Top 10 Time Management Games

I just love time management games. Not only do they challenge you to think strategically, they get the old grey cells working and are so addictive that you simply have to keep going until you master each and every level. Some of the games on this list have kept me occupied for months, which isn’t so great for getting chores done or writing regular posts for this website, but I love them nonetheless. So here is my current list of top 10 time management games:

1. Time Builders: Caveman’s Prophecy

Top of my list has got to be Caveman’s Prophecy, a new title from the Time Builders Franchise. I love both this and it’s predecessor Time Builders: Pyramid Rising, equally. Caveman’s Prophecy features the usual challenging levels, great graphics and quirky characters. Set in the age of dinosaurs, your goal is to help Senmout get cave dwellers to venture out and establish a civilization by collecting resources, building houses, markets, banks, temples and statues, etc. It’s a great game to sink your teeth into!

Download in iTunes now!

2. Campground Challenge HD

Campground Challenge is a great time management game that requires you to be both extremely methodical and patient to complete all 60 levels with gold stars. You are challenged to build a series of campgrounds that are financially successful but Eco-friendly, and in the process win Campground Developer of the Year. Build accommodation, chase away wildlife, cultivate seeds, plant flower beds, arrange entertainment and a host of other activities for an unforgettable gaming experience. As an added bonus, if you discover artifacts revealed by deciphering ancient treasure maps, you get to unlock hidden levels. I absolutely love this game and am not ashamed to say that I needed to watch walk through videos for more than a few levels to get gold star status!

Download in iTunes now!

3. Be Rich!

I was so happy when this great game for women was finally released for the iPad! If you like games that involve planning, designing and building cities then Be Rich! is the game for you. This sim-style game involves building and upgrading all kinds of housing, from condos and apartment buildings to cottages and luxury villas, as well as theaters, sports arenas, theme parks, businesses and much more. Each level has a set of challenges to meet, helping you to raise capital to keep your properties in tip-top condition as you travel to different cities throughout the USA. This is a fun and exciting game that is perfectly suited to playing on your iPad.

Download in iTunes now!

4. Burger Bustle

Burger Bustle is a very cute, busy and challenging game. Like all cooking games, it requires a frenzy of activity to flip burgers, add condiments and sauces, serve drinks and desserts and keep your customers happy. As you make money you can hire extra hands to help you achieve your tasks and work your way through each level, all in pursuit of making a profit and winning awards. Burger Bustle has great graphics, smooth game play and enough action to keep you busy on a rainy day.

Download in iTunes now!

5. Hobby Farm

Hobby Farm is such a cute and absorbing game that I played it day in and day out until I had completed each and every one of its 50 levels. You are tasked with helping Jill, who stumbled upon her dream farm while vacationing with her husband on a tropical island, to grow and develop it into a world-class, profitable and productive farm. Plant seeds, water crops, collect fruit and veggies, buy, feed, milk and shear animals, purchase machines, make a wide range of organic products and rake in the cash. You even have to fend off thieves who come creeping during the night to steal your crops and animals. This well-put-together game is sure to please!

Download in iTunes now!

6. Roads of Rome

My list would not be complete without the inclusion of my favorite gaming franchise, Roads of Rome. Whether its Roads of Rome 1, 2 or 3, these games never disappoint and are so full of character that even the most cynical of gamer would not be able to resist. Help Victorious win the hand of Ceasar’s beautiful daughter by protecting Rome from barbarian invaders and expanding the might and reach of the Roman Empire. Build roads, forts, and temples and collect resources to feed your army and fill your stores to aid you in fulfilling each challenging quest. If you are a perfectionist, you will enjoy countless hours of pleasure in pursuit of achieving expert status in every level. Only once you have completed each level at expert status will you be able to access the bonus levels. Challenging, entertaining and loads of fun, Roads of Rome is an absolute winner!

Download Roads of Rome now!

Download Roads of Rome 2 now!

Download Roads of Rome 3 now!

7. Megaplex Madness 2

Megaplex Madness 2 and it’s predecessor, Megaplex Madness – Now Playing! are sweet games that are both entertaining and challenging and good value for money. It’s your job to restore 5 run-down cinemas and turn them into a money making megaplex. You will need to upgrade and decorate each cinema in the themes of western, horror, romance, sci-fi and action, all while serving customers with tickets, popcorn, drinks and candy. Save up enough coins to play a series of mini-games in the games arcade and notch up your trophies. At times frustrating, this quick-action game provides hours of fun and addictive game play!

