Rubik's Slide facts for kids

The Rubik's Slide is a cool electronic puzzle game. It was made by TechnoSource in 2010, and it's part of the famous Rubik's family of puzzles. In this game, you have to move lights around to match a specific pattern. It has over 10,000 different puzzles built right into it!

How the Rubik's Slide Works

The Rubik's Slide puzzle, ready to play!

The Rubik's Slide puzzle has a 3x3 grid, which means it has nine squares. Each square is clear and can light up from underneath with red or blue lights. This whole grid can move! You can slide it a little bit in four directions: up, down, left, or right. You can also twist or turn it slightly. Every time you slide or twist, the game changes.

The game's computer picks a random pattern of lights for you to create. This is your "goal." Then, it shows you a different random pattern to start with. You can always see your goal pattern by holding a button on the side of the device. When you successfully make the lights match the goal pattern, you score a point! Then, the computer gives you a brand new puzzle to solve.

When you make a "Slide" move, all the lights in a row or column shift one spot in the direction you pushed. If a row or column moves off the edge of the grid, it wraps around to the other side. A "Twist" move changes the lights in different ways, depending on how hard the game is set.

Difficulty Levels

The Rubik's Slide has three different difficulty settings: Easy, Medium, and Hard.

Easy Difficulty

• Lights can be either on or off.
• All the lights that are on will be the same color, either all blue or all red.
• When you "Twist" the puzzle, the lights turn 90 degrees (a quarter turn) clockwise or counterclockwise. This is similar to twisting one side of a classic Rubik's Cube.

Medium Difficulty

• Lights can be either on or off.
• Just like in Easy mode, all the lights that are on will be the same color (all blue or all red).
• When you "Twist" the puzzle, the lights turn 45 degrees. This means the top-left light moves to the top-center spot, the top-center light moves to the top-right spot, and so on. It's a bit more tricky!

Hard Difficulty

• Lights can be in three different states: off, red, or blue. This means you might have both red and blue lights on the grid at the same time!
• When you "Twist" the puzzle, the lights turn 45 degrees, just like in Medium difficulty.

Images for kids

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  The puzzle when its lights are off.