It starts out so simple. You’re looking at a screen with three or four squares, and the prompt tells you to tap the boxes from the biggest to the smallest. You do it in two seconds. Then, the game throws a curveball. Suddenly, the "big" box is actually a tiny square positioned close to the "camera," or the "small" box is a massive rectangle shrunk down by perspective. This isn't just a toddler’s learning app; it’s the foundation of some of the most frustratingly addictive logic puzzles in mobile gaming history, from Brain Out to Brain Test.
Most people fail these levels because their brains are lazy. Evolution taught us to take shortcuts. When we see a shape, we don't calculate its pixel dimensions or its geometric area. We glance. We react. In the world of "trick" gaming, that reaction is exactly what the developers are banking on.
The Psychological Trap of Visual Perception
Why is it so hard to just look at a few shapes and rank them? It's basically down to how our primary visual cortex processes size constancy. In the real world, if a car is driving away from you, it looks smaller, but your brain knows the car isn't actually shrinking. This is great for not getting run over, but it’s terrible for digital puzzles.
When a game asks you to tap the boxes from the biggest to the smallest, it is often playing with the Ponzo illusion. You’ve probably seen this in textbooks—two identical lines placed between converging railroad tracks. The top line looks longer because your brain interprets the tracks as receding into the distance. In puzzle apps, developers will place boxes inside "rooms" or "landscapes" to mess with your internal ruler. You’ll tap the one that looks biggest based on the background, only to get that obnoxious red "X" and a buzzer sound.
Honestly, it's kind of brilliant. They’re weaponizing your own intelligence against you.
Hidden Mechanics in Mobile Puzzles
If you're playing something like Brain Out, the solution to "tap the boxes from the biggest to the smallest" is almost never what you see on the screen at first glance. Sometimes, the "boxes" aren't even the colored squares. Sometimes the entire background is a box.
I’ve seen levels where you have to literally drag the boxes on top of each other to compare them. If the game doesn't let you move them, you might have to look at the literal size of the object in the "real world" context rather than the screen. For example, a box labeled "Elephant" might be physically smaller on your phone screen than a box labeled "Ant," but the game expects you to tap based on the conceptual size. It’s a linguistic trap disguised as a visual one.
Then there are the technical shenanigans. In some versions of these logic games, a box is hidden behind another box. You have to flick the screen or shake your phone to reveal the "true" biggest box. It’s rarely about your eyesight. It’s about your willingness to break the rules of the interface.
The Math of Area vs. Perception
Let's get technical for a second. $A = w \times h$. That’s the area of a rectangle. Simple, right? But developers love using "distractor" shapes. They will give you a very tall, very thin box and a very short, very wide box.
Our eyes are naturally biased toward height. We tend to perceive vertical objects as being larger than horizontal ones of the exact same area. This is why bartenders use tall, narrow glasses—it makes you think you’re getting more of a drink than you actually are. When a puzzle asks you to rank them, you have to fight the urge to just pick the tallest one. You have to actually eye the total surface area.
Why These Puzzles Go Viral on Discover
You’ve definitely seen those ads. The ones where a hand is hovering over the screen, purposefully making the wrong choice while a caption says "Only 1% can solve this!" It’s rage-bait.
These "tap the boxes" challenges perform so well on platforms like Google Discover because they trigger a "correction" reflex. You see someone failing a task that a five-year-old should be able to do, and your brain screams, "I can do better than that!" You click. You download. You get stuck on Level 45.
The simplicity of the instruction—tap the boxes from the biggest to the smallest—is the perfect "hook." It requires zero explanation. It crosses language barriers. It’s a universal human experience to want to put things in order.
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Strategies for Beating Order-Based Logic Games
If you're tired of losing your "lives" or watching ads to get hints, you need a system. Stop tapping immediately.
- Check for Overlaps. Drag the boxes. If they don't move, try to "pinch" them. Sometimes you can zoom in on a box to make it the biggest.
- Ignore the Labels. If a box says "100kg" but is physically tiny, the game might be testing whether you follow the visual or the text. Usually, in these "troll" games, the physical size on the screen is a lie.
- Screen Boundaries. Look at the borders of the game. Is there a square in the UI or the menu that counts as a "box"?
- Device Interaction. Some levels require you to turn your phone upside down. Gravity in the game world might shift the boxes, revealing their true scale.
It’s also worth noting that some games define "biggest" by the number of sides or the "weight" of the object depicted inside the box. If you see a box with a sun and a box with a house, the sun is "bigger" in reality, even if the icon is small.
The Evolution of the "Ordering" Genre
We’ve come a long way from Lumosity and basic brain training. Today’s games are post-modern. They know you know the tropes. When they ask you to tap the boxes from the biggest to the smallest, they are often making a joke about how many of these games you’ve played.
There’s a popular level in a game called Easy Game where the "biggest" box is actually the one you’re currently standing in—the room itself. You have to tap the background. It’s a "think outside the box" pun that is literally the solution to the puzzle.
This shift toward "meta-puzzles" keeps the genre alive. It’s no longer about cognitive skill; it’s about a battle of wits between the player and the level designer. You aren't just sorting shapes. You’re trying to figure out how the developer is trying to trick you this time.
Actionable Tips for Level Solvers
Next time you hit a wall with a "size-ordering" puzzle, don't just spam the screen. Take a breath.
- Zoom out. If the game allows it, pinch the screen. Sometimes the "biggest" box is off-canvas.
- Test the "Invisible." Tap the words in the instruction. In many games, the word "biggest" in the actual prompt is a clickable object and is considered the "largest" thing on the screen.
- Check for stackables. If you can move the boxes, try stacking them. Often, three small boxes combined become the "biggest" box you need to tap first.
- Watch for animation. Some boxes grow or shrink over time. You have to time your taps perfectly to catch them at their peak or minimum size.
The logic isn't always logical. That’s the point. To win, you have to stop thinking like a mathematician and start thinking like a prankster. Look for the loophole, find the hidden object, and never trust your first instinct. Sorting from largest to smallest sounds like homework, but in the world of mobile gaming, it’s a high-stakes game of "spot the lie."