Last updated on January 4th, 2026 at 10:39 pm
Rules! – Puzzle Game Review
Rules! is a Puzzle/Entertainment/Casual game from Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle, first launched in 6th August 2014.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 66+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Rules! Stand Out
• Includes a daily brain workout mini-game for Apple Watch
• Includes animated sticker pack
• App Store – Best Apple Watch Game of 2015
• App Store – Best of 2014
• German Developer Award 2014 – Best mobile Game
• German Video Game Award 2015 – Best mobile Game
• Pocket Gamer Awards 2015 Finalist Best Casual/Puzzle Game & Most Innovative Game
RULES! is a cute puzzle game that's challenging, fast-paced and fun.
• Choose your preferred type of game: Beginner, Expert or Timeless •
“What’s presented here is a stylish, original, clever puzzle game that I’m having trouble putting down long enough to write this review.” ~ Gamezebo
“A delightfully constructed memory test that grows in complexity and appeal the deeper in you go.” ~ Pocket Gamer
“The Coding Monkeys have never released anything that wasn’t utterly brilliant, therefore Rules shall almost certainly be brilliant.” ~ Pocket Tactics
Follow RULES! into a hundred level-deep maze of cuteness and order:
• Multi-touch interface at its finest
• Color perception assistance mode
• Whales, Unicorns, Robots and Squirrels!
• A plethora of surprising new game mechanics
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Rules! is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 29th March 2024
Recent improvements include:
Change Log:
• Playful mode
• Haptic feedback
• Improved support for newer devices and os versions
• Improved Watch app and complications
• Cleaned up and shrunk app, assets, settings
• Bug fixes
• sharing results would at times generate wonky images
• night time did not always show up for everyone at the same time
• some of the links were not quite going where they where expected to go
• the chameleons were just a tiny bit too eager to start
• some letters where added and some where removed to make better words and sentences
• words where not always in the right language
• sometimes not everything that was visible should have been
• supports iOS 15.2 and up
• supports watchOS 8.3 and up
Download & Availability
Rules! is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
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:
We appreciate that this app was just updated, with a new mode too, and is such a fair price with no ads or IAP. Its also good on storage and battery. The design s gorgeous, the UI smooth and intuitive. Its very easy to pick up and play. We wanted something that would be a fun, quick game to play when we have a few minutes, but not something mindless. This strikes a great balance. Also we purposefully wanted something to exercise our short-term memory, and this definitely does stretch your brain, while still being charming and fun. Great job, developers, and thank you for monetizing so fairly with no ads. We highly recommend this game. Besides being fun, it would be good to help children learn memory skills, for adults who want to keep their brain sharp or work on improving memory, or anyone who wants a chill but challenging game when you have a few free minutes. Im so glad we bought it! We dont know how well Ill do, but its fun even if you cant get too far. Just go with it and have fun.
The rules are ALWAYS the same, in the same order. No variety at all. We dont know why this game gets so much praise; it never changes so it actually feels like low effort to us.
We very like to spend ten minutes or so with Apple Watch version of this game. Its so cool to have it on our wrist. But it has annoying UX when we try to read a long rule like Color if something very long for one second to read. Could you please increase time for presenting long rule? Thank you in advance.
Really cute characters and fun memory puzzle. Bug fix needed at level 26 / 5s and 9s. Cant get past that level, game indicates 5 or 9 tiles remain when there are none.
This game is a must buy. We wonder if they would make a second game soon it's that good.
It requires time and patience to have a complete bing of playing it for a while, but if you only have time to play one round it's still amazing. Like a previous review stated, it is a bit expensive for what it is, but there are multiple game modes, and who knows how many levels are actually available. We think the price could be dropped a bit, but either way it's a great investment of time, energy, and money.
We like this game a lot and especially like the game on the Apple Watch. If it didn't have the Apple Watch compatibility we probably would have given it 4 stars but since it does we give it five. Great Game.
We love this game! We had so much fun. We did all 3 levels and lived every minite. Great music, great graphics, and great rules.
This games seems interesting, and it is, for five minutes, after which it gets very boring. This is certainly not worth three dollars, we would criticize its lack of content if it was free.
