Whether it’s five minutes while you wait for your coffee, ten minutes spare in your lunch break or even whole hours on plane journeys, almost everyone has some spare time to kill. There’s a grey area between productive apps and apps with little use — these are the apps we play purely to kill time.
Traditionally, these are games. We all have at least one or two apps that we use to waste away time we wouldn’t do anything else with. If you happen to be short of these apps, don’t fret; I’ve compiled a list that will help you fill up your time indefinitely.
Tap the frog 2
Tap the frog 2 is a game where you can use your fingers to manipulate many different amphibians in many different ways. It has games such as Drive the frog, Pop the frog, Fight the frog and numerous others. The mini-games are fun, challenging and addictive; no mater how hard grafted a gamer you are, anyone will get a good run for their money with this app.
The strange thing about this game is how many times you’ll find yourself returning to it. It has an almost cruelly engineered scoring system whereby you have to achieve stars depending on your speed or frequency, but the fifth star always seems just out of reach. It is possible to get of course, but you’ll be there for a while trying. Trust me.
Draw Something
Draw Something is the popular game in which you select a word to draw for your friend to guess with solely your drawing to somehow figure out what it is. Whether you’re an incredible artist or not, half the fun of this game is the comical value of the drawings that your friends send you.
You can challenge people through Facebook and Twitter, making it incredibly easy to find new people to draw with. If you’re stumped by a difficult word, you can exchange it for a new one by exploding it with a bomb that the game gives you, however these are in finite supply, so use them wisely. There is a free version of the game too, with the only difference being the advertisements.
Price: $2.99 (or free w/ads)
Developer: OMGPOP
Download: App Store
Rumble
Rumble is a game similar to the popular game Boggle, whereby you have a 4×4 grid of letters and you have to make as many words as possible by connecting adjacent letters in any direction. You play this game with random people throughout the world or your friends, depending on if you have anyone to play.
This game is strangely addicting; I’ve played this game much more than I would have thought. It draws you back in because each round only takes two minutes to complete, which could lead to a satisfying victory. If you’re lucky, this game could also help expend your word knowledge if you come across something by accident that you’ve never seen before.
Price: Free
Developer: MAG Interactive
Download: App Store
Solitaire
Solitaire. Known to most as a Windows game, this is probably the defining card game of the tech world (not that there are many). If you don’t know how to play, the game will teach you. It has multiple scoring capabilities, with Standard and Vegas modes available. You can also play multiplayer. There isn’t much more to say apart from that; this is solitaire, and this is good.
Price: $0.99
Developer: MobilityWare
Download: App Store
Dot line
Dot Line is a memory game where you have to remember a path that’s been drawn and replicate it on a blank grid. While only a limited game in terms of functionality, it still provides a little gimmick to pass the time away. The combinations get progressively harder and longer, so you’ll probably be sticking around for a little bit to complete each level. Good fun.
Plague Inc.
Plague Inc. is a realtime strategic simulation of a disease-induced apocalypse which you need to progress and gradually wipe out humanity. You can use the game’s currency of DNA points to evolve your disease to spread faster, kill quicker and gain resistance to external factors.
There are many “kill the world through disease” games, however this is definitely the most polished of the bunch. It has smooth, realistic graphics with the nice addition of real world updates that you have to respond to during the course of the game. I thoroughly recommend it.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Ndemic Creations
Download: App Store
Cat Physics
If something could define awesome, this would be it. Cats, balls and physics. In this app, you have to navigate the ball between one cat to the other whilst combating a host of obstacles such as flip boards, glass windows, trap doors and other items that make this game a fun challenge.
The graphics are pretty good along with smooth gameplay, and a 3-star scoring system that always makes you strive for perfection. It’s a neat little game that has hours of fun in store.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Donut Games
Download: App Store
Jumbled
Jumbled is a gravity-based puzzle game where you have to move all of the blocks around until they fit perfectly into the empty space given. The faster you complete each level, the more stars and coins you earn, which you can use to purchase hints and level-skips that assist in unlocking further stages.
The game is challenging and addictive at the same time, with the puzzles really teasing your brain when you only slightly misjudge the shape of one block but it costs you valuable seconds. The blocks are actually quite tricky to manoeuvre, so that does let down the overall experience a little.
Price: Free
Developer: Brightside Mobile
Download: App Store
Logos Quiz Game
This is a game where you have to guess the popular (and not so popular) logos in order to gain points that help you unlock a new set of logos to be guessed. It really puts your brand-recognization skills to the test; a lot of the time you’ll kick yourself for not getting a certain logo that’s just on the tip of your tongue — I know I did.
You can unlock hints too that you can use on logos you really can’t get. It’s a great way to kill time, as you’ll be able to keep on going until you really can’t guess anymore.
Price: Free
Developer: Atico Mobile S.L.
Download: App Store
Crazy Caps
Crazy Caps is a puzzle game where you have to connect the same colour bottle caps which, when aligned, get you points. These fill up a bar on the side that completes the level when it’s at its peak. You can use hints to see which caps to move, but they cost you gold coins that you accumulate throughout the game.
When I first sat down with this game, I had doubts whether it would appeal to me, however after only mere minutes I was playing the game incessantly. The levels never seem to stop coming, so it will be sure to pass the time.
Price: Free
Developer: Developer Name
Download: App Store
Cut the Rope: Experiments
If you haven’t heard of Cut the Rope already, you seriously need to play this game. Featuring the little monster named Om Nom, this app is a compilation of levels that all involve you leading a piece of candy into this monster’s mouth while collecting shiny gold stars to unlock new levels.
I play this game often to kill time, mostly because it’s so addictive. The levels aren’t too hard, but they’re enough of a challenge to make you come back for more. A great set of levels are included also, all very well designed.
Price: $0.99
Developer: Zeptolab UK Limited
Download: App Store
Oh My Word 2
A slightly more challenging game, this app makes you fumble for your dictionary as you have to guess a word in between two other given words alphabetically, i.e. house is between hails and humid. It can get quite difficult and frustrating guessing the words, but it’s bound to pass the time for a while at least.
Price: Free
Developer: Mobile Pie Ltd.
Download: App Store
What do you think?
Did we miss any definitive time wasters? Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments section below. I hope you’ve found some great ways to pass the time!