If you’re looking for game apps you can share with your kids that involve more than gunning down zombies or running a simulated farm / city / burger stand / beauty salon / etc. etc., then this post is for you.
The two black and white games featured here are so unlike any other apps you’ve seen, we’ve included videos to help you understand how they work.
Last Fish (4/5 stars, all ages, currently priced at 99 cents and currently comes bundled with a $1 Amazon MP3 Store credit) – From Amazon:
Last Fish is a stylish black and white action game about the survival of a tiny fish in toxic water filled with goo. Eat food, avoid goo, escape the shadowfish. Survive.
GAME MECHANICS
Tilt the device to control the fish. Eat food to gain health. Avoid touching goo as it decreses health. Complete the objectives but beware of the shadowfish.
LEVELS
In each level you have to complete one of four objectives: survive for a specified amount of time; quickly follow a trail of rings; clear checkpoints; eat food with caution to reach a specific amount of health. Every level is different, be it food quantity, goo quantity, speed, size, movement patterns, health lost rate, number and speed of shadowfish. All these combined make each level unique.
ARCADE
Survive as long as possible. Arcade starts with lots of food and some goo, but over time the food gets more rare and more goo appears. The fish also loses more health as time passes. Then appears the shadowfish. Survive, until the inevitable end…
PRESS QUOTES
“Last Fish felt poetic in some ways.” – DIYGamer
“Within 15 minutes of downloading the game I was hooked.” – AppAdvice
“Last Fish is proof that games can be artistic, and more importantly that artistic games can be fun.” – TouchMyApps
Freeze! (4.5/5 stars, guidance suggested, currently priced at $1.99 and currently comes bundled with a $1 Amazon MP3 Store credit) – This app’s graphics may be a little too creepy for younger players (see video, below), but older children, teens and adults are sure to enjoy such an unusual game app. On each level you must guide the ‘hero’ (a giant eyeball) through a maze, not by moving the hero, but by rotating the maze around him and on some levels, temporarily freezing him in place. Gravity does the rest. From Amazon:
It was a wonderful day for our anonymous hero, at least until the moment when he was torn from his loved ones by a viciously sharp grappling hook.
Locked in a cramped cell on a planet far, far away, our hero could give in to despair and abandon himself to his fate. But with your help he can overcome gravity, turn worlds, and even – escape!
Solving the rotating, physics-based puzzles is easy; just use your finger to continuously turn the cell in both directions around our hero. Of course you also have to make clever use of the Freeze! button, which can overcome gravity. Sound simple? It is – at first…
Freeze! offers completely new and yet immediately intuitive game mechanics, delightfully gloomy graphics from the internationally renowned pop-up designer and illustrator Jonas Schenk, and a very sinister soundtrack from noted Swiss electronic/trance musician Karl Lukas.