Mahjong Trails applies the formula currently popular for Facebook puzzle games to the old computer puzzle version of mahjong. The game contains several areas, each with a variety of different tile layouts. The rules of the game are the same as always, simply asking users to match all of the tiles before five minutes is up or before it becomes impossible to match more tiles. The game usually offers players one free reshuffle of the tiles, but it's not long before levels become very difficult to clear within the time limit. The real point of Mahjong Trails is to amass a higher score than all of your friends who play the game.
Being something of a closet board game aficionado, I'm always delighted to discover a new game that I can share with my kids. Earlier this year, on some fairly strong recommendations from my friends in the board gaming community, we decided to pick up Hey, That's My Fish! A game with simple strategy and charming presentation, it quickly made its way into our family game nights. Now, thanks to Fantasy Flight Games release of an iOS version, we can jump into our fish-hording shenanigans any time or place we want!
I've always found card battle games to be a bit of a tough thing to imagine in real life. Maybe we'd all be better off if we settled our battles with cards instead of weapons, but it's certainly hard to imagine, you know? Even in the anything goes realm of video games, it's just hard to picture a band of Orcs stomping around the countryside breaking out their decks of cards when it's time to pillage. Yet that's pretty much the setup for Deckmake Fantasy.
Farkle Pro is one of many Facebook apps that lets you play the slightly obscure dice game Farkle online. Playtika's iteration is easy-to-use, runs well, and features robust matchmaking. It also explains the rules, which may be unfamiliar to many players. Farkle is somewhat similar to the classic Hasbro dice game Yahtzee, but the rules are a bit simpler and there's a big emphasis on betting.
If you love solitaire then you'll want to check out Solitaire Kingdom Supreme, the upcoming card game from Funkitron (Slingo Supreme, Trinklit Supreme, Poker Superstars) that introduces new twists including special cards and the ability to build your own deck.
For the uninitiated, playing a collectible card game can seem as complex as casting the spells printed on the front of each card. A lightweight mathematical discussion lies behind each lurid painting of a scantily clad sorceress, and few novices these days have the patience to work this calculated arcanery with pen and paper. It's perhaps no wonder, then, that Zynga dumbed down the experience a bit for Warstorm, an ambitious CCG that's been out for a while on Facebook. It's not a bad game, but it yields too much control to the computer in the name of accessibility, and in the process loses almost every bit of the genre's magic.
Avalon Legends Solitaire is a fun and relaxing solitaire game in the same vein as the successful Fairway Solitaire. There are numerous levels to play which allows for practically unlimited replay.
War Metal: Tyrant is a collectible card game (CCG) for Facebook, which prompts one to wonder if the venerable pastime isn't going the way of the paper book after the successes of similar titles like Zynga's Warstorm. That seems unlikely for now, but it isn't because games like Tyrant don't give their physical counterparts a decent run for their money. While it suffers from mildly disappointing artwork and questionable strategy, Tyrant comes closer to mimicking the gameplay of a real CCG than any of its competitors.