20 Games That Made You Feel Like a Genius for Figuring Them Out
Some Games Don’t Hand You the Answer
Not every game wants to be your friend, and honestly, that’s why some of them stick with you. The best “genius moment” games don’t just test your reflexes; they make your brain suffer a little bit. Only when you start to notice patterns, take risks, and trust yourself will you finally be able to move forward. They're challenging enough that once you crack the code, you feel like you earned a tiny diploma. Here are 20 games that make you feel like some sort of Einstein for beating them.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was truly and challenging game. It made you feel clever for paying attention to tiny environmental hints instead of waiting for the game to spell it out. Figuring out dungeon logic felt like solving a physical puzzle box with monsters inside.
2. Portal
It's easy to feel dumb playing Portal, as it takes a certain type of thinking. The first time you realized how portals could chain momentum, you leveled up as a person. It taught you to think in space, not just in straight lines.
Digital Game Museum on Wikimedia
3. The Witness
This game turns line puzzles into a full-body observation exercise. You start out guessing, then you realize the island is quietly teaching you a visual language. Once you see how the rules hide in plain sight, you can’t unsee them.
4. Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds makes you feel smart because you don’t gain power; you gain understanding. Progress is literally knowledge, which is rude but also brilliant. When you connect the timeline and the physics, it feels like your brain just did a backflip.
Alex Beachum, creator of Outer Wilds on Wikimedia
5. Return of the Obra Dinn
In this game, you're basically an insurance detective with a magic stopwatch. The satisfaction comes from piecing together identities using accents, uniforms, and tiny social clues. Each confirmed fate feels like you just solved a murder mystery with math.
6. Myst
Myst didn’t care if you were confused, and that was the entire point. You had to experiment, take notes, and accept that the solution wasn’t going to chase you. When you finally unlocked something, you felt like you deserved a certificate.
7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This game makes you feel genius because it rewards weird ideas instead of punishing them. You can solve problems with physics, fire, weather, or sheer chaotic creativity. Half the time, you’re not sure it should work, which makes it even better when it does.
8. Baba Is You
Baba Is You turns game rules into puzzle pieces, then laughs while you rewrite reality. The moment you realize you can change what words mean is the moment your confidence spikes. It’s the kind of smart that feels illegal.
9. Tetris
Tetris is simple until it becomes a mental sport you didn’t sign up for. You start seeing shapes in your sleep and planning three moves ahead like a tiny architect. Surviving a near-top-out situation feels like pulling off a miracle.
10. Pokémon Red & Blue
Early Pokémon made you feel clever because the game didn’t hold your hand through every secret. Finding hidden items, exploiting type matchups, and learning weird mechanics felt like discovering ancient knowledge. When you finally caught a legendary, you acted like you’d earned it through grit.
11. Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime made exploration feel like actual investigation. You scanned everything, kept mental maps, and slowly learned how the world connected. Opening a path you’d been staring at for hours felt like breaking a code.
12. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
This game made you feel smart by teaching you to think in layers, especially when the world shifted. You’d notice one small detail, and suddenly it unlocked a whole chain of progress. The best moments came from realizing the answer had been waiting for you.
13. Fez
Fez gives you that “how was I supposed to know that?” feeling, and then you figure it out and become unbearable. The 2D-to-3D perspective twist turns the whole world into a puzzle. Once you start decoding its secrets, you feel like you have joined a secret society.
Bryan Lee O'Malley on Wikimedia
14. Hades
Hades makes you feel clever because learning the game is the real progression. You start reading enemy patterns, optimizing boons, and making “one more run” feel strategic instead of impulsive. When a build clicks, you feel like a tactical genius with a sword.
15. Dark Souls
Dark Souls gives you almost nothing for free, so every little win feels hard-earned. You learn through failure, observation, and stubbornness. When you finally beat a boss that humbled you, you sit there like you just literally climbed a mountain.
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment on Wikimedia
16. Professor Layton & the Curious Village
Layton puzzles make you feel smart because they reward patience more than speed. Even when the solution is simple, it’s rarely obvious at first glance. Finishing a tricky one gives you the very specific joy of being right.
17. The Talos Principle
This game makes you feel clever by mixing logic puzzles with big philosophical questions. You’ll solve a room and then immediately spiral into a thought about humanity, which is a lot for a puzzle game. The difficulty ramps up in a way that makes your progress feel real.
18. Slay the Spire
Slay the Spire turns deck-building into a long-term strategy puzzle. You learn to stop picking cards that are merely fun and start building something that actually works. Winning with a tight, efficient deck feels like you outsmarted probability.
19. Fire Emblem: Awakening
Tactics games make you feel smart when you plan three turns ahead, and it all works out. Like Chess, Awakening gives you enough options to get creative while still punishing sloppy choices. When you do well, you feel like a master.
William Tung from USA on Wikimedia
20. Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger makes you feel clever by letting you see cause and effect across time. You realize the world reacts to you in ways that aren’t just cosmetic. When you connect story beats and mechanics, it feels like you’re in on the design.
