Looking for casual games. Suggestions?

[Fanbuoy]

So, it's summer. Again. During this festival of rain and disappointment, I tend to move around quite a bit, thus making it hard to commit to a game in the way I usually want to. Since I find my game collection a bit lacking in the play-and-drop category, I turn to you, fellow nodes, for suggestions.

Genre isn't really too important, I play most of them. Cloud based saves is naturally a plus, but far from necessary.


PS. I do like summer, but this years' edition sucks like an Electrolux. Also, I'm tired from travelling with an airline that has forgotten what a timetable is. I'm usually a nice and happy person. Usually. DS.

[mickygor]

The game I usually turn to is Droplitz. Nice 15 minute play sessions.

[Voon]

If you want something that has more replay value than the average casual game, look for the ones from PopCap. Plants vs. Zombies, Peggle, whatev. They're all good. Sort of.

[Oshada]

Bloons Tower Defence 5!

[Spacewalk]

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast is, like, the best casual game ever so you should definitely hunt it down.

[ado]

World of Goo.

Also I'd recommend The Binding of Isaac with the Wrath of the Lamb expansion. Not really a casual game by any means but it's perfect for your play-and-drop needs I think. The game is designed that no session lasts longer than an hour, and so no play session is the same; guaranteeing a metric shitton of replayability.

[Heliocentric]

I'd like to hear more of what the OP consider his definition of casual, does he just mean a game with a very small amount of personal investment?

Driver San Francisco is highly suitable for 5 minutes play. Pick a challenge, win it(or fail dramatically), quit out. Also my current casual dip in game was Splinter Cell Conviction's Deniable Ops, I know a stealth game must seem like the opposite of casual but I played the defence mission "last stand" where guards spill out the woodwork to damage a thingum and you stop them with a mix of stealth, attention drawing gunfire (distracts them from the thingum) and human shields.

[jnx]

Harvest Moon games for DS.

Delve Deeper is fun enough. World of Tanks can be played very casually, usually just takes around 7 minutes per round. Dwarfs!? is a short session arcade casual game too.

Game Dev Story for iOS or Android.

[Voon]

Harvest Moon games for DS.

Oh, god. They're terrible in that system. Mostly, anyways. I think the PSX and the GBA versions are better.

But... Isn't Harvest Moon just borderline casual?

[Mohorovicic]

EVE Online

[kstress71]

If you like quirky number games and/or math puzzles, check out Everyday Genius: Squarelogic. I love that game.

[b0rsuk]

LESBIAN
SPIDER-QUEENS
OF MARS

is a very good arcade browser game. For better or worse, it doesn't show a single nipple. Safe for work or kindergarten.

Rebuild (a zombie apocalypse game by Sarah Northway) is a very fun turn-based strategy where you try to recover a city from zombies, rescue survivors and send people on missions.

Rebuild 2 is like that, except more micromanagement and it feels more like a superhero game with little threat. The difficulty is lower and you can win the game on Impossible losing just a few people. Also the music is worse, like some generic campfire story which adds up with "no zombies on the streets" new graphics to create a less threatening atmosphere. It's more about fashion and looking cool than terror.

[baby snot]

Lately i've been playing puzzle platformers for my drop in drop out needs. Escape Goat, Gateways, Vessel, Wyv and Keep, The Adventures of Shuggy, Offspring Fling. Drop in, solve a puzzle or two, drop out.

[Fanbuoy]

I'd like to hear more of what the OP consider his definition of casual, does he just mean a game with a very small amount of personal investment?

Yeah, I realize that it's a vague definition and wasn't too satisfied with it to begin with. What I'm basically after is a game where it doesn't matter if you play it for a few hours, drop it for three weeks and then return. Driver: SF sounds about right (especially as I already own it). It's too big for my lame connection to manage three downloads, but the point of this thread is basically to find games that I don't need access to constantly, so thanks!

Binding of Isaac would also have been an excellent suggestion, were it not for the botched cloud savings. Since the game is so much about the collection (it is to me at least), having to redo everything feels like a chore. That would have been fine though, if manually transferring the save files weren't such a hassle.

There are a number of good suggestions here though! Please, keep 'em coming!

[TechnoJellyfish]

Spelunky

A roguelike-like (randomized dungeons, permadeath) 2D platformer which is tough as nails and addictive like digital crack. And it's free (unlike crack)!

[Ohcomeonnow]

A bit out of left field but you could look at downloading a board game program called Vassal. Once you have it installed on your computer you then just download a module (game) and drop it in the directory for the program. Now I would say you should have a look at D-Day Dice. It is a solo dice game with cards and such. You can download the rules for the game from Boardgamegeek.com. Just look for the game D-Day Dice on their site, scroll down a bit and you will see a section tell you about the games contents. At the start of that is the link for the rules.

Legend of Grimrock is another great casual game.

[Heliocentric]

Binding of Isaac would also have been an excellent suggestion, were it not for the botched cloud savings.

Might I suggest you use Dropbox and Symbiotic Links to create your own cloud storage
http://db.tt/GipxAAX0 (this is a referral link, but I get more dropbox space, not money)
http://www.dropbox.com (this is not a referral link)
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226...dows-or-linux/


It takes a little setting up for each game, but once done, thats cloud storage for every game ever. Even old stuff.

Spelunky

A truly great game if this has passed you by try it out.

edit: Orcs Must Die is essential, its a tiny bit tower defence and a tiny bit third person shooter horde mode, but its great at both.

Atom Zombie Smasher, you too will learn that a man who is about to get eaten and turned into a zombie is better killed by artillery, cleansing flame to save the others.

Sword sand Soldiers, its a 2D rts with no micro.

Renegade ops, because burning around a tropical island shooting machine guns at people is enough.

[Fanbuoy]

Might I suggest you use Dropbox and Symbiotic Links to create your own cloud storage

Sounds terrific, but will the game accept me just moving the save files?

Spelunky is indeed a great game. I feel a bit saturated from it though. Same with Terraria (I know, I'm being proactive).

Thanks for reminding me about Orcs Must Die, I've been meaning to give that a go for ages!

[Faldrath]

If you like sports games, New Star Soccer is worth checking out.

Audiosurf and Dungeons of Dredmor are also great choices.

[djbriandamage]

I got completely addicted to this cute time management game, My Kingdom For The Princess. It will run on any PC and is soothing and challenging. You can play the game free for the first hour.

http://www.bigfishgames.com/download...ess/index.html

If you enjoy it I recommend signing up for Bigfish's monthly game credit program, getting the game for cheap, and immediately unsubscribing. You'll get the game for a discounted price and will be under no obligation to continue getting credits after that first purchase, though Bigfish has a ton of similar casual games that are well worth $7.