Download Megaplex Madness 2 now!

Download Megaplex Madness – Now Playing now!

8. Cooking Fever

I recently discovered Cooking Fever by Nordcurrent, a charming cooking game featuring seven different types of restaurants and counting. Each restaurant has 40 levels to complete, each with it’s own tasks and challenges. Your job is to serve hoards of hungry and often disgruntled customers with food and beverages and to make enough money to purchase upgrades in both the kitchens and the dining areas, which make it easier to reach your goals. It’s difficult to upgrade decor and machinery without diamonds, which you can acquire through in-app purchases or by striking it lucky at the casino. I am managing to keep abreast of upgrades through collecting huge piles of coins and playing in the casino until I get diamonds. Don’t bother playing anything less than 500 coins though, as its often time consuming waiting until you strike it rich! Cooking Fever is cute and engaging and offers hours of gaming pleasure.

Download in iTunes now!

9. Wedding Dash

Wedding Dash is a delightful little game that is one of a range of similar games offered by PlayFirst, including Hotel Dash, Diner Dash and Cooking Dash. I have all four games on my iPhone and iPad, although I prefer playing them on my iPad as it’s much easier to play the more advanced levels which can get pretty hectic to keep pace with. Flo and Quinn need your help in planning and managing dream weddings for a host of romantic couples. You will need to seat guests, serve them food and drinks, manage incidents and keep the bride and groom happy. Its a fun and quirky game that will keep on boggling your mind and is perfect for those occasions when you have time to kill and are in need of a distraction.

Download Wedding Dash Deluxe now!

Download Hotel Dash Deluxe now!

Download Diner Dash now!

Download Cooking Dash Deluxe now!

10. New Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 2

New Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 2 is the charming second chapter in the story of hapless Sir John, who was zapped back in time to the Court of King Arthur. Picking up from the previous chapter, Sir John is joined by his wife Mary, who discovers a spell book which comes in very handy in your fight against monsters and magical creatures. Your quest is to find the Fountain of Youth while gathering resources, building settlements and warding off enemies over 40 challenging levels. This is a delightfully quirky game which boasts beautiful graphics, smooth game-play and offers hours of entertainment.

Download New Yankee in King Arthur’s Court 2 now!

Download New Yankee in King Arthur’s Court HD now!

World Series of Poker (WSOP)

Genre: On-line multi-player card

Developer: Electronic Arts (EA)

Game Description: An addictive on-line poker game using virtual chips featuring Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha styles of Poker.

Platforms: Mac, Android

Price: Free

Download in iTunes now!

Gambling is addictive. Nuff said! But what makes this game doubly addictive is that you’re not only playing with virtual money, you’re also playing against real, live people. This renders the game unpredictable and realistic and also makes for an extremely entertaining way to spend your time. And spend your time you will! If you’re lucky to get a table full of friendly, chatty and witty players, you won’t want to leave. But sometimes you get cranky or vicious players (who mostly hide behind an avatar and have names like “K$$mya$$” or “Usuk”) who pester, harangue and rage against someone who gets under their nose, which can be extremely unpleasant and distracting. I’ve played this game for weeks now and I’m finally able to give you the low down on how to maximize your experience.

Friendly chatter

World Series of Poker is an online poker game that’s fun, easy-to-use and a great tool for learning how to play the game like a pro (more on that later). It has a clean and simple interface and a number of basic tutorials that will help get you set up quickly and effortlessly. Offering two poker styles, Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha, WSOP also offers two tournament arenas where you can win a WSOP Bracelet and a WSOP ring – last person standing gets the trophy and the top three win modest prize money!

You’re a winner!

You have two options to sign up to the game – either as a Guest or with your Facebook account. Each player is assigned a small round token which features either an avatar or a profile pic, along with any name of your choice. If you choose to go the guest route, you have a number of free avatars to choose from, from simple card symbols to canned characters. If you log on with your Facebook account, your profile pic is automatically loaded, along with your first name, which you can replace with any name you want (but with a restricted number of characters).

This is what your basic profile looks like showing your game stats.

