Puzzle games built for the commute

The best commute puzzle is one you can abandon mid-thought when your stop arrives. That rules out anything with a ticking clock or a combo meter that resets the second you tab away.

Gridlock Nine is a perfect example. Every level is self-contained, there's no pressure, and leaving it halfway through costs you nothing. I've solved more than a few of its puzzles only after letting them stew in the back of my head between stations.

I look for three things in a commute puzzle: it loads instantly, it saves your exact position, and it reads clearly on a phone held with cold hands at arm's length. Minimalist design helps a lot here — fewer colours, bigger tiles, less squinting.

Keep two or three on your phone with different difficulty levels. Some mornings you want a real brain-bender; other mornings you just want to tap something gentle and wake up slowly. Variety keeps any single game from going stale.