Shelf Solver Game Review

Shelf Solver Game Background

Shelf Solver is a slide puzzle game where you lay out various goods to fill open spots on shelves.

How to Play Shelf Solver

Press the gray and blue play button at the bottom center of the welcome screen to bring up the level select screen. Tap on a level number from the level select screen to start playing that stage.

Basic Gameplay Advice

When you start a stage various goods are placed in the playing field with numbers near the goods indicating how many of that product are available. If there is only one of a product available no number appears, and the number decrements by one each time you slide the stack in any direction.

Left click on an item and drag your mouse in the direction you wish to move the item. Products will lay out in the direction you move until all the items have been played, you run into a wall, or you run into another item.

When the item stops moving you can move again in another direction if there are still some items remaining and there is an adjacent open spot.

To complete each of the 20 puzzles you must lay out each product into the grid. If you make a mistake or get stuck you can press the R key or the reset button in the upper right corner to reload the current level.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

It often makes sense to move the smallest stacks near the edges of the course first so you don’t accidentally cover their squares with other goods.

In many cases you go back and forth between moving adjacent stacks so that each is partially moved to provide a stop for another stack to move up against, before moving the original stack once more.

Sometimes you need to intentionally stack goods in such a way that they block the path of a larger stack and make it turn around them.

Whenever you play a stage it will have the same layout on each subsequent play. The items located in each square may change, but the quantity will be the same in each location on every play of that stage.

Educational Aspects

This is a simple spatial and logic puzzle game where players have to figure out which items to move first and what directions to move them. This game can help improve spatial awareness and order of operations thinking.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is fun for players of all ages.