Once you have set up your profile, you are given $16 000 worth of free chips and 5 pieces of gold. If you want to purchase more, you can visit the store and purchase chips and gold (gold helps you to buy avatars and gifts) – just tap the “Buy Chips and Gold” button on the main page. You can choose to pay $2.99 for 750 000 chips, right up to $99.99 for 112 000 000. It’s pretty easy to buy a stack of chips and burn through them in one sitting, so be careful! But if you’re lucky (and cautious), you can play continually without spending a penny! I’ve been playing low to medium stake games for two weeks now with just the free chips I’ve earned, while trying to improve my ROI (Return on Investment). So how do you earn free chips, you ask? Well, every day each player is awarded bonus chips, which supposedly ranges from 1 000 to 1 million chips, but the most free chips I’ve ever won has been 5 000, the average being 1 500.

Free daily bonus chips

Another great way to earn free chips is to rack up a ton of friends. Whenever you play at a new table, look out for the friendly players, touch their avatar and tap the “Add Buddy” button. Similarly, when you get friend requests, you can either accept their friendship or refuse it. Make it a habit to spend a few minutes every day to send free chips to your friends – when they accept your gift, free chips are automatically sent back to you – literally a gift that keeps on giving. Again, you could get up to 1 million chips at a time, and the more friends you have, the more free chips you get. It’s a great joy to sign in to the game each day and see that you have 30+ gifts waiting for you, all offering varying amounts. It’s a sure fire way to boost your chip count. Once your friend count is in the hundreds, it can become tedious (and time consuming!) to send chips to all your friends – regular players will keep sending you chips anyway, so to save time, I send chips to those who’ve made it to the leader board, which shows the top 50 ranked players among your friends. These players tend to be regular players anyway and will ensure the river of free chips keep flowing!

A quick way to save time and earn guaranteed free chips is to send to your friends who are on your top 50 ranked leader board.

Finally, it’s time to talk about How to Become a PRO at WSOP! This is a hot topic among WSOP newbies who try and fail to gain PRO status (I originally being one of them). After I had been playing for a few weeks, I became frustrated that I couldn’t crack PRO status and started googling for tips and advice on how to become a PRO on WSOP. I found zip! nada! niks! All I could find was a few mentions here and there that you need to earn more than you lose and after 100 hands, you become a PRO. I also found a reference to this nugget: Play high stakes games and you’ll soon be a PRO. Well, I bought a few $4.99 bundles of chips, joined the high rollers and got lucky! At one point, my coffers were full at 32 million chips! Did I become PRO? No! I maintained my stack for 100 hands, 200 hands, then 1000. Still no PRO status. So I sent a friendly email to customer support (support@wsop.com) asking very nicely how gaining PRO status works. I informed them that in my opinion, you only get one shot at PRO status – your first 100 hands. And that you’ll never get PRO status after that, no matter how profitable your playing. Well, I got no reply from them at all. I understand that it must be frustrating for the game administrators to get emails of this nature (and they must get a lot! judging from the in-game comments and discussions I often come across). If it’s a hassle getting this kind of query, they shouldn’t ignore users – rather send out a standard mail response or provide in-depth details on their website for clarity. So, I decided to do some experimenting of my own. I immediately logged out of my Facebook profile, then logged on as a Guest. I set up a brand new profile with an avatar and using my free chips started to play. I played conservatively and made sure that my tally didn’t dip below the original 16 000. If I was losing at a table, I left it and tried another. I made sure to play low stake games and after 100 hands, my total number of chips sat at just over 18 000 and low and behold, I achieved PRO status. However, I really wanted to use my Facebook profile, and realised that I couldn’t have both my old FB profile and keep my new PRO status (I still maintain that if you haven’t achieved PRO status after your first 100 hands, you never will) and thus needed to create a new Facebook profile. So I logged out of my Facebook account, created a new account on Yahoo (and thus got a new email address), then used that new address to create a new Facebook profile. Using my new FB profile, I created a new profile on WSOP, then did the same thing by playing conservatively and after 100 hands, achieved my PRO status once again. This time for keeps.

I finally achieved PRO status!

