Not from lack of games. In that department, I’m actually drowning. I should rather say my gaming writing well is running dry. I haven’t played games in so long! LIIIIIFE. WHY HAST THOU FLOODED ME!? It’s a great thing, really, but seriously, the best gaming experience I’ve had in the past week was playing Fruit Ninja in the bathroom at work. How do you guys do it? How do you carve out time to prioritize games in your life? Teach me your ways!
In lieu of being able to talk at length about one or more games, I’ll just highlight some flash/mobile games that I’ve gotten a chance to check out in the past little while:
Disclaimer: I’m not an iPhone hater, but I do have an Android phone, so all the app links are to the Google Play store. ALSO! Lots of these cost money, but there are really awesome free apps everyday in the Amazon App Store so be sure to check that to pick up some of these for free, like I did!
Pixel Dungeon – My brother put me on to this game a while back (for the subtitle of this site, “Gaming without your brother,” he certainly does come up a lot . . .). It’s a randomly generated dungeon crawler; find the next set of stairs down, go down the stairs, try to find the ultimate artifact, the Amulet of Yendor.
It’s still in beta, but that also means it’s free for the moment! There’s 20 levels at the moment, with more coming in the next update says the dev. It’s difficult! Which makes it fun, but there is perma-death which is heartbreaking. Three classes (warrior, rogue, mage), potions and enemies and weapons and armor and items – all the needed elements for a fun action RPG. And the pixel art . . . gets me right in the nostalgia every time. Well done pixel art is my jam.
Candy box ! – Automated ASCII art?! Get out of town! The key in this game is to just wait until you have more than two options. Then it becomes seriously exciting/addicting because you wonder “WHAT COULD HAPPEN NEXT!?” You can also “save” which is nice for a browser-based game. Shoutout to friend and reader Susan for putting me on to this super fun game.
Robot Unicorn Attack – Super old, but I figure it’s mildly relevant because RUA 2 just came out, AND, I really am playing this game a lot. Something about endless runners . . . I just want to beat my old high score! I would’ve been hopeless in the 80s, all those arcades around. I also can’t try RUA 2 until I feel like I’ve sufficiently used the original app approximately $2 worth (for the app, free online though). Anyway, an oldie but a goodie!
Continuity 2 – Another oldie but goodie that again my brother put me on to. I had never heard of it, but this a puzzle game I can really get behind. You move around tiles that are snapshots of the actual level to facilitate the character you’re controlling to be able to move through, collecting the key to the last door, as well other little tokens. ALL AS FAST AS YOU CAN! Three factors rank your level success: time taken to complete, how many tokens collected, and . . . moves maybe? I forget, and to find out and tell me how stupid I am, download Continuity 2!
Osmos HD – This game. YEESH this game. I mean that in the best possible way. It’s so good! So addicting! Such a great soundtrack! So hard for me! In general, the object of every level is to become the biggest cannibalistic blob. You can only absorb blobs you’re bigger than, and you die by bumping into blobs bigger than you, which then absorb you. There are some different types of blobs that attract things, and move faster. A cool mechanic is being able to slow down time in the level which gives you a little bit of reaction time buffer. And fo’ real, the soundtrack. Dat soundtrack. Check out the game!
Temple Run 2 – I wasn’t going to include this game because I am a little embarrassed that I play it so often instead of playing some of the other critically acclaimed games in my library, but what can I say? I just love unlocking stuff and endlessly running (virtually that is, never in real life. Have you seen me?) It’s a good game! If you want something mindless that’s easy to play while you’re going to the bathroom at work, this would be my top recommendation.
I enjoy these games that have depth, that I can spend an hour or more on (equivalent to how much time I would spend playing a console or PC game) but can do out and about, away from my TV or monitor. Ya hoo for the increasing caliber of mobile gaming!
What about you guys, what games do you love on your phone, or tablet, or browser? Let me know in the comments!
iamspacegiraffe
You mentioned Candy Box! but the other big viral game that sucked any useful time from my day last week was GeoGuessr:
http://geoguessr.com/
You are plonked somewhere in the world using Google’s genius streetview and you have to guess where you are! You get scored on how close your guess is to where you were plonked.
Heh. ‘Plonked.’
It becomes a Myst style adventure game as you find yourself wandering around streets, looking for advertising, street-signs and forms of language that can give you a clue where you are.
It’s better than Myst though.
I guess it’s only on PC/IPhone and they’re working on an Android version BUT I want to shout out King Of Dragon Pass, because its the best game ever.
Laurie
See, I WANT to go play that game, but I KNOW that I will do nothing else the rest of the day . . . but that sounds super, super cool.
I’ll have to check out King of Dragon Pass; thanks for the tip!
Bry
I simply give up gaming till I have a weekend where things aren’t planned out and I’m not studying….then I binge like an alcoholic.
twohp2few
I definitely remember playing robot unicorn attack for hours on end. To this day I still have an uncanny, to my friends, ability to remember they lyrics to “always”
Ashton
I always assumed that once I had a smartphone, I’d be gaming on it all the time. Now that I have my iPhone 4s, however, I find that I rarely ever use it for gaming with the current exception of Zombies, Run! (though that’s a hybrid game/fitness app). Likely, I’m just of the old school, but I find that no gaming experience really holds a candle to sitting down in front of the TV with a controller in my hand or at my desk with my mechanical keyboard click-clacking beneath my left index, ring, and middle fingers.
As far as managing my game time, I think it comes down to either time management or inherent motivation. We make time for the stuff that we consider truly important, even if that’s something as trivial as watching TV. For instance, I’d much rather commit my scarce free time to an epic game than, say, dive into Breaking Bad or Doctor Who. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love to get caught up on those shows and become part of the ongoing conversations about them that spring up practically everywhere, I just don’t want it badly enough to divert any of my free time toward them.
If you can find a way to game on the go and satisfy your passion for the medium, don’t fret too much about not having time to play when you’re at home. So long as you feel like you’re doing what you enjoy in your free time, that’s really all that matters.
Laurie
Well it’s not so much that I fret about not being able to play at home, it’s that I really want to dive into these games that have awesome, fuller, richer environments than a mobile game, but can’t because I’m running around all the time. Too much great content, not enough time to consume!