Some iPad games I played on vacation:

The Room 3

The latest game in a well-done series: the puzzles are challenging without having me quite getting stuck on them, and the game is committed to those puzzles. (My favorite way that plays out: they barely pretend you you have a body, if you’re moving to something that happens to be located on the other side of a table, they’ll just move you right over that table instead of having you go around.) There is a plot, it makes no sense, and I’m not convinced the alternate plat endings are a great idea. At any rate, I definitely enjoyed playing it, and I’ll be happy to keep going with the series if they continue it.

Crypt of the NecroDancer

A roguelike with a beat: you have to make your moves in time with the music, which means that you have to think and react on your feet. Which is an interesting idea; I’m not a roguelike aficionado, and in general I like they way they let you think about how to react to situations, but having to think on a cadence is an interesting variant. And there is one character you can choose that doesn’t require you to follow the beat, so you can play that way if you prefer or just to get used to the enemies and plot patterns to use against them.

I might return to this one.

1979 Revolution

Seems like a potentially important step towards figuring out how to use game mechanics to provide a richer lens on history. Though I can’t say I have a great feel for the Iranian Revolution after playing this game, so who knows.

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