GROW nano: Which Mini GROW Games Can You Still Play?
Five small GROW games came out under the nano name between 2006 and 2011, and three of them now go by other titles. We opened every one to sort out which is which.
Leshrac
7 min read
In short
- GROW nano is On Nakayama's mini GROW line: five games, from July 2006 to May 2011.
- The first two are clicking games. The other three are small order puzzles with 3 to 6 panels.
- Three were renamed: vol.2 is GROW SunBoy, vol.3 is GROW RECOVERY, vol.4 is GROW Figure. All five still open on eyezmaze.com.
- When three to six panels stop being a challenge, Island Evolution is an eight-piece order puzzle you can play free.
Search for GROW nano and you get a CrazyGames page called Grow Nano, a Hooda Math page for Grow Nano Vol 3, and Eyezmaze's own page for vol.1. Some of those titles now go by other names on Eyezmaze.
We opened every nano title on eyezmaze.com on October 3, 2026 and counted what is on screen. Below, they are sorted by volume with their current names, and we point out which ones are puzzles at all. The closing sections are about our own browser game, Island Evolution.
What is GROW nano?
GROW nano is the name On Nakayama used for small, quick GROW games on his Eyezmaze site between 2006 and 2011. The main GROW games are full puzzles; the nano ones are short experiments, and Wikipedia files them under the MiniGROW line.
Five were released under that name. Two of them, ver.0 and vol.1, test how fast or how carefully you click. The other three use the familiar GROW rule, where you press panels in some order and the pieces level up as you go, but with far fewer panels than the main games.
Where nano sits in the wider catalogue, next to GROW Cube, GROW Island and the rest, is laid out in our GROW series guide.
Which GROW nano games are there?
Five: ver.0, vol.1, vol.2, vol.3 and vol.4. The panel counts below are from the current eyezmaze.com versions; the first two have no panels to order. Release months follow Wikipedia and each game's own page.
| Title | Released | Name today | Panels |
|---|---|---|---|
| GROW nano ver.0 | July 2006 | unchanged | none, fast clicking |
| GROW nano vol.1 | August 2006 | unchanged | none, 30 hidden points |
| GROW nano vol.2 | February 2007 | GROW SunBoy | 3 |
| GROW nano vol.3 | February 2008 | GROW RECOVERY | 6 |
| GROW nano vol.4 | May 2011 | GROW Figure | 4 |
The ver.0 page describes it as a mini GROW "for the fastest finger": the scene grows as you click a red circle quickly. Its successor reversed that. The vol.1 page says Nakayama swapped high-speed clicking for "click point hunting" because not everyone could click that fast. On screen it shows a TIP SYSTEM button and a counter starting at 0 / 30. The Eyezmaze archive lists vol.1 on July 17, 2006, although its game page is dated August 5.
GROW SunBoy and GROW Figure look nothing alike. Pressing START in GROW SunBoy shows a pink figure running across a snowy plain beneath a tall bare tree with a nest on one branch. GROW Figure opens on a plain tree stump against a cream background, with four picture panels down the right side: a heart, a flat disc, an eye and a cube.
Bigger than nano, smaller than Cube Island Evolution has eight pieces to place. That is enough for real planning and still short enough to finish over a coffee.
▶ Read how it worksWhy do GROW nano games have different names now?
Eyezmaze has since renamed the three puzzle volumes. GROW nano vol.2 is now GROW SunBoy, vol.3 is GROW RECOVERY and vol.4 is GROW Figure. The two clicking games kept their names.
GROW nano vol.3 carried its new name to Android in April 2015 and iOS in July 2015, and a browser version under that name is on the site today. The archive still calls the May 18, 2018 browser editions of the other two "GROW nano2 & nano4 (HTML5 Edition)". The Eyezmaze home page now lists GROW SunBoy, GROW Figure and GROW Recovery among its games, with nothing to say they started as nano titles.
Portal pages such as CrazyGames and Hooda Math still put the nano names in their titles. We did not check what those pages run. Which titles made it past Flash on Eyezmaze itself is listed in what survived Flash.
What is GROW nano vol.3 about?
Getting a sick character back on their feet. The game gives you six items to click in sequence, and the goal is to raise the patient's health to the maximum. It is now called GROW RECOVERY.
The browser page explains where it came from. Nakayama writes that he had been sick in bed, could not work quickly, and made an easy GROW instead of the bigger game he had promised. Jay Is Games reviewed it on February 20, 2008, the day it went up, and found it more logical and intuitive than the series' more abstract entries. A sick patient is at least a goal you can reason about.
The order is yours to work out Each of our eight items has written requirements. Read them, plan a run, and see how close you get to a perfect 27.
▶ Open the evolution chartCan you still play the GROW nano games?
Yes, all five, on eyezmaze.com. The two clicking games load their original Flash files through Ruffle, a Flash emulator the page loads for you. SunBoy, RECOVERY and Figure run as HTML5 browser games. Nothing needs installing.
The HTML5 versions share one layout. A rules box sits above a START button, the panels sit below, and a control bar along the bottom has retry, fast-forward and mute buttons. GROW SunBoy puts its three panels in a row, GROW Figure stacks four in a column, and GROW RECOVERY arranges six in a grid. On our visit the rules box was written in Chinese.
What should you play after GROW nano?
Another short sitting with a bit more to chew on. Island Evolution has 8 items and 40,320 possible orders, and only 3 of them reach the perfect score of 27. A run takes a few minutes.
What the nano puzzles teach you is to press a panel and watch. Ours asks you to read first: each item's needs are written down, so a run can be planned on paper before the first move. The series' best-known puzzle, with many more pieces, is covered in our GROW Cube page.
If you have not solved an order puzzle by reasoning before, our step-by-step method covers the approach. For this game in particular, the hint section nudges without spoiling, and the game FAQ covers things like how long a run takes and whether your best score is kept.
Eight items, no download It runs in the browser on desktop or phone. Place your first piece and see what the island does with it.
▶ Place your first pieceWhere do these facts come from?
- The Eyezmaze archive page on eyezmaze.com, for its entry dates (including vol.1 on July 17, 2006 and vol.3 on February 20, 2008), the 2015 GROW RECOVERY mobile entries, and the May 18, 2018 entry "GROW nano2 & nano4 (HTML5 Edition)".
- The Eyezmaze game pages "GROW nano ver.0 (GAME)", posted July 17, 2006, and "GROW nano vol.1 (GAME)", posted August 5, 2006, for their descriptions and the Ruffle player.
- The Eyezmaze pages "GROW SunBoy (Browser Game)", "GROW RECOVERY (BrowserGame)" and "GROW Figure (BrowserGame)", opened October 3, 2026, for the panel counts, layout, controls, the opening scenes of SunBoy and Figure, and the RECOVERY release note about being sick in bed.
- The eyezmaze.com home page game list, checked October 3, 2026, for GROW SunBoy, GROW Figure and GROW Recovery appearing among its games.
- The GROW (series) entry on Wikipedia, for On Nakayama as creator, the MiniGROW grouping, the month of each nano release, the 2015 Android and iOS months for GROW RECOVERY, GROW Comeback and GROW Thanks as later MiniGROW titles, and the renames to GROW SunBoy, GROW RECOVERY and GROW Figure.
- Jay Is Games, "Grow Nano Vol. 3" review, February 20, 2008, for the six items, the sick character, the healing goal and the reviewer's view of its logic.
- A Google search for "grow nano" from the United States on October 3, 2026, for the CrazyGames and Hooda Math results.
