After a hard day’s work, there’s nothing better than spending a couple of hours kicking back on the sofa with a glass of wine and my iPad, playing some of my favorite games. Here’s my current list of top ten iPad games.
1. Bingo Blitz
Without a doubt this is my favorite game which I play everyday. It is as addictive as it is satisfying. This incredibly popular bingo game by Playtika, offers a wide range of themed bingo rooms featuring cities from around the world, as well as some fantastic permanent and temporary seasonal rooms. Bingo Blitz also boasts a number of fun slots rooms, which are handy for generating the cash you need to purchase power-ups which help you win at bingo and to level up. The greatest attraction this game offers is the collections model in which you have to get a set number of collectible items in order to complete a room and win credits. There’s something immensely satisfying about winning those hard-to-get collection items and finishing a room. I also belong to a fabulous trading group, BB Hummingbees, run by a bunch of amazing women who do their very best to help you get further in the game. We trade items and exchange tips and the ladies now feel like family. Bingo Blitz is fun, colorful, inventive, and totally engaging.
2. Elvenar
This beautiful, laid back game from Inno Games is soothing and relaxing and takes more than a little strategic thinking to complete tasks and advance in the game. From it’s lovely music, gorgeous graphics and authentic look and feel, Elvenar is an engaging Sim-type game where you are tasked with building your own city. You have a choice of creating your city in either mankind or elf-kind style. For me there was no choice, it had to be elfkind. You need to build homes, create manufacturing and cultural concerns, establish and train armies, as well as beautify your city with a wide range of building elements. My choice of elf-kind means that the architecture, structures and clothing of my city have an authentic elven theme. The game challenges you with tasks to fulfill, some of which provide the opportunity to explore your surroundings and expand your reach into other regions by trading or fighting with your neighbors. You can also choose to belong to a guild and participate in team events to win loot and gain points. After playing this game for a few months, my city has the look and feel of Rivendell from The Lord of the Rings and is quite stunning. The great thing about this game is that it’s not too complicated to start playing and has a wonderfully organic and intuitive feel to it that keeps me coming back for more.
3. Hungry Dragon
Cute and quirky, Hungry Dragon is an eat-all-you-can type of game from gaming giant, Ubisoft, that involves flying around as a dragon and gobbling up townsfolk, live animals, birds and even insects while searching for chests, pieces of cake and alphabet letters. Moving your dragon is easy by holding your finger on the screen and swishing it about wherever you want to go. To boost your speed or to destroy a giant, you tap and hold another finger down. This is particularly handy when you’re faced with critical hunger and no food is in sight and you need to hunt for more. To stay alive you need to eat constantly and if you run out of victims to eat and you die, you have two more lives before it’s game over and your score is tallied. You have a choice of either spending gems or watching a video to gain your extra lives, so I choose to watch a video in order to save gems to buy upgrades, eggs and different types of dragons. Every time I play this game I discover new areas that I hadn’t travelled to before. Today I stumbled upon a Tardis tucked away underneath a ledge, which particularly pleased me as I am a HUGE Doctor Who Fan!
4. Murder in the Alps
For an immersive, clever and often challenging gaming experience, you can’t go wrong with this cloak-and-dagger murder mystery genre game. From the studio of Nordcurrent, Murder in the Alps provides interesting story lines, wonderful graphics and smooth game play. Set in the 1930s, you play as the character Anna Myers, a journalist and amateur sleuth who somehow manages to uncover clues and secrets missed by bumbling and bombastic policemen put in charge of the different crime scenes. Part graphic novel, part interactive puzzle solving, the game offers a wide range of hidden object scenes and interesting mini-games which you need to complete in order to gather evidence and move on. It took me many months to complete the chapters that are currently on offer, and I’m looking forward to the release of the remaining chapters which are still in production. One downside of this game is that you need energy to keep playing and it runs out fast! You can either wait 24 hours for your energy to recharge, watch some videos or make in-app purchases to keep going.
5. Cooking Fever
I have to admit having a major weakness for time management games. When done well, they’re challenging and fun and can keep you engaged for hours on end. Cooking Fever, by Nordcurrent, is one of those that I never tire of. Your task is to cook and serve a mouthwateringly delectable array of foods in many different restaurants to hungry and impatient customers. Each restaurant has 40 levels of increasing difficulty. You collect coins with each serving and win gems when you level up and complete venues which can be used for kitchen and restaurant upgrades. I’ve played this game on and off over the years and I’ve reviewed it before, but now they have added loads of extra locations with even more restaurants to conquer, so it’s once again back on my iPad. Immensely enjoyable, I’m having fun working my way through the game’s latest offerings.
6. My Hospital
Another one of my current fave time management games is My Hospital by Cherrypick Games. There are many hospital games out there, but so many of them fail because they are over complicated and take loads of time and resources to complete. This game is a winner because it’s easy to set up and get going and is socially interactive if you connect through Facebook. This enables you to trade items that you grow or make, which helps you to develop your hospital and level up much quicker. It’s rather fun treating patients, growing plants, making medicines and enlarging and decorating your hospital.
7. Kitchen Craze: Cooking Chef
It should come as no surprise that yet another time management game has found its way into my top ten favorite iPad games list. Kitchen Craze by FlowMotion Entertainment is cute and colorful and easy to play. Much like other games in this genre, you earn coins and gems by cooking and serving food to hungry customers while racing against a clock. You can purchase upgrades with either earned coins and gems or in-app purchases. I like this type of game, so having a couple of different ones to play with keeps boredom at the door.
8. Wordscapes
I love word games and Wordscapes doesn’t disappoint. What I like most about this particular game is that each level has its own theme and words that match. You are given a group of letters from which to create words by linking letters together to form words that fit in a grid. Points are earned for words that aren’t on the grid which minimizes the frustration that comes with not being able to find the exact words that fit the board. It’s challenging and fun and a great game to play on the bus where you can switch off as soon as you get to your stop and pick up next time exactly where you left off without losing ground.
9. BingoScapes
There’s no doubt that I’m addicted to bingo games and Bingoscapes by Dataverse Entertainment, is my go-to-game to play when I’m all out of credits in Bingo Blitz. While not nearly as good or as engaging as Bingo Blitz, this game has enough going for it to make it to this list. The theme and concept is similar to the aforementioned game, with international city-themed bingo rooms and quirky, fun high-roller rooms. It’s colorful and cute with smooth game play and interesting and innovative high-roller rooms and is without a doubt, a great game for women.
10. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot
Although I’m not a fan of shoot ‘em up or “combat” games, there’s something about this Ubisoft game that keeps me coming back for more. The game is centered around a quirky character who has to fight a range of fighters, giants and troll-like creatures in order to steal their loot. The higher the level and the richer your coffers, the better the gear and weapons you can arm yourself with. Moving about is smooth and easy using a finger (the thumb works best if you’re playing on your phone) and you can attack your enemy by tapping your finger in their direction. There is no graphic blood and gore in this game and it’s decidedly tongue-in-cheek, which makes it a lot of fun. Some of the chests you need to liberate from your enemies are hidden around corners or behind facades so you need to keep your wits about you on each new level. The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot is fun, quirky and rather entertaining and is worth giving a try if you’re in search of something different.
Great Games for Women 