The only thing I am upset about, is that I have not only lost my amazing stats (I had won loads of bracelets and rings) but also the hundreds of friends that I had made, many of whom were great fun to play with. I am slowly building my buddy list up again and have managed to come across some of my previous buddies, but it’s not the same. So, if you’re keen to play this game,(and you’re a first time player) here’s some advice. Log on to WSOP as a guest, read through the various tutorials and try your hand at some tables using the free chips that you get. Once you get a feel for the game and have more experience regarding when to fold and when to be aggressive, sign out and sign on again using Facebook (either your original profile or one set up especially for gaming) and create a new profile. Play your first 100 hands conservatively and make sure that you end up with more chips than you started with. DO NOT PLAY ANY TOURNAMENTS until you have achieved PRO status. Tournaments play havoc with your ROI because of the high buy-in fee. Only the top three win money, so if you get lousy hands and don’t get placed, your ROI drops dramatically! For general guidance on how agressively to bet, use the hand strength meter, but don’t swear by it, it can be misleading! If a hand is bad, the meter bar is red and short. For better hands the bar is longer and green. Best hands, such as straights, full houses and four-of-a-kind will show a full, green bar (see image below).

An example of how the hand meter works.

When I first started playing WSOP a few months ago, the game was quite unstable and at least two or three times a game, the app would drop. This is not only extremely frustrating, it can be expensive too. If you’re in the middle of a tournament and you get dropped out, you lose your stake (it costs 50 000+ chips to play for a bracelet and 10 000+ for a ring) which is maddening. And I’ve often seen other players mysteriously drop out half way through a hand. However, in the past few weeks, the game has stabilised radically and it doesn’t happen as often. Once, the app completely froze and I couldn’t get it to work. I solved the problem by rebooting my iPad.

All in all, World Series of Poker is loads of fun and a great way to spend your time (and money!).

**UPDATE**

I still play this game regularly and it’s a firm favourite. Here are some recent updates that have just added to it’s appeal. The free chips you get from friends yields greater returns now, I frequently get higher amounts – the most single offering so far has been 25 000. Previously, you got amounts of mostly 1 000 chips, but now it’s higher and I only occasionally get chips of 1 000.

Higher amounts of free chips are coming my way!

WSOP now has a “High roller room” for players with more than a million chips. When you log on, you see the following screen:

High rollers welcome!

You are then whisked onto the red carpet:

Onto the red carpet and into a waiting limo!

And into the high roller room where you get to play against some pretty insane people who like nothing better than to play chicken with you with some pretty audacious bluffs. Definitely not for the faint hearted!

Champagne anyone?

My current Top 10 favourite computer games

Here is a quick guide to my Top 10 favourite computer games for women that I’m currently playing. Not all of them have reviews yet, but I’m working on them. These will change from time to time, so check for updates by going to my Top 10 games page.

10. World Mosaics
Help Dr Remington solve the mystery of the Pelasgians after he unearths a mysterious artefact. Travel to seven exotic locations around the world and solve a series of pictographic puzzles. Featuring 99 puzzles in story mode and more than 100 bonus puzzles, your mission is to unearth the history of the mysterious “Sea People” with each puzzle you solve. Blending aspects of Soduko with arcade game, Minesweeper, World of Mosaics offers hours of challenging fun.

Download for PC at Amazon now!

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

9. Maestro: Music of Death

Haunting and spooky, this hidden object game offers great graphics, beautiful music and some challenging puzzles. Your object is to travel to a quarantined town which has been the victim of a mysterious illness causing it’s inhabitants to age rapidly and die. You will be challenged to discover the source of the haunting music that can be heard throughout the town and save a young girl who is trapped within. Gorgeously visual and immensely satisfying when you unravel it’s secrets, Maestro: Music of Death is a grisly winner!

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

8. Haunted Legends: The Queen of Spades

If you’re into the weird and the macabre, then this game is for you. Haunted Legends: Queen of Spades is a richly visual hidden objects game, centred around the disappearance of a young girl and a host of her searchers. Located in a haunted mansion belonging to a mysterious Countess who, legend has it, possessed a deck of magical cards with ties to the underworld, it is your mission to search for clues and unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearances. Weird and spooky, with some great scenes and haunting music, this game will have you hooked to the end.

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

7. Dark Parables: The Exiled Prince

Save the Chancellor’s daughter who has gone missing in The Black Forest. Rumoured to be the latest victim of The Frog Prince, the very same to have been transformed into a handsome prince with a kiss from the beautiful Princess Ivy, you need to unravel this ancient mystery and brave the dark forces that haunt fairy tales of old. Gorgeous graphics, tons of hidden object searches and a series of puzzles will have you challenged and entertained for hours on end.

