Top five games that I found surprisingly addictive
I’ve purposefully avoided titles such as Pokémon, or MMO’s, as it was always obvious to me that those titles were going to consume a large amount of my time. The games I have chosen are ones that were surprising for me personally; ones that I picked up and played for whatever reason, without realising what I was letting myself in for at the time. All of these titles were incredibly addictive when I first played them, I pumped way more time into all of these than I would have thought possible.
5. Tiny Death Star - Android/iOS/Windows Phone
I never played Tiny Tower, so I really didn’t know how addictive Tiny Death Star would be. It was a game that spread like wildfire at work, I think there was a point where literally every employee was playing it, regardless of whether they were a Star Wars fan or not - that’s how addictive it is. Tiny Death Star was developed by Disney Mobile and NimbleBit and published by LucasArts. It features game play similar to that of Tiny Tower, but of course is set in the Star Wars universe instead.
The player has to build and expand a Death Star, building residential levels to attract new Bitizens to then build and run the other levels of your Death Star. There’s also missions from the Emperor and mini-quests from familiar faces when they arrive in your game. Building levels and replenishing stock takes time, as with most mobile games there are micro-transactions that you can use to speed up this process. Seeing your favourite Star Wars character as adorable Bitizens and all of the Star Wars themed levels was one of the main attractions for me, there were also novel little cut scenes that really did make me chuckle.
Regrettably, last October Disney pulled the app from the App Store and Google Play. Co-developer Nimblebit was not even aware of the decision to pull Tiny Death Star prior to its removal. However, it is still available for Windows phone users.
4. Destiny of Spirits - PlayStation Vita
I have to blame thank a colleague of mine for introducing me to this one. Destiny of Spirits is a free to play downloadable title for the PlayStation Vita, however, it does contain micro-transactions. We were obsessed with this game for weeks, in fact, it was probably made worse by the fact we were both playing and hyping each other up. I think it’s fair to say, we didn’t get much “work” done while we were playing Destiny of Spirits.
Players collect spirits that they then use in turn-based battles, taking down fierce bosses, unlocking more and more areas and levelling up their spirits as they go. Destiny of Spirits is divided into three online regions, Asia, the Americas, and Europe, each with a separate server. Depending on the location of the player decides what kind of spirits you can obtain, as spirits are based on the folklore of each area. So in Europe, we got a lot of Celtic and Norse mythological creatures. I have to say, a lot of our native spirits weren’t that pretty, I was very envious of the Asian spirits that were absolutely gorgeous. However, you can trade with players to obtain spirits from all around the world. Collecting spirits was definitely part of the addiction, especially seeing as there are super rare ones, rare ones, uncommon ones, etc.
The game has some really neat features, such as the location technology where by travelling physical distances with the PlayStation Vita system, players are able to hunt for new spirits. There were even some spirits who were unique to certain locations, such as a spirit exclusive to Big Ben in London. Other games cameo in Destiny of Spirits, special limited time events netted you spirits based upon the likes of Knack and Gravity Rush, for example. There were timed events for different bosses that unlocked special rewards too, and you can also use the spirits of other players to help out when you’re finding a battle particularly hard. Overall, collecting spirits and levelling up was highly addictive, and all the great additional features kept the game play interesting.
3. Theme Hospital - PC/PlayStation/PSP/PS3
The amount of copies I own of Theme Hospital over various formats, both physical and digital, is testament to how much I love this game and just how addictive it is. It was the first simulation game I ever played, back before I even knew what a simulation game was. My parents bought it for me for the PlayStation and I remember looking at it and wondering why the hell they had even bothered. Of course, I was utterly wrong in judging it by its cover and it ended up being one of my favourite games, as well as one of the most used discs in my game collection.
Theme Hospital is a business simulation game developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1997. As the player, you get to design and operate your own hospital, researching and creating new facilities, hiring and firing staff, whilst attempting to hit your targets and proceed to the next level. The game is full of the bizarre humour that we’ve all grown accustomed to from the Theme series of games, you have people with inflated heads that you pop, the grim reaper stalks your hospital corridors, and you’ll never be able to un-hear the painful sound of patients in your toilets.
