Time Sinks

Commenter John D asked if I had a list of the Android games I’ve linked to in various Friday Ephemera posts. I didn’t, but as he asked nicely, and hit the tip jar, I felt obliged to throw one together. It’s quite possible I’ve missed a few, so the following list may be expanded in the comments.  

Osmos. Do try to avoid being digested.

The Sequence. For the logically inclined.

Causality. Meddle with time. What could possibly go wrong?

Ultraflow. It’s easier if you stay calm, I think. Better than its sequel. 

Swapperoo. Still in heavy rotation here at Guild of Evil HQ.

No Stick Shooter. Old school arms race, escalates quickly.

Prism. Geometry can be fun. 

Monument Valley. Splendidly Escheresque.

Dark Echo. I think there’s something in here with us.

Spaceplan. Warping space-time with potatoes. 

Feel free to share any recommendations of your own.

Comments

[David]

When it finally arrives, Inside, from the makers of Limbo, should be entertaining.

[John D]

Thanks, David.

[David]

The Room series - one, two and three.

[Pogonip]

Virtual Cthulhu!

[David]

Beyondium.

[Pogonip]

I have a game that is sort of like Mah Jong, except you match 3 tiles in a row. Every time you finish 3 or 4 levels you help rebuild a town destroyed in a civil war. Why it couldn't have been destroyed by something more fun, like giant potatoes falling out of the space-time continuum, I don't know. Anyway, at one point you end up building these jokers a giant lucky-cat! The game should be called "Taking Shameless Advantage Of The Foreign Aid." I still play it, the puzzles are mindlessly relaxing, and am amused every time they sucker me into building them another cat.

[Alice]

I don't play many games but Monument Valley was beautiful.

[David]

I don’t play many games but Monument Valley was beautiful.

There’s more aesthetic content in that one game, and more pleasure to be had, than in the current offerings of the local contemporary art gallery.

There’s a sequel, by the way, though as yet it’s only available for iOS.

[Randy]

A French social scientist (I think) called World of Warcraft a chronophage. Is that what these are?

[Pogonip]

Thanks to a cold leaving me no energy to do much else, I finally read Master and Commander. I liked the movie better.

Somewhere there's a market for an M & C game wherein the player must navigate treacherously dense jungles of authentic nautical gibberish in order to reach... The End!

[Franklin]

Smash Hit.

[Pogonip]

Have you noticed the dearth of new material at Everyday Feminism? Do you suppose they took the new sugar daddy's money and ran?

[Spiny Norman]

navigate treacherously dense jungles of authentic nautical gibberish

Wait, what...? Is that anything like authentic frontier gibberish ? o_O

[David]

Have you noticed the dearth of new material at Everyday Feminism?

Yes, it has been quiet over there. I’m starting to miss its demented wrongness. Ms Fabello now seems to spend her time trying to get backers for her new “secret blog” about eating disorders, or championing eyelash extensions, or telling everyone how fabulous her selfies are.

[Hal]

Wait, what...? Is that anything like authentic frontier gibberish ? o_O

Quite certainly, great minds think alike, and so do ours.

[Hal]

Ms Fabello now seems to spend her time trying to get backers for her new “secret blog” about eating disorders, or championing eyelash extensions, or telling everyone how fabulous her selfies are.

The hazards of reading quickly:

. . . or championing eyelash extensions, or telling everyone how selfish her falsies are.

[David]

The hazards of reading quickly

She’s an odd creature, even by the standards of feminist editors. She regularly denounces “white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchal standards of feminine beauty,” as something womankind must be freed from, urgently, and yet she spends an extraordinary amount of time tweeting selfies, all of which entail heavy filtering and kilos of make-up, and re-tweeting flattering comments about how pretty she is.

It’s like peeking into the psyche of a neurotic teenage girl.

[Pogonip]

"It's like peeking into the psyche of a neurotic teenage girl." Modern feminism neatly summed up. A pity, because those countries where little girls have parts of their privates sawed off with razor blades could use a touch of real feminism.

[Hal]

She regularly denounces “white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchal standards of feminine beauty,”

Oracular cognoscence of certain recondite aspects. I will hypothesize: Disquisitional recapitulation of imperspicuous symptomatology tends to an unequivocal belief. Indubitably.

[Pogonip]

Hal, all moral and right-thinking people champion eyelash extensions. And so does Ma Fabelli.

[Pogonip]

Er, that's Ms Fabelli.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Yeah, you lot going on about your Android games, haven't stopped to consider your spatial structures privilege, have you ?

Muh whut ? You ask in your typical violent, but slackjawed, way so typical of white patriarchal cis power oppression, when the answer is obvious.