Download in iTunes now!

6. Luxor 3

A return to one of my all time favourite games, Luxor 3 packs some interesting twists and a super shiny new look. Offering three modes: Adventure, Puzzle and Freeplay, Luxor 3 now comes with four levels – easy, medium, hard and insane (the latter of which has to be unlocked before it can be played). I’m still working my way through the levels and simply love this Match-3 game’s new features. Collected Ankhs no longer give you extra lives, but rather give you currency to purchase extra power ups which can be bought in the game’s store. Scarabs still push colourful spheres towards the pyramid, but with new obstacles that pop up to speed them on their way. Challenging and addictive, Luxor 3 continues to enthral.

Download for PC at Amazon now!

5. Big Kahuna Reef 2 – Chain Reaction

The second instalment of this super-cool match 3 game is a sure fire hit. Explore the exotic waters of the Hawaiian deep sea paradise, working your way through more than 750 increasingly challenging levels. Fantastic graphics, smooth gameplay and a host of new features make Big Kahuna Reef 2 a winner. The game boasts new fish (including sharks and whales) which you unlock as you complete different levels, new underwater scenes and an exciting new feature – the ability to destroy boxes with a range of different bombs.

Download for PC at Amazon now!

4. Princess Isabella: Return of the Curse

Taking place a year after the events of Princess Isabella: A Witches Curse, this game centres around the disappearance of Princess Isabella’s baby daughter, who has been captured by the returning evil witch. Joining the fairy helper is a new face, a fledgling dragon who join forces to help you destroy the witch’s curse. Solve puzzles, collect gems and free a host of characters from the spells enveloping them to help find and free the baby princess. Great graphics, a greater variety of locations, hidden objects and smoother game play than it’s predecessor, make this a great game for women!

Download in iTunes now!

3. The Tiny Bang Story

Help save the people of Tiny Planet when it is hit by an asteroid and broken into tiny pieces. Explore different regions and solve many puzzles to fix the machines that will help put the planet back together again. Totally absorbing, extremely entertaining and quite a brain teaser too! Boasting gorgeously rich painted scenes, quirky characters and hauntingly beautiful music, this game is an utter delight. Not your run-of-the-mill adventure game, The Tiny Bang Story is sweet and subtle, having very limited hints and forcing you to figure it out by yourself without the aid of a skip or solve button. This is a game to be savoured, not rushed, so if you are in a hurry to get to the end by skipping the challenges and moving on, you’ll find this game seriously frustrating. Read full review here!

Download in iTunes now!

2. Roads of Rome III

Roads of Rome III is a challenging game that requires quick wits, even quicker reactions and good strategy and time management skills. It features colourful graphics, great sound effects and smooth game play. Your quest is to help Victorius protect Rome from invading Barbarians and restore the city’s broken infrastructure. Featuring a wide range of different settlements, you need to accomplish various tasks such as building bridges, fixing roads and mining gold to keep the invading forces at bay, in all weather conditions and seasons. Great fun, this game is complex, addictive and extremely difficult to achieve expert status at every level, as you race against the clock to accomplish every task. Read full review here!

Download for PC at Amazon now!

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

1. Midnight Mysteries: Haunted Houdini Deluxe

Midnight Mysteries: Haunted Houdini Deluxe offers an interesting glimpse into the life and death of everyone’s favourite escape artist. Visited by the ghost of Houdini’s widow, Bess, you are tasked with helping to solve Houdini’s mysterious death and reunite them in spirit. Featuring a series of challenging puzzles, a procession of ghostly suspects and the usual dollop of hidden object searches, this is a fun and intriguing game with more than it’s fair share of intrigue and speculation.

Download for PC at Amazon now!

Download in iTunes now!

Roads of Rome III

Genre: Time Management/Strategy

Developer: Realore Studios

Game Description: Rome is under attack and your mission is to stop the barbarians from wreaking havoc and bringing it to its knees. Help Victorious push back the barbarians and restore Rome’s roads and settlements to their former glory.

Platforms: Mac, PC

Price: $6.99 at Amazon

Download for PC at Amazon now!

