Today we are taking a break from the big MMOs and GOGcom classics to put the spotlight on some casual games. Sometimes, you need to just sit back, relax, and play some smaller games, even if just for a few minutes. We’re covering mostly puzzle games here, but if you have a favorite we didn’t cover, feel free to share it in the comments.
Burger Shop 2
With Burger Shop 2, you manage a literal assembly line of food, as customers rush to order items. Thankfully, the BurgerTron 2000 is quick at dispensing plates and food, as fast as your customers can order them. Your job is to serve out those orders exactly as the customers ask them. This is a restaurant tycoon game built for speedruns, so crack those knuckles and stretch out your fingers for this dexterity challenge. Play Now
Jewel Quest
Jewel Quest is a match three tile game with a Mesoamerican theme. Match three or more tiles adjacent to each other so that they will be removed and replaced from the well. The variation here is that each space can be turned to gold, if you move the tiles on it enough times. Your real goal isn’t to reach a high score, but to get all turn all the tiles in the well into gold before the timer runs out. You might think you have this game licked, but it will get progressively harder to turn some of those isolated tiles at the bottom into gold, so don’t dilly dally with those tiles if you don’t want your game to end! Play Now
Luxor
Luxor is an exciting action puzzler with an Egyptian theme. Armed with a Scarab shooter that shoots balls, you face a train of colored balls that moves quickly across a winding tube. You must stop those balls from hitting the bottom by shooting your own balls in. When you create a line of three or more balls, they disappear, and the balls move back. If you miss your target, the balls you shoot in will join the train. It can make the game harder, but you can also use this to your advantage by planning for a high score. Play Now
Mahjongg
Mahjongg is one of the most popular and oldest matching games in the world, although it is best known and most popular today in video game form. 144 tiles from the four player game of mahjongg are arranged in a pyramid. The outermost tiles are considered loose, and you pair loose tiles to remove the from the pyramid, starting from the top and the edges. The goal is to wear down the pyramid completely, but watch out; your choice of what tiles to eliminate first affects whether you can even finish the game or not.
Vegasworld
Vegasworld is the quintessential casino game. Start out by creating your virtual avatar, and then step into a virtual Las Vegas, where you can play the slot machines, poker, blackjack, bingo, solitaire, and fringo. Vegasworld is attractive, easy to get into, but above all else, it’s light and relaxing. It may interest you to know that there was once a real Vegas World in the Las Vegas Strip, also known for its quirkiness. Play Now
Hexic
Arguably the greatest game Alexei Pakitnov has created since Tetris, Hexic finds you manipulating hexagons arranged as if in a honeycomb in an ever replenishing well. You can rotate these hexagons, and placing three of them adjacent to each other makes them disappear. You can spend hours just making hexagons disappear, but watch out for bombs!
Diner Dash
You are Flo, entrepeneur and buttkicking single lady, on a quest to make your restaurant the biggest and most successful it can be. To get there, you will need to master managing the queue of customers and patrons, seating them, taking their orders, serving them, and washing up the dishes when you’re done. The trick to getting high tips is matching customers to seats of the same color. The longer you play, the longer the lines get, and the more frantic gameplay becomes, but you also get chances to get higher scores. Spawning multiple imitators, the original Diner Dash remains as charming and addictive as ever.
Collapse
Collapse is one of those games which you will understand at a glance but will not be able to put down. You face a well filled with multicolored tiles, and you can click on them to get rid of them. Eliminate larger groups of tiles together for more points, and use bombs to strategically delete some colored tiles for more points. When the tiles get jumbled up, it becomes a matter of choosing what tile colors to eliminate and in what order.
Plants vs Zombies
We are only describing this game here as a formality, since it is not possible for you to have found our site and not know about this game. Plants vs Zombies was George Fan’s brilliant attempt to bring casual and hardcore gamers together, and brilliantly, it worked. Under the veneer of colorful, cartoony, goofy characters is an approachable, but complex tower defense, that demands you sit down and use your brain, and rewards you for it with a fun experience, and the perennial trap of constant unlockables.
Mozaki Blocks
We’re ending this list with another worthy Pajitnov classic. Surprisingly, Mozaki qualifies as a hidden gem among casual games, but don’t let that turn you off on this Tetris variant from the original creator himself.
Instead of a well, you play on a grid, and must place pieces in such a way that you create a line from the center to one of the four walls of the same color. You will have to contend with some orphaned pieces, but multicolored pieces will help you clear the screen. The more lines you create, the higher the score, but make sure you get those lines done before the timer runs out!
