Last updated on January 25th, 2026 at 05:20 pm
Nurikabe: Islands & Walls – Entertainment Game Review
Nurikabe: Islands & Walls is a Entertainment/Puzzle/Board game from Conceptis Ltd., first launched in 2nd January 2013.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 377+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Nurikabe: Islands & Walls Stand Out
Partition between clues with walls to create islands with corresponding size! Each puzzle consists of a grid containing clues in various places. The object is to create islands by partitioning between clues with walls so that the number of squares in each island is equal to the value of the clue, all walls form a continuous path and there are no wall areas of 2×2 or larger. Each island must contain one clue and be isolated from other islands horizontally and vertically.
Nurikabe are addictive island-forming puzzles which were invented in Japan. Using pure logic and requiring no math to solve, these fascinating puzzles offer endless fun and intellectual entertainment to puzzle fans of all skills and ages.
The game features a highlighting option to help see if a wall segment is about to become isolated, and an island size counter to view how many squares belong to an island.
To help see the puzzle progress, graphic previews in the puzzle list show the progress of all puzzles in a volume as they are being solved. A Gallery view option provides these previews in a larger format.
For more fun, Conceptis Nurikabe includes a Weekly Bonus section providing an extra free puzzle each week.
PUZZLE FEATURES
• 90 free Nurikabe puzzles
• 30 extra-large puzzles bonus for iPad only
• Extra bonus puzzle published free each week
• Multiple difficulty levels from very easy to extremely hard
• Puzzle library continuously updates with new content
• Manually selected, top quality puzzles
• Unique solution for each puzzle
• Hours of intellectual challenge and fun
• Sharpens logic and improves cognitive skills
GAMING FEATURES
• Unlimited check puzzle
• Unlimited Undo and Redo
• Highlight wall segments
• Show island size counter
• Concurrently playing and saving multiple puzzles
• Puzzle filtering, sorting and archiving options
• Dark Mode support
• Graphic previews showing puzzles progress as they are being solved
• Portrait and landscape screen support (iPad only)
• Track puzzle solving times
• Backup & restore puzzle progress to iCloud
ABOUT
Nurikabe have also become popular under other names such as Islands in the Stream and Cell Structure. Similar to Sudoku, Kakuro and Hashi, the puzzles are solved using logic alone. All puzzles in this app are produced by Conceptis Ltd. – the leading supplier of logic puzzles to printed and electronic gaming media all over the world. On average, more than 20 million Conceptis puzzles are solved each day in newspapers, magazines, books and online as well as on smartphones and tablets across the world.
This Entertainment game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Nurikabe: Islands & Walls is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 3rd December 2025
Recent improvements include:
This version improves performance and stability.
Download & Availability
Nurikabe: Islands & Walls is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Nurikabe: Islands & Walls 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:
Well executed with practical features to make it logistically simpler to play.
Would really love to see an app for your Skyscrapers puzzle too.
No ads and the ui is perfect conceptis ltd we love uuuuuu.
It started off a little bit confusing for us, but once we got more familiar with the rules, this game has become so addicting. Plus, no annoying pop-in ads, Im seriously considering purchasing the extra puzzle bundles.
We saw this game in an ad Im a big fan of sudoku this is a lot like it but also very different worth a try if you like puzzles.
So far. Its a fun game. It makes you think.
We enjoy all conceptis puzzles. Packs are priced similar to puzzle books at stores and give weeks of solving enjoyment. Get a free puzzle weekly but always easy introductory type…good puzzle game.
Once we figured out how to play this game is lots of fun. The instructions will help a little but playing several times in a row will help you figure out how to play this game. Dont give up once you have mastered it this game is a great way to spend your time.
Really great logic puzzle for fans of Sudoku, Hashi, etc. And as always a well-designed app.
One thing we love about Conceptis puzzles is the "check" button. We do these puzzles to relax at the end of the day, and being able to click the "check" button and have it say that there are no errors is very reassuring, especially after difficult days.
Love this puzzle. One of two that we spend money on.
This is our favorite logic puzzle type, and we love the interface.
Game is fine, but no matter what you do or what option you select, it NEVER STOPS asking you to rate it. Even if you rate it! Even if you click no! It. Never. Stops.
Exceptional app, great puzzles! Genuinely challenging (for us, at least). Our only feature request is to enable dragging, where we can touch & drag to cover multiple squares. Its not like the current behavior is a terrible inconvenience though, of course – still a 5-star app.
Very fun. In general we like the conceptis model: no ads, a bunch of starter puzzles for free, more puzzles for sale in paces for small amounts of money. (Kinda like buying a small book of puzzles.) Youre not going to spend way more than you intended to by mistake. And if you dont actually like the puzzles, or dont mind switching between several different puzzle apps, you dont have to buy any at all. Anyways, this is one of our favorites. The puzzles are very engaging and theres a wide range of difficulty levels.
Great game and well done. Only thing missing is a way to save your position in the game. Otherwise the best game we own.
Edit: Been playing for many months now and we continue to love the puzzles, BUT we still wish they would include an all black mode fir those of us who just dont think as easily in negative space. Original Review: we are loving Nurikabe from Conceptis. Our only complaint is that we wish we had a button to fill everything with shade, because we find it easier to take away from the grid than to fill it. Just the way our brain wants to work, we guess. Download with confidence.
Great puzzle game, another hit from the guys.
This game is wonderfully fun and interface design is intuitive. Thanks for a great product.
Yet another great puzzle from the geniuses at Conceptis, who are the best at these sorts of puzzles.
