What better time-killing invention is there than the smartphone? Portable, flashy, engaging and accessible in equal measure, I’d bet that more people use their smartphones for social media browsing and games than they do phone calls and texts. And speaking of games, there’s a whole lot of them out there. Some are more addictive than others, and it’s usually the addictive ones that get you through boring journeys or lonely parties. Or maybe that second one’s just for me. Anyway, here are three of the best to help you along when times get dull.
1 – Plague Inc.
A morbid and slightly different take on the classic smartphone game, but one that has had blazing success all over the world regardless. And speaking of global blazing success, you’ll need a form of it to succeed in this little number. Only, the kind of success you’re after here is the death-toll kind. You take the reigns of a new, terribly destructive virus and begin to make your way across the world in speed-up ‘real time’, mutating and evolving as you go and generally scaring the crap out of the general populus, before killing them all. This is one of the most successful games ever released for smartphones and it’s easy to see why. The games are just the right length for a bus or train ride, and culling the human race is ultimately a lot more addictive than it might sound.
2 – Solitaire
Card games are truly classic ways of procrastinating and wasting time and always have been, from the real world to the digital. Solitaire, which you might recall from jagged, juttering games on Windows ’95, has been re-imagined for smartphones and is every bit as engaging and solitary as you remember it. The rules are simple and the games are frustrating and ecstatic in equal measure, but when it comes down to it, it’s very tough to beat a time-weathered card game. Of course, if the fancy takes you, there are numerous card and gambling games available on smartphones, everything from world class online poker to the best new bingo sites. If you’re looking for a bit of distraction and you don’t have a card table handy, you could do a lot worse than checking out some of these classic games.
3 – Agar.io
Mobile gaming is enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the moment, and one of the front-runners of the industry comes in the form of Agar.io, a smartphone port of wildly successful desktop game. Cripplingly addictive, Agar.io is kind of like the yin to Plague Inc.’s yang; you play as a single cell, struggling to increase in size and avoid being eaten by the numerous bigger cells orbiting around you. The real kicker with this rather wonderful game is that you play against other people, real people, so the competitiveness and the fury are increased tenfold.
