The Android app store has 2.8 million apps. The iPhone app store is filled with 2.2 million apps. Approximately. Many of those apps are incredibly useful. Note taking apps have made people's lives easier. iPhone VPNs have made us safer by hiding our locations (which are at risk due to all the other apps!). Maps help us find our destinations while avoiding traffic and cops.
But some of the most popular apps are gaming apps. And if you do your research, you'll find something a little strange. Most of these games are pretty much the same. It seems that people aren't all that excited to try new puzzle games.
They'd rather stick to these 3 types of smartphone games that are not going away anytime soon.
If you're old enough to remember cell phones that weren't smart (and I can't believe I'm writing that sentence), you'll have played Snake obsessively. The simple game was perfect for those primitive screens. A constantly moving snake, eating dot after dot, would never win any awards for originality, but we all loved it.
You might think that Snake is dead and gone, except for the few nostalgia maniacs who still play some version of it. But in fact, its legacy lives on in the constant moving, reward collecting games like Temple Run or Subway Surfers. These are essentially Snake merged with Mario or Sonic. With new backgrounds being created all the time (like Cristiano Ronaldo's football equivalent), you can always feel like you're doing something new.
Of course, Pac Man is probably the foundation upon which Snake was built.
Candy Crush is just the start of the color matching (or tile matching or match 3) games. Farm Heroes, Bubble Shooter, et al, all test our ability to get matching colors together. Those colors might be symbolised by candy, balloons, fruits, and so on, but it's essentially all the same thing. Why do we love matching colors? Who knows. We've been doing it since we were children, and somehow the charm has not worn off enough for us to stop wasting hours of our lives doing it in different combinations.
I can't play Tetris. If I do (and sometimes I make the mistake) my mind gets caught up in a frenzy of falling shapes long after I've stopped playing. Shapes haunt my dreams. They distract me at work. They make conversation difficult. This all talks to an addiction of ours of getting things in their right places. Tetris is just the beginning. Dream of Pixels is one of the more modern versions, and there are many more just like it.
Somehow, game creators found the right formats decades ago. Humans are pretty predictable, which is why variations of these 3 types of games will haunt the dreams of generations to come.
But some of the most popular apps are gaming apps. And if you do your research, you'll find something a little strange. Most of these games are pretty much the same. It seems that people aren't all that excited to try new puzzle games.
They'd rather stick to these 3 types of smartphone games that are not going away anytime soon.
1. Snake's legacy
If you're old enough to remember cell phones that weren't smart (and I can't believe I'm writing that sentence), you'll have played Snake obsessively. The simple game was perfect for those primitive screens. A constantly moving snake, eating dot after dot, would never win any awards for originality, but we all loved it.
You might think that Snake is dead and gone, except for the few nostalgia maniacs who still play some version of it. But in fact, its legacy lives on in the constant moving, reward collecting games like Temple Run or Subway Surfers. These are essentially Snake merged with Mario or Sonic. With new backgrounds being created all the time (like Cristiano Ronaldo's football equivalent), you can always feel like you're doing something new.
Of course, Pac Man is probably the foundation upon which Snake was built.
2. Color matching
Candy Crush is just the start of the color matching (or tile matching or match 3) games. Farm Heroes, Bubble Shooter, et al, all test our ability to get matching colors together. Those colors might be symbolised by candy, balloons, fruits, and so on, but it's essentially all the same thing. Why do we love matching colors? Who knows. We've been doing it since we were children, and somehow the charm has not worn off enough for us to stop wasting hours of our lives doing it in different combinations.
3. Tetris
I can't play Tetris. If I do (and sometimes I make the mistake) my mind gets caught up in a frenzy of falling shapes long after I've stopped playing. Shapes haunt my dreams. They distract me at work. They make conversation difficult. This all talks to an addiction of ours of getting things in their right places. Tetris is just the beginning. Dream of Pixels is one of the more modern versions, and there are many more just like it.
Somehow, game creators found the right formats decades ago. Humans are pretty predictable, which is why variations of these 3 types of games will haunt the dreams of generations to come.
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