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

This is a seriously addictive game. I played it a great deal over a long weekend and couldn’t stop until I had reached the end. Extremely challenging to achieve expert status in every level (which I only achieved on the first three levels), I nonetheless pressed on. I had to redo quite a few of the levels just to complete all necessary tasks in the required time. I must admit that I didn’t realise that you have to achieve expert status in EVERY level before you can unlock the three bonus levels at the end, which meant, of course, that I had to go back to the beginning and slowly work my through until I had achieved expert status in all levels. Wow, what a challenge! Some levels I had to re-do so many times it made my head spin. But did I give up? Did I get bored? Did I decide to call it day and move on to another game? No on all counts. (If you want to repeat a level, just navigate to the map and click on the level you want to repeat – all levels that you achieved expert status on will appear as a red banner, if not, it will be green).

The aim of this great game for women is to accomplish a series of tasks in a specific time frame. Starting in one region, you march your way across different districts, sporting different landscapes, buildings, features, materials, seasons and conditions. Each level you visit has just fallen prey to pillaging barbarians and you need to restore the infrastructure by putting out fires, collecting resources, such as wood, water, stone and gold and rebuilding destroyed roads and buildings – from farms and mills to settlements and temples.

Before you start each level, you are given a list of tasks that you need to complete before the clock runs out. At the top of your screen you are given a timer bar which slowly counts down, as well as an inventory of all the resources you need to collect. If you complete all tasks while your timer bar is still green, you gain expert status. Once your timer moves to red or “reserve” time, it becomes night time and the screen darkens considerably making it more difficult to see what’s going on. If you fail to complete your tasks before the time runs out, you have to redo that level in order to advance to the next.

As the game progresses it becomes more and more challenging to complete the tasks in the time given and you have to figure out the most efficient order in which to tackle the tasks. Before you can begin to rebuild, you need to collect resources, some of which are more in demand than others. You can also upgrade your resources, such as increase the number of workers in your camp, and increase the output of mills, pumps, farms, mines and quarries – all of which require extra resources. Each level is different, so there’s no easy formula to apply throughout the game and you can end up making too much of one thing which takes valuable time away from reaching your goals.

Some levels of Roads to Rome III are so frustratingly challenging that you’ll think that they’re impossible to master. Yet, if you just keep persevering, you eventually figure out what you need to do to get the job done. I played one level so many times over and each time ended up with not enough gold to complete the tasks in time (even after exhausting all the available resources) that I thought there was a bug in the game. When I finally figured out what the solution was, it turned out to be so simple that I nearly tossed a brick at my screen (see below for spoiler). It just goes to show that you have to keep your eyes open every second of the game. I eventually unlocked the three bonus levels much to my great satisfaction.

This game is finally available for iPhone and iPad, which makes it much easier to reach your goals which is much welcome. All in all, Roads of Rome III has great graphics and sound effects, as well as smooth gameplay and enough challenging levels to keep you glued to your screen for hours at a time. I’ve given this game 5 satisfying stars.

Spoiler alert!

If you want to know the trick of acquiring the right amount of resources you need to fulfil specific tasks, make sure that you pick up the blue resources bag (this gives you a limited time to increase the number of resources you acquire). You will notice that a red plus sign and a number appears above each resource in the resource bar. Every now and a again, this function switches on, so keep your eyes peeled. If you struggle to collect the right amount of resources, wait until this function kicks in, then collect the resources you need before it runs out – this effectively doubles your resources. It also helps to build storehouses which also give this additional resource doubling – if you upgrade the storehouses to the fullest (Level 3), it adds +3 to each resource item you collect.

The Tiny Bang Story

Genre: Adventure/Puzzle

Developer: Colibri Games

Game Description: Help save the people of Tiny Planet when it is hit by an asteroid and broken into tiny pieces. Explore different regions and solve many puzzles to fix the machines that will help put the planet back together again.

Platforms: Mac, iPad, PC

Price: $2.99

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

Oh my! What a wonderful little game this is. Totally absorbing, extremely entertaining and quite a brain teaser too! Boasting gorgeously rich painted scenes, quirky characters and hauntingly beautiful music, this game is an utter delight. I couldn’t stop playing it until I reached the end! Not your run-of-the-mill adventure game, The Tiny Bang Story is sweet and subtle, having very limited hints and forcing you to figure it out by yourself without the aid of a skip or solve button. This is a game to be savoured, not rushed, so if you are in a hurry to get to the end by skipping the challenges and moving on, you’ll find this game seriously frustrating.

