Bon APPetit

Cut the Rope

I like playing games on my smartphone — no matter where I am, whether on the bus going home, while at work waiting for those mails to come in, while at home trying to survive a two-hour power cut while my laptop slowly dies, or while trying to surreptitiously pass my time during a boring dinner meeting. Here are three games I’ve always had on my devices (since they were released) — and we’ll start with the super-popular… Plants vs Zombies 2 If you don’t have PvZ2 on your smartphone or tablet, it’s time you downloaded it. It’s available for iOS and Android devices for free. The point is to defend your lawn against waves of villainous zombies with your army of plants (yes, plants), which have to be fed and supercharged through the game.

PvZ2 is best played on a tablet. It doesn’t just test your reflexes but also has you solving riddles and strategising through a host of options to decide what to do at each step. Like all good social games, you level-up, unlock new arenas, and play against other players on the leader board. Cut The Rope: Time Travel HD My first experience playing ‘Cut The Rope’ was on an iPad around 2009, and it was a magnificent, the difficult levels being constantly just out of reach as to simply keep you going. The idea is simple: you feed candy to a fat frog named Om Nom. Now, the candy is dangling from ropes fastened to various objects, and your job is to cut the rope at the right time, such that it falls straight into Om Nom’s hungry maw.

A new version, ‘Cut The Rope: Time Travel HD’, is available for Android devices at Rs. 61.07, and for iOS devices at $1.99 (about Rs. 125). In this version, Om Nom travels back in time to feed candy to his ancestors. As with PvZ2, ‘Cut The Rope’ is also better on tablets.

Ridiculous Fishing This one has a strange goal: you go fishing, and then you blow all your fish up. That’s right (although there’s some justification for this: Billy the fisherman is exacting vengeance for… something). It’s available for iOS and Android devices for $2.99 (about Rs. 190). What stands out about RF is, as with many of the best games for mobile devices, the retro design — an award-winning one at that (ignore this if you thought Pac Man had it best).

Bonus games Be sure to check out rymdkapsel, Sorcery!, and DEVICE 6. With the exception of the first one, the other two are available only for iOS devices, and all three come at a price. They’re recommended because they’ve great design, and proffer an immersive experience that’s bound to keep you hooked and still feeling good.