Loving this! 11 puzzles completed so far.
One of our favorites. Simple to learn, challenging to solve, no language or math, just pure logic.
Total surprise … Original … Spectacular.
New free puzzles weekly and new paid puzzles faster than we can solve them. Great.
Just like this companys other offerings, this puzzle game is spectacularly-implemented and rich with content! We especially appreciate the weekly puzzles. Our only complaint (which is very minor) is that all of the companys offerings seem to synchronize the weekly puzzle difficulty level, so on a week that is designated very easy, all of them are very easy, and so we have no challenge.
Nurikabe is great!. We enjoy trying to get a even number of puzzles done every day.
Excellent interface, very usable. The hard puzzles are actually hard. Suggested improvement: let us use a second color to pencil in a possibility and then erase it or make it black.
Free app with a generous number of free puzzles. No ads. Reasonably priced add on packs of puzzles. More puzzlers should strive to be like this.
Nurikabe is a favorite of ours, and Conceptis makes the best puzzles out there with excellent and detailed instructions.
Different from most puzzles! Easy to work the functions.
…and really well done interface! Our only gripe is that a lot of the puzzles in the Big Challenge sets are too easy, even though they are supposedly very hard. Also, would it be possible to do the Huge sizes on iPhone, now that screen sizes are much bigger.
This is another clever type of logic puzzle from Conceptis priced very reasonably.
We've tried them all; nothing else comes close, especially with the huge volume of add-on puzzles available (albeit at a price).
Best version we've tried. Highly recommend it if you like nurikabe.
We love all their logic games! Keep them coming.
We love nurikabe, and this is a really awesome app BUT we're giving it 3 stars because they don't have that many puzzles for free. They have about 90 and then you have to pay for more. So this only lasted a week for us :(.
Buyer beware: you could end up spending thousands of dollars on Conceptis applications. Read on for details. This review includes the eight applications published on the iOS app store by Conceptis (Nurikabe, Tic-Tac-Logic, Link-a-Pix, Pic-a-Pix, Hashi, Sudoku, Slitherlink, and Fill-a-Pix). First off, their applications are well built and include many fun puzzles. We especially enjoy the weekly free puzzles, though it is a little irritating that they go away after four weeks and are not saved. However, the biggest problemand we've noticed this mentioned in some reviews for these applicationsis the high cost of puzzles. They are well done and fun, but when the costs are summed, they are rather high. There are 31,380 puzzles total (as of today) across the eight applications, ranging from very simple to rather complex, which would cost you a total of $3511 (not including tax). This is on par with the cost of licenses for professional-level applications. We think it's quite disingenuous of Conceptis to charge so much for the puzzles. When averaged (across all 8 applications for the entire range of puzzles), they total just over 15 cents/puzzle. That may not sound like much, but it can add up quickly. To contrast this, LogicPicColor, an iOS app like Pic-a-pix, has 16,778 total puzzles which cost a total of $30 (plus tax), averaging at a third of a cent per puzzle, about 50 times less than those from Conceptis. Now, LogicPicColor has some shortcomings and is not nearly as well done as the apps from Conceptis. Nonetheless, we don't believe Conceptis's apps and puzzles are worth that much of a premium, and will therefore be satisfied to look elsewhere. Perhaps someday they'll offer sales or discounts for puzzle bundlesever since the apps were released, we've hoped for this, to no avail.
Like others we stumbled on this game (through Games mag) and had to find it as an App. Now we are addicted. It's a great way to wake up your brain int the morning. Our only suggestion to Conceptis is visual. If you could make "skins" so that players could choose a different look/color scheme just to keep things interesting and personalized, that would be cool. Maybe by building the game where you achieve levels (and can buy skins) is the way to go. Great game otherwise.
Conceptis Puzzles does it again! A top notch logic puzzle app that will provide hours of entertainment and keep your brain from going to mush.
We are addicted to all Conceptis puzzle apps, and this is one of their best. Endless puzzle packs of all levels and extremely easy to use. Thank you for challenging our brain.
For people who love soduko and kakuro, this is the next new addiction.
A friend recommended this to us, and we couldn't stop playing! You get so much with the free version. We also love that there are weekly bonus puzzles, so we never have to spend a dime! We might, eventually, though, since the puzzles are so fun.
Really nice implementation of a classic puzzle game.
We discovered Nurikabe in the New York Times and we have loved it ever since. This app is amazing! Extremely user friendly. It also outlines the many techniques necessary to solve the hardest puzzles. This app basically sets the standard for all Nurikabe apps.
This game gets under your skin. We were spending so much time on it, we decided to delete it from our phone. After two weeks we missed it so much we had to put it back. Only app ever that has achieved that status with us.
Unique puzzle in a variety of difficulty. Very smooth UI.
The puzzle game we return to again and again. Playing for several years now.
The puzzles can be quite difficult, and there's no function to suggest a deduction that can be made when you're stuck, as there is in some other logic games. Nonetheless, the puzzles are well done and the interface is great. Add a good "show us a deduction" feature and it would get five stars.
Ninety free puzzles with a good difficulty ramp up. There are a few different kinds of deductions, which get more sophisticated by the time you get to the "hard" pack. Less of a grind than Sudoku… Lighter but almost as challenging.
Very fun game to play, best app of this game we've found! Highly recommend.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 4.9
- Size: 7.10 MB
- iOS: 12.0 or later
- Languages: EN, JA, KO, ZH
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Conceptis Ltd.
Last updated: 3rd December 2025 | Genre: Entertainment, Puzzle | Developer: Conceptis Ltd.