Your mission is to visit 5 different regions of Tiny Planet, a planet which has been destroyed by an asteroid. You will need to gather puzzle pieces, tools and other items which are cleverly hidden among 50 different scenes, plus solve a series of puzzles which help you to advance and unlock further rooms as you go along. Once you have completed your mission in one region, you are whisked off in various modes of transport to a map of the destroyed planet where you need to assemble the puzzle pieces collected so far, before you can advance to the next region.

You need to be aware that The Tiny Bang Story has some really challenging puzzles that need to be solved, so make sure that you begin to play when you have a good few hours available to you to do this game justice. Although a bit frustrating at times, I loved the fact that I had to work things out for myself and had to keep working at a puzzle until it was solved, which increased the challenge. The hint button is recharged by repeatedly clicking on little buzzing, flying creatures which got a bit annoying, but once I got the hang of how the game worked, I found that I didn’t need to use the hint function all that often.

What I loved most about this game was the challenge of solving the puzzles, finding all the hidden objects, the oh-so-beautiful scenes and the exquisite music. Some of the rooms produced some wonderfully whimsical design and delightfully eccentric characters which lends this game great depth and texture. It is a sensual treat and a great game for women which earns it five fabulous stars!

Spoiler Alert!
I have to admit that when I got to the end, I didn’t realise that I had completed my mission and was furiously clicking on everything I possibly could, searching for a clue on how to finish the game. I’m so used to games which end with “Congratulations! Mission Accomplished” or some such phrases, that I missed the subtlety of the ending. (When you see the screen pictured below of all the characters in one room, it’s the end of the game!). The final two scenes allow you to replay the game’s wonderful soundtracks and to repeat any of the puzzles to your heart’s content.

Fisher’s Family Farm

Genre: Time Management

Developer: Blam Games

Game Description: Help Marissa Fisher keep her family’s farm from going under by farming fish around the world. Harvest a wide range of delicious products to sell to help you earn upgrades to speed your way to more productive and efficient ponds.

Platforms: Mac, iPad, PC

Price: $2.99

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

Fisher’s Family Farm is a fun, highly enjoyable game that will literally steal time from you. I played this great game for women on my iPad and was left wondering, “Where on earth did the time go?”. I would promise myself that I was just going to finish one pond and get back to my endless list of tasks to do and bam! an hour later, I’m half way through a farm and itching to keep going!

The game centres around Marissa Fisher who is called upon by her parents to save their family fish farm which is inefficiently run and under attack by various predators. Your job is to manage your time and resources effectively to make a series of farms located around the world, more productive. Starting in one location on a map, you have to fulfil a list of tasks to enable you to progress through a series of ponds on the farm until you have made it a commercial success. Once completed, you can move on to another location on the map. Starting in Europe, the game extends to Russia, Japan, Hawaii and the USA, each with 10 ponds that you need to master. If you complete each pond within the prescribed time, you are awarded a gold coin for your effort. I was very happy to achieve the golden coin on almost every pond.

Each pond will have different goals or tasks that you will need to complete, such as harvesting a certain number of products like fish fillets or caviar, producing products such as burgers or sushi, and reaching a specific cash target. You are also given different resources for each pond, such as a flour mill, burger maker, tin factory or sushi house, each with a series of upgrades available at a price. Basically, the upgrades help you to churn out more products, faster. (You can even speed up production by repeatedly tapping a building until it produces something.) You need to figure out which upgrades (many of which are quite pricey, the fancier they get) will help you to achieve your tasks faster and which will earn you the most money. You make money by selling goods that you harvest or produce. You start off by first collecting products and storing them in your warehouse, then sending them off to various production houses to be turned into other products, such as fish cakes, burgers or bento boxes. Once the production lines are going (you have to keep the momentum going to ensure production isn’t halted) and you have lots of products in your warehouse, you can load the ones that you want to sell into a boat and send it off to market. (Be careful not to send too many of the products that are needed to make other products, or else your production lines will be compromised). When the boat returns, your booty is added to your cash total.

