Pen-and-paper logic puzzle

Pen-and-paper logic puzzles are a style of typically abstract and rule-based logic puzzles. These games come in a variety of styles, such as "numeric logic puzzles" like sudoku and Fillomino, "binary determination puzzles" such as traditional nonogram or Nurikabe, or even "loop-forming puzzles" such as Slitherlink and Masyu. Many of these games originate from the Japanese publishing company Nikoli [ニコリ], which is why they are sometimes called "Japanese-style".

The genre would eventually reach video games through the popularity of nonogram and sudoku games, with Nintendo pushing the former with their Picross [ピクロス] franchises, and sudoku even being used as a selling point for Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! [東北大学未来科学技術共同研究センター川島隆太教授監修 脳を鍛える大人のDSトレーニング] (2005). Video games allowed these puzzles to extend beyond their traditional limits, with games such as Picross 3D [立体ピクロス] (2009) adding another dimension to nonograms, or Zendoku (2007) having sudoku played in a versus mode action puzzle context.