Theme Hospital was recently free on EA Origin, however, if you missed out on that amazing offer you can pick it up from GOG.com for the bargain price of £3.99.
2. Zeus: Master of Olympus - PC
Players can build from scratch, starting off with a few simple buildings that will grow into a whole city. Your neighbouring cities can be allies, or enemies, however, you can change these relationships with gifts, favours, or even invasion. Players can build beautiful Greek sanctuaries, choosing which gods they would like to worship, with each god giving a different benefit to your city. You can also summon heroes and partake in quests, generally to rid your city of the latest monster that has come calling.
Sierra Entertainment made similar games, such as Caesar and Pharoah, but none of the other titles were as addictive for me as Zeus: Master of Olympus. The only thing that compared was the expansion, Poseidon: Master of Atlantis, which I was more than happy to install after having played the original content to death.
Zeus: Master of Olympus received favourable reviews on Metacritic, and you can pick it up bundled with its expansion for the paltry sum of £6.69 from GOG. In total there are 65 episodes across the main game and expansion, as well as sand-box mode.
1. Monster Rancher - PlayStation
Although known in America as Monster Rancher 2, for us Europeans it was the first in the franchise to launch over here and so was simply Monster Rancher. This was one of the first games I remember purchasing as a result of reading about it in a magazine. (Generally I would just buy/be bought whatever was going, as reviews and such weren’t as accessible back then.) Even though it was a title I set out to buy, I didn’t ever think that over fifteen years later that I would still own this game and still play it at least once every year. It has to be one of my all time favourites and without a doubt it is very addictive.
Monster Hunter involves raising and fighting with monsters; it’s similar to that of Pokémon, but it’s different in that you raise monsters from a ranch instead of travelling around. You can participate in tournaments, special training, quests, and other events as they appear. Some events are scheduled like the tournaments, some happen once you fulfil certain requirements, and others happen by chance.
The real addictive feature for me was creating new monsters, you can go into town and visit the shrine to create new monsters from your CD collection. Yes, you read that right. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve grabbed every CD in my house to try them all in Monster Rancher, just to see which CD yielded which monster. You can also combine your own monsters, adding fragments of other discs that you collect from tournaments to spice things up and accessing even better, or rarer, monsters. Certain CDs are the only way to obtain specific monsters, such as Nevermind by Nirvana being the only disc that unlocks the rare monster Swimmer. You’ll also be disappointed to find that many CDs can only be used once you are a qualified IMA Trainer.
Unlike Pokémon, your monsters can actually die in this game, meaning that your journey to becoming an IMA Trainer has its limitations. While you can play continuously, you’ll obviously need a good monster to reach the top-level tournaments and as each monster only lives for a certain amount of time, you have to use your time wisely. Of course, if your monster doesn’t make the grade before old age, you can always combine it into a new monster before it dies, starting over from scratch in the tournaments. Monsters can also get injured and run away, so you have to find a good balance in training and not push them too hard.
Just writing about this game makes me want to play it again. I actually imported an NTSC PlayStation 2 to play Monster Hunter 4, but it didn’t hold the same appeal for me as Monster Rancher.
Honourable mention: 3D Movie Maker - PC
A lot of people I know have never even heard of this title, however, 3D Movie Maker is arguably more of a program than a game and so it didn’t count in my top five. When I first played 3D Movie Maker, I only had access to the particularly limited demo. However, a friend of mine owned it and later bought me my own copy, sparking an obsession in our little group of gamers that lasted to an age where we really should have outgrown it. Created by Microsoft’s “Microsoft Kids” subsidiary in 1995, it allowed you to create your own 3D movies by placing characters, items and other shapes into pre-made environments. You could then add actions, sound effects, music, special effects, and more, to bring your movies to life.
If I was counting mini-games within games, then other honourable mentions would have to be Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII and the chao garden from Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. There’s a good chance I spent more time playing these mini-games than the actual game itself.
Of course, these were my top five, but what are yours? I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on games that were surprisingly addictive for them, let me know in the comments below.
