unlock all levels. All in all this is a brilliant game, well worth the price, and truly one of the best puzzlers Ive ever encountered on the App Store. Great work to the developers.
Its cute, pretty and adorable…but be not fooled! You will be scratching your head more often than not and will return to the game frequently just to solve puzzle after puzzle some with two solutions. The madness pays off tremendously when one gets that aha moment! Draknek Limited has taken puzzling to new heights (pun intended) and we can hardly wait for another release from the mad genius that is Draknek.
We absolutely love puzzle games. Theyre our preference when searching for mobile games. This one came highly reviewed, although, we sort of regret purchasing it. Its better than a 1 star game for sure. The first world is very entertaining and proves this to be a great concept for a game, but by the end of the first world, it becomes brutally difficult. As in not fun. Be seriously prepared to spend an hour or more on a single puzzle. Youll be staring, guessing, and trying all sorts of solutions to route a train that gets adorable alien riders to their home. Then, when you think it cant be harder, they throw in stuff like certain aliens have to ride a clean train before the slimy aliens can ride. Ugh. Its just so tough. No hints either – not that those help because every single level would require hints. Less of a puzzle game and more of an exercise in futility. This coming from an electrical engineer who loves to game and solve problems. We may come back and try harder at a later time. For now, this lands well behind King Rabbit and Slayaway Camp, among other choices for us.
If you're into puzzles and goofy space stations, can't go wrong.
We can't solve the final-final level despite coming back to it week after week. Killing us. @draknek, can you promise us there's a solution? Are the four things supposed to be in a line or is there a way to move them? (we saw a screenshot where someone else had four things, but in different positions than we have). Please, please drop a hint.
Great game, but some levels are quite hard.
Under the cute exterior, this is an advanced puzzle game and one of the more rewarding puzzle games we have played on iOS. It constantly presents a variety of new challenges that require accumulating insight to solve. (It's even more rewarding if you don't look up the solutions; it feels great when you finally solve that impossible level).
A ton of levels with great progression.
Lots of challenging but fair puzzles. Hours of fun so far with plenty left to go. This game keeps drawing us back in.
If you like puzzle get this right now.
Remarkably difficult in some places. Looking up solutions didn't feel like cheating but helped us think differently. Well made game with lots of polish, only game we've kept on a phone for more than a week.
$5 for 10 hours of fun. Difficult, original and fun puzzles.
More great work from this team! Love the puzzles, love the personality. Great work.
Sorry, just too repetitive. Delete.
Very much enjoyed it, also option to unlock all levels at once was interesting.
Innovative puzzles and great artwork attracted us to this game right away. It's fun and there is enough variety to keep us playing it for hours. The harder levels are quite hard, even for us who has a lot of experience with these types of logic games. Players who dislike logic puzzles may get turned off. But for anyone up for a challenge this game is well worth it. We think of it as a very worthwhile app purchase.
This game has beautiful presentation with charming graphics. There is no music, but the sound effects are really cute. The gameplay is a bit reminiscent of the great Trainyard or perhaps those Pipe Mania games, but also distinctly different. The puzzles can be really tough (sometimes feeling impossible until you solve it), but fortunately the puzzle options branch in places meaning you can usually work on several other levels if you are stuck. We are thoroughly enjoying Cosmic Express. It is definitely in the top-most tier of the IOS puzzle games we have enjoyed.
Simple mechanic but super challenging.
This game puts us in a meditative-like state. It's beautifully designed – amazing world and challenging puzzles. Worth every cent.
Apple is not featuring this game. Are you kidding us.
Very happy to have discovered this game. Challenging and fun. Lovely art and music. Buy this game and tell your friend.
An imaginative game with dirt-simple controls but endlessly challenging puzzles. The levels start straightforward, but ramp up the challenge really quickly & find lots of variations on a simple concept to keep you engaged.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.6
- Size: 195.80 MB
- iOS: 6.0 or later
- Languages: EN
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Draknek Limited
Last updated: 7th July 2018 | Genre: Puzzle | Developer: Draknek Limited