Got bored in about 10 minutes. We enjoy the concept and we think the app was made well but we don't think it's worth $2.99 when there really isn't room for further content. We also hate the timed feature. It makes it less a puzzle and more of a speed test. You're not really thinking about it as much as having quick reflexes and hope for the best. If it was not timed or offered a timeless feature we'd enjoy it more, but still doubt that we'd play it more than an hour or 2. In its defense we were hoping it'd be a bit more closer to Einstein's 5 houses riddle so maybe we just disappointed ourselves when it wasn't along those lines as much as we'd hoped.
It's fun-ish but keeping all the rules in your head makes the game a bit more intense than we like. You have to have uninterrupted time in order to play and with kids that's impossible. Yes there are stopping points every 10 rules and it's cool to challenge your memory skills but if one person walks up to you and asks a question, BOOM! You lose and have to start all over. Whatever. Expensive for what it is. Oh well. Live and learn.
We play this game everyday on our apple watch love it.
After the update app no longer shows on Apple Watch. It has disappeared and isn't even in the watch app itself so you can toggle it on or off. Might want to fix it.
Very enjoyable game, but we've noticed a few times that if you close the app it and come back later it puts us back at the beginning. We would much prefer it remember your place and start you at the beginning of the same rule set where you left off (like it does if you lose). We don't want to have to always play all the same sets over to get to a new one.
We really do enjoy playing this game…and was showing it to our dad, when we realized he couldn't play because he's colorblind and couldn't tell the difference between the red and green objects. We know this obviously doesn't apply to the majority of the players…but just something to keep in mind, otherwise really love playing.
We were surprised to see so few reviews for Rules! Its first level is fun and challenging and we kept wondering what new trick could be included in the next level to make it more interesting, but there has always been something.
There should be a relax mode for those who wants to slower or cannot keep up.
Love it but would like if the continue button came first. Held our teenage mind which is a feat lol.
This game is addictive and challenging and even has a companion watch app! The one thing that is so, so, SO frustrating is that the "go" interaction during the game is the same as the "start over from the beginning" interaction after you lose, with no way to undo it. You have the option of continuing within a few levels of where you left off, or you can start over. Tapping the latter means you potentially lose hours of progress because of one stupid move that doesn't have to be designed that way. Really, really frustrating. Would love it if "start from level X" was the main call-to-action vs. "Hit this button to lose all your work and cry.".
Worked great on the Apple Watch until it started freezing. We then had to exit out and go back into the app just to have it freeze again. Otherwise works fabulous on the phone so far. Terrific strategy game to work out your mind.
We really like this game but we are not able to enjoy it on our watch because it keeps freezing up. The only way we can play, is to exit out of the game and open it back up.
We tried to like this game but ultimately it just isn't fun.
Too hard to remember all the rules. Boring if you do.
We love this game. It's definitely tough. Maybe our brain is just old, but it's difficult to keep the rules in mind once you've gotten six or seven or eight of them to remember, and you've got to remember ten to advance to the next level. We find that we need to play each level several times in order to get through to the next level. Seems great for memory training and concentration. Highly recommend.
We came across this game on accident and am glad we did. We love games that require us to think and this one definitely keeps us on our toes. We love the simplicity of the app. We're giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because we think it would be great if there were more than 3 modes. If you play this several times in a row the same way- the game loses some of its flare. Still like it and can't wait to see how it evolves.
If your thinking of the CodingMonkeys who created carcassonne app, you will be very disappointed. Gameplay is very repetitive. Plain BGM and void-looking characters also adds up to repetitiveness. Editor's choice? We doubt that.
We downloaded this because it is highly recommended everywhere as an Apple Watch app. However, every time we open it, it simply spins it's wheel and then crashes.
If you have a poor memory (like us) this game will very quickly descend into an frustrating tap fest. After about too many rules we found if we tap really quickly in any order the various tiles disappear. Since we can't remember (our problem, not the games) more than 4 rules of the 10 or so we came across, the game becomes a tap fest. Why am o rating the game one star? Because to us it's a one star game, and since we ponied up the buck, we're allowed to leave a one star review.