According to Edward Soja, a UCLA urban planning professor who died in 2015, it is the “production of unjust geographies and spatial structures of privilege [within urban cities and propelled] by racism, patriarchy, heterosexual bias.” and includes, "...cars and highways; networking technologies culminating in the Internet and World Wide Web; and film and broadcast media."

Don't get me started on what goes on in rural cities.

[Pogonip]

Or, as Triggly Puff would say, while shaking her tyrannosaur arms "(Bleep) gravity!"

David, what's your policy on words like (bleep) and (bleep) and even (bleep!) in English? How about Spanish?

[David]

David, what’s your policy on words like (bleep) and (bleep) and even (bleep!) in English? How about Spanish?

I don’t have a policy as such, but I think of salty language as something best used sparingly. And as I don’t know any Spanish profanities, or any Spanish to speak of, I’m not sure I’d recognise them.

[Pogonip]

You wouldn't recognize them? Hmmmm....

[Sporkatus]

You wouldn't recognize them? Hmmmm....

Chinga tu madre is probably still over the line.

[Hal]

How about Spanish?

El Bleep.

Le Bleep when en Francais, following which mon Francais n'existe pas.

[Pogonip]

Das bleep!

IL BLEEPO!

Does Russian have a definite article?

Bleep no heteropatriarchy ga arimasu, as they often say in Japan.

[Sporkatus]

Does Russian have a definite article?

No definite article, though apparently you can say "one" for emphasis "a". "одного́".

In related trivia, the Spanish phrase in my previous comment has a near relative in Russian: ёб твою мать.

[Pogonip]

Bleeps of England, bleeps of Ireland...

[The Sprawl]

Re. your first comment: 'Inside' is excellent. Not as visually striking as 'Limbo' but a better, more engaging game with some fantastically strange and beautiful imagery. For anyone who goes on to play it, look out for the long-haired, naked water-baby things. They lingered in the mind alright.

Occasional visitor, first-time poster here BTW. Embarrassingly(I'm not embarrassed actually) it's video games that drew me in to make my first comment. Politically speaking...I have qualms(that sometimes strike me as serious, sometimes not), but this site is so well-maintained and the writing so entertainingly disdainful that I keep coming back.

[David]

Occasional visitor, first-time poster here BTW.

Welcome aboard. Help yourself to nibbles.

[ Adds “entertainingly disdainful” to brochure. ]

[David]

I have qualms (that sometimes strike me as serious, sometimes not),

By all means voice them. This is a place where people can disagree in a (fairly) civil way.

[Pogonip]

Or in an uncivil way, as long as you do it in Spanish so David won't catch you.

[Custard Cream]

Aren't there any decent SJW games featuring the struggle against cis-patriarchy? I mean, there's got to be a market there. Up the intersectional gender studies ladder, down the un-woke snake? Although "snake" is maybe a little too peno-centric these days.

Work with me, people! Work with me!

[Hal]

Aren't there any decent SJW games featuring the struggle against cis-patriarchy?

Of course, However, by definition of any such game, each player is required to be the one sole winner.

Therefore, all such game play inevitably disintegrates during and as part of any such, with no winner and all being frustrated and enraged players.

[Pogonip]

Hi CustardCream, there was an enormous Internet kerfuffle, a veritable brouhaha, a donnybrook even, called Gamergate that started with SJWs wishing to put their, um, unique viewpoint into video games, so if you look that up, you can probably find what you're looking for. I know nothing else about Gamergate--I read one article (Washington Post, I think), couldn't see any reason I should care about it, and ignored it thereafter.

Nobody, SJW or otherwise, better touch my computer Monopoly game! Harrumph!

[J.M. Heinrichs]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DONKEY.BAS

Cheers

[Che Guava]

Since I am occasionally to reading your blog (at times very interesting), I will throw one into your list of games.

Glass is great, 9 stages, each with 9 levels, based on optics and lasers, no ads, some very challenging.

If I want to play arcade-style, I still prefer a dedicated device. Never played one on the phone.

Ultraflow is good (not as good as Glass, I think you will find the latter to your tastes), a bit like pool, carrom, or snooker.

Monument Valley looks beautiful, but not downloadable for my device. Version problem, I suppose.

Thanks for the list.

Also, I could not find Prism, I think you may have contracted the title.

Check Glass, it is great!

[Che Guava]

One more, Rotal, it presents 3D shapes made of blocks, rotated differently you have to identify the pairs.

Has a time limit, fiendishly hard at the top level.

That whole room escape genre originates in Japan, from brick and clamshell devices. Wish my brick still worked as a phone, but the USB port is broken repairs cost too much, Before my provider was taken over by Softbank and Y！Japan, they were always giving free room escape games and some other types, and demos.

Anyway, it has a good physical macro lens switch, so still using it.