Hello, and welcome back to the Weekend Games Corner at TechNorms. We apologize for being late today. These things happen. You wouldn’t believe what caused the delay. No, really, you wouldn’t believe it. Ninjas. We told you so.
Well, the important thing is that we’re back for another weekend of fun games for Android, iOS, and Flash. These games aren’t exactly Skyrim, but they are pretty fun and best of all, totally free. Anyone looking for a little entertainment this weekend probably can’t go wrong with these picks. Unless you have fun. In that case, we can’t help you. TechNorms has a strict fun-only policy that’s enforced ruthlessly. In blood. You don’t want to know what happened to the last editor to step out of line. Right. The games.
Mega Jump (Android)
Mega Jump is a game that is just begging to be compared to its more famous cousin, DoodleJump. However, much as we would like to draw that link, the truth is that Mega Jump is just different enough to stand on its own.
DoodleJump is a game of slowly jumping upward at a steady, uninterrupted pace (except for the jetpacks). Mega Jump is structured just slightly differently, but the changes are enough to imbue it with a totally unique sense of gameplay.
Where DoodleJump has you bouncing ever upward on platforms, Mega Jump tasks you with collecting as many coins as possible. Touching a coin propels you up into the air. Miss a coin and you fall to an untimely death. This small but critical difference changes the gameplay completely. Hitting one coin bounces you upward like in DoodleJump, but collecting multiple coins in a row propels you up the map at very high speeds.
The coins are also how the game keeps track of upgrades. Collect enough coins and you can buy life-saving power-ups. Of course, coins can also be purchased with real money if you’re not the patient type. Aside from the spectacularly terrible graphics (just look at the screen captures we took), Mega Jump is an interesting and original take on the classic DoodleJump formula.
Download Mega Jump
The Sims FreePlay (iOS)
For The Sims FreePlay, we’re going to have to confess a bit of bias. You see, we’ve played The Sims before. It’s pretty cool. For a game about mundane activities like cooking and gardening, The Sims is one of the most oddly addictive franchises out there. We won’t pretend to understand why it’s so interesting, but it is.
Upon starting up the game, The Sims dumps you into a custom Sim creator. Just within the short amount of time we spent in the character creation mode, a dozen ideas occurred to us for future characters. The Sims allows for some hilarious and awesome combinations like a mime who thinks he’s Batman to any James Bond villain imaginable.
The customization is pretty well fleshed-out. Name, personality, skin tone, all of that can be changed. Every Sim also has a personality, which they are more than happy to act out for you. Some are boring (athletic) while others can be downright hilarious (villain, vigilante, and tycoon).
The character creator also comes with a bevy of costumes clearly inspired by diverse sources like Tron, Indiana Jones, and real-life Scotland. We decided on making the best possible approximation of a villainous version of TechNorms editor Shishir. The Sim really doesn’t look like him, but we tried.
Once you get out of the character creator, the tutorial starts. This is a nice addition for new players, but for old hands at The Sims like ourselves, it’s way too long. The tutorial does introduce you to the new addition to The Sims FreePlay- work time.
Similar to other free to play games like Farmville, any actions taken in The Sims FreePlay require real-world time. Some waiting periods are as short as thirty seconds, while others can be quite a bit longer. You can skip the waiting with small payments of real money.
The waiting system is a bit of a pain, to be honest. Other than that artificial addition, The Sims FreePlay feels very similar to the full PC game. You raise Sims and take charge of their sometimes hilariously chaotic lives. There’s a lot of content here, especially by iPad standards. As long as you don’t mind the waiting periods, The Sims FreePlay is a great (free) way to get your Sims fix on the road.
Download The Sims FreePlay
Mouse and Guns
Mouse and Guns is a game that’s a bit simpler than The Sims FreePlay. You play as an… armed mouse… who has to battle what appear to be robotic dogs. There’s also a floating chunk of cheese in the sky. Shoot that to raise the difficulty. Yeah, we don’t get it either.
The game is pretty well developed, though. Gameplay is fun in a mindless “blast the enemies” sort of way. A constant stream of upgrades, cash, and new enemies makes for an interesting time. There’s also a decent amount of skill involved, which is nice.
Mouse and Guns is certainly not the most complex game we’ve ever played, but it is one of the oddest. Still, anyone curious shout give it a try. The graphics are quite unique and really do a good job of standing out. Also, it’s not every day that you get to see a mouse dual-wielding shotguns.
Play Mouse and Guns
There! Three nice games to enjoy the weekend rather than doing some boring stuff. Stuff like editing articles like this. Stuff that I am sure the editor will do. Well, don’t you bother about it. Enjoy the games!