The player is shown a rule exactly once. Some rules are straightforward: "Tap ascending." Others are conditional: "Reds if you see blues." Others are contrary: "Tap non-animals." Because later rules supersede earlier rules, they must be applied in the reverse order in which they are given. The iOS version has a timeless mode. This allows you to exercise your short-term memory and reasoning with the understanding that any errors you make happen due to inattention, not time pressure. The watchOS version gives you a goal for the day, and a day to accomplish it. It can be played in disjoint brief sessions or all at a once. It's fun.
We really did enjoy the game a first but the effects wear off rather quick and you're bored with a few less dollars. Not worth the purchase in our opinion. Looks great though.
Basically this game is memorizing things. Kind of like advanced simon. If that sounds fun to you, buy it. We thought since strategy board game creators made this game there would be at least a hint of strategy. Nope. We wish we could return it. We're glad other people like it, but it's not for us.
Playing this game is like eating potato chips. We find it to be very energizing and addictive. Senior citizens should jump right into this as it improves concentration and memory. Love it.
We got it from Starbucks as pick of the week and have been addicted ever since. The rules repeat in each game, so if you play multiple times you can actually memorize the rules. We'd rather play this than subway surfers and that is saying something especially for us.
This is the most fun ive ever had and s great challenge. Keep up the great work.
Great game and will be useful in cognitive therapy.
This game is a clean, simple, and fun little brain teaser. We'd rather play this over "brain training" games any day.
This game is pretty good for its price. It's sometimes frustrating, but once you play a couple of times, you'll get use to the rules! We recommend this game in the office or on road trips for a fun experience.
A great game. Just don't try playing three times in a row. What was rule four again.
To be honest, we don't enjoy this game as much as we could on iPhone because the rules are always the same. But, we love it on Apple watch because every time we play, the rules are different/changed up a bit. The 2×2 grid is the perfect size and still provides a nice challenge.
3N3K3MEHMJEP You're welcome :) This code came from the Starbucks app pick of the week and it automatically downloads the app for free. Expires August 11th.
…. Zg. G gg, f. . . G gf . . G f f . F.
This is such a simple-to-grasp game but is so fun and challenging. Rules build on each other for each level and you have to remember the rules to finish a level. It's really fun and hard (for us). :-).
A glorious puzzle game that anyone can play. No special reasoning skills required: Rules! Is about colors, images and numerical reasoning as simple as "tap the odd numbers." The game plays out in sets of ten rounds. In the first, you tap the numbered tiles (with animals, monsters and objects on them, the same each round–you'll develop a relationship with the unicorn tens, the phone nines, the mustache 8s and the 7 foxes) in descending order. In round two, you tap the green tiles first–then you follow rule 1. But it doesn't remind you what rule one is. In round 3, odds must go, then rule two and rule one must be followed. You'll find yourself chanting "whales, animals, nines, the remaining odds, greens, descending." we've played a lot of iOS games, but none have even approached Rules.
This game will definitely test your quickness and memory skills. We don't have the best memory in the world, so things get challenging pretty quickly for us.
Waooww we got this the best game for free…this offer until may 10,2015…download Apple Store app and scroll down,tap this "rules!" description and get redeem code for free! It work in country avail Apple Store not Appstore.
This is a great concept and it's well-executed. However, when you lose, you have to start all the way back at 1. We made it to level 88 and we will probably try to beat that only one or two more times. We wish we could start at level 80. Also, what happens after you reach level 100? Are there new levels added periodically.
It's fun we guess we got the game for free though from an Starbucks card.
This game is somewhat addicting and a good game to have to play when you're bored, but we don't think it's worth the money. We would pay $0.99 at most for this app. The one major critique we would make is that there is always the same sequence of rules. The order never changes, so you will always get the same 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc rule, so we hope to see that changed in a future update. Our verdict would be to wait for this to be changed or for the price to go down.
Such a great concept, but ruined by the fact that the rules are in the same order every time. Game gets boring after a couple plays. Please update.
Super fun, very polished, people who are rating it poorly because they are bad at it should be ashamed of themselves (particularly now that the easier modes have been added). One small logical bug that drives us a little batty… How can an astronaut be a mammal if it's not an animal.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 5.0
- Size: 24.64 MB
- iOS: 15.2 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, ES
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle
Last updated: 29th March 2024 | Genre: Puzzle, Entertainment | Developer: Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle