As the quarantine continues, I find myself getting increasingly bored. Instead of being productive and completing schoolwork or going outside, I spend hours in bed, downloading games I have never heard of to try and pass time. In doing so, I decided to play the top five free games listed on the App Store. I tried to complete 10 levels of each game to give them a fair review.
1 – “Recharge Please!”
I think the purpose of this game was to bombard players with as many ads as possible in a short amount of time. Getting to 10 levels took barely two minutes. But, between each level, there would be a 30 to 60 second ad. Watching the ads took more time than playing the actual game. The game does require a little bit of thinking of how to connect certain objects, so it was more than just mundane tasks. But, this was the only redeeming quality this game possessed. While it was tolerable at first, after approximately five levels, I knew I was not going to play this game past the 10 levels.
Rating: 0.5/5
2 – “Tower Run”
This game was very confusing at first. There were no instructions, I think the intent was to figure it out as the game continued. It is not too difficult to understand, and once I got the hang of it, it was honestly fun to play. The only negative was that the game crashed a lot, mainly because there was just too much happening on the screen, which hindered me from reaching 10 levels. I think the game design itself is very visually appealing, with lots of colours and small details. With some more work, this could be a genuinely entertaining game.
Rating: 2/5
3 – “Repair Master 3D”
This was probably one of the worst games I have ever played, which was disappointing because I have seen so many ads for it. The game would not recognize anything I did, so trying to complete any task took more effort than it needed to. I also felt as though this game had twice the number of ads “Recharge Please!” did, and almost all actions the player can do rely on the ads. To collect my reward, I had to watch an ad. To start the game, I had to watch an ad. It got annoying very quickly. I could not wait to uninstall this game.
Rating: 0/5
“Coin Master”
I can see why this was a top game, but it really should not have been. The visuals and graphics were probably the strongest, but it was not engaging in the slightest bit. There was really nothing to do with this game. This game also crashed repeatedly. It would work fine for a few minutes and then just exit out in the middle of the tutorial, forcing me to start over. If it had loaded and I had played the game more, then maybe I would have rated it higher.
Rating: 1/5
“Hyper Life”
I would have to say this was the best out of all the games I played, but it was also the only one I was able to play without having it crash. It was very much like Bitlife, but with actual characters that are running, for whatever reason. The inclusion of these 3D characters is strange, mainly because they are hideous and barely look human. The rules are also not really explicit. Going through the scenarios gave either a coin, book or heart, but they did not seem to do anything so I do not understand why they were there in the first place. Towards the end of each “lifetime”, it got a bit boring, but I think it is a good time-waster.
Rating: 3.5/5