Sometimes you just need to relax and zone out after a long day at work or school, and don’t want any added stress from a tense movie or a fast-paced game. Luckily, there is a slew of high quality games for the iPhone that will keep your heart rate low and give you something to do without taxing the brain too much. We have picked five of the best games to kick back and relax with. Check it out:
1010!
1010! can best be described as Tetris at your own pace and with some unique challenges. You are presented with a ten-by-ten grid of squares where you place Tetris-like pieces that comprise of anywhere between 1 and 9 square blocks. You are given three of these blocks at a time to place on the grid, and all three need to be put on the board before you are given three more. Here’s where the challenge begins; when you place enough blocks to stretch entirely across the board either horizontally or vertically, that row or column is then cleared from the board. The more lines you clear, the more points you get. However, strategy is involved as you more further along, as it’s easy for straggler blocks to be scattered all over, leaving less and less room to place new blocks. As soon as you can’t place all your blocks, game over.
Prune
Like a bonsai tree in your pocket, the objective of Prune seems simple at first: prune a tree as it grows. The challenge is in the execution though, as your tree must be directed and pruned to grow in certain directions and areas to pass each level, and the levels get tricky fast. Prune has an easygoing pace that won’t stress you out like a racing or time-based puzzler might, and the gorgeous 2-dimensional graphic design is very easy on the eyes. The game takes a minimal aesthetic with overall presentation and won’t shove the screen full of ads, controls, or other chrome.
Folt
Folt can loosely be described as a ‘connect 3’ game, but with a whole lot more to it than your average jewel or candy-based puzzler. The objective of Folt is to eliminate squares by connecting three or more of the same color. On the board, you can swipe in one of four directions, and in the direction you swipe to, a new colored block will appear. You can preview the colors of the next three blocks at the top of the screen so that you can plan your next move, but as soon as you are left with no open spaces, game over. Each level has one or more objectives, like making a certain number of matches, reaching a tile on the board, or surviving for a number of moves, and the game gets progressively harder with more difficult objectives and more colors to contend with.
Shadowmatic
Shadowmatic takes the shadow puppets of your childhood sleepovers to create one of the most interesting gameplay mechanics in recent memory. The objective of the game is to manipulate 3-dimensional objects that you manipulate by twisting, turning, and rotating, to create a shadow of a 2D image on the illuminated wall behind. The game starts off simple, using a single object to create an image, then gets more complex by adding additional objects that must be combined to create the goal image. Although the game doesn’t tell you what image you’re trying to create, the progress bar at the bottom of the screen advances as you get closer to creating the final shadow.
Get Shadowmatic on the App Store
Little Alchemy
Little Alchemy is not so much a game as a toy with objectives…and also easily transforms into a new obsession. The game gives you a workspace on the left, and a list of objects on the right. You are given just a handful of objects at the beginning of the game, and through the simple process of dragging an object on the workspace, then dragging another object onto the first, you create more complex objects. These objects can range from things as simple as Oxygen or Dirt, to complex ideas like Time and Cities. As of this writing, there are more than five hundred objects that can be created, and even an easter egg or two (Try combining Space and Time for a fun one). A little imagination goes a long way in Little Alchemy: while some combinations are simply logical (Water and Dirt make Mud), some can be pretty silly (for instance, combine Human and Glasses to make a Nerd).
Get Little Alchemy on the App Store
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