Back to game reviews!  Now, I’m not saying you should play games on your next boring Zoom call, I’m just mentioning that these are casual browser games, and that you could just turn the sound off…

There’s a cute Mahjong solitaire game. This is the tile-matching solo game, with a layout of 144 tiles for one player to pair off, not the four-player game.

I also liked playing the simple, cheery match-three games. These have enough strategy to keep you entertained while listening to a boring Zoom call, but they’re fundamentally pretty simple so you can still listen for when there’s something that actually applies to you. I mean, obviously I never zone out and always pay attention, even when that meeting could been an email. I just heard that about playing games on a call from, uh, my friend. You don’t know her, she goes to another school.

But probably the cutest game is a Cookie Monster-themed Pac-Man game. Your little Pac-Man is that classic Muppet blue, with big Muppet eyes.  He needs to run through each level’s maze, eating all the dots before the ghosts get him. When he eats one of the power pills, good old Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde stop chasing him and turn into cookies.  There’s some bonus fruit in the game, just like classic Pac-Man, so Cookie Monster can get some healthy snacks, too. I always love game mashups and Pac-Man plus Cookie Monster is so cute.

Since pandemic stay-at-home, I’ve also gotten out my old DS, and went back to exploring the island in Lost In Blue. Although I’m not following much of the main plot right now, just exploring the beach, catching fish, and picking fruit. So, basically playing it like it’s The Sims: Castaway, with more harvesting.  If you don’t have a 12-year-old Nintendo DS lying around, there’s are similar island survival games for iOs. but I haven’t found one with a castaway friends plot yet. 

What about you? What casual games are you playing these days?