Once you have a nice stash of cash, you can purchase upgrades or choose to stock your pond with more fish or a friendly helper – a dolphin who helps you to harvest the goods or a narwhal who helps fend off predators. The latter two are extremely pricey, so in some ponds you need to be very picky about what you choose to spend your money on. The trick is to manage your time effectively by a) harvesting the products that pay the most and b) upgrading buildings and machines that will benefit you the most. I found that the most effective way to do this was to ensure that I kept an eye on the tasks that needed to be completed and not get sidetracked by harvesting too many products that I didn’t need. This also ensured that I did not clog up my warehouse with too many products that either I didn’t need or which were very cheap and bulky.

Which brings us to the game’s nasties. Your fish will come under attack from a number of different predators, from pelican’s swooping down from the sky, to killer whales and sharks who eat the fish. You can chase off pelican’s before they hit the water by clicking on them or, if they manage to land on the pond, double clicking them to throw a net over them (the same applies to other predators in the water). Once bundled up, click on them to haul them into your warehouse and immediately send them off to market to boost your cash levels. The further along you get, the thicker and faster the pesky predators come, so you will literally be kept on your toes (or fingers in this case!).

Fisher’s Family Farm has great graphics, funky music and quirky features such as mini movies and a trophy room. I played this game on my iPad and must have looked like a mad woman, tapping the screen like a demented dervish. I managed to complete all tasks in time on each level by frantically tapping here and there, collecting goods, packing them off, sending them to market and zapping predators as soon as they appeared. It actually reminded me of the action that Niobe made in the movie The Matrix where she navigates the Hammer through a mechanical line by frantically tapping a console before launching it into a 270-degree flip – totally cool! I loved this game but found it a bit short. It get’s 4 and a half stars from me!

Bookworm Deluxe

Genre: Puzzle

Developer: PopCap Games

Game Description: Create words by linking letters to feed our hungry green friend, Lex the Bookworm. Bigger words mean bigger bonuses but get rid of burning tiles before they get you.

Platforms: Mac, iPhone/iPod, PC, Basic Mobile, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi

Price: $1.99

Download for iPad in iTunes now!

Download for iPhone in iTunes now!

If you like playing word games like Scrabble or Boggle, then you’ll love Bookworm Deluxe! It’s a highly addictive game that’ll keep you coming back for more. The basic premise of the game is to create words from letters that drop down onto your screen. Link letters by clicking on them and hitting submit or double clicking the final letter in the word chain when done. To link letters, they have to be next to one another to qualify, so you need a really good eye to scrounge for words out of the jumble on your screen. Words need to be a minimum of three letters and, like Scrabble, the longer the words, the higher the score. Each time you make a word, they peel off the screen and fly into the mouth of Lex the Bookworm, allowing fresh letters to drop down to replace them. When you create longer words, different coloured bonus tiles appear, which, when used in a word, increase your score dramatically. You can also score extra points with bonus words that appear beneath Lex in the sidebar. No worries about whether or not you have created a “real” word, just check out the side bar – if your word has a score beneath it, it’s real. If not, deselect by clicking a tile not connected to your word, and try again.

If you keep making only three-letter words, red-hot burning tiles start to appear thick and fast on your screen. To slow down the rate of the burning tiles, create words that are four or more letters in length. Once the red tiles appear, try to get rid of them as fast as possible by using them in words. The longer you leave burning tiles, the quicker they start to descend by burning up the tile beneath them (each time you submit a new word, the red tiles immediately destroy the letter beneath them). Once a burning tile hits the bottom of the screen, it’s game over. So keep on top of them at all costs! Naturally, as each level progresses, the red tiles fall faster and faster, so you will literally be handling hot potatoes to keep progressing.

Bookworm Deluxe comes with two modes – Classic Game, which is basically relaxed play but is by no means easy, and Action Mode, which is a faster, more challenging version of the game where burning tiles come fast and furious. The game comes with a funky tune and has a highly amusing ranking system for each level that you complete. As soon as you reach the ranking score for each level, a progress screen appears providing details of your best and longest words for that round, allowing you to move up to the next level.

The mobile platforms have a welcome addition – a library of “books” of different themes, each having a list of bonus words that you need to “tick off” which earns you extra points.

All in all, Bookworm Deluxe is a great game for women and a wonderful way to while away the day. It’s also perfect for playing when you have spare time between tasks, as you can pause and leave the game at any phase. The mobile version is a must have for when standing in a queue or sitting in a waiting room. Extremely addictive, this game has kept me up until the early hours of the morning on many occasions, gaining a five star rating from me!