If you’d like to enjoy the outdoors today, we suggest you stop reading right now.
What follows are five iPad addictive games that maximize screen real-estate with luring graphics, break ground in the handheld gaming sector. They ultimately exemplify why Apple’s tablet device is such an impressive device for gaming.
These games will capture your imagination, demand your attention, and may ultimately destroy your relationships with loved ones if you get too sucked in.
You can’t say we didn’t warn you.
1. We Rule GOLD
We Rule is like FarmVille for the iPad. Things start innocently enough in level one, but as you level up and tackle the tutorial challenges, a funny thing happens — the game gets serious and intricate.
Planting and harvesting crops is a key part of gameplay, but your efforts should be focused on trying to level up by accruing experience points. Levelling up allows you to continue expanding your kingdom, unlock more farm patches and grab other essentials like shops, plants, statues, roads and rivers for your kingdom.
Some of this may sound like nonsense, but most of your time will be spent designing your kingdom, and there’s nothing more frustrating than wanting to add a dragon’s lair or prison to your kingdom and not having the funds to do so.
The best part about the game is that everyone from your friends to tech celebrities like Digg’s Kevin Rose is in on the action. This makes for extra enticing gameplay because you can add your friends from real life and web life as neighbors and check out their kingdoms or buy goods from their shops.
After a few short days you’ll be hooked, even going so far as to set up push notifications so you know when your plants are ready to harvest, and your citizens are ready to hand over their tax payments.
A few tips: Build as many cottages as you can so you can collect taxes and earn experience points quicker. Plant the most expensive crops because you make more when you harvest them, and save your mojo to use in higher levels and plan around expansion.
Price Point: Free
Addiction Rating: 4.5 stars
2. Angry Birds HD
What’s so great about Angry Birds? How about “everything.” This is one of those games that will continue to nag at your sense of self-worth until you can beat a particular level — which may prove to be futile for some levels. Pick up this game and soon your dreams will be haunted by squawking birds, and the taunting grins of those green pigs that just will not die.
Things begin rather easily: You start with a few angry red birds that you sling at awaiting green pigs. The goal is to kill the pigs either by lampooning them with a bird dead-on, or craftily trying to topple bricks to crush them. In total, there are 105 different levels, each one more difficult than the last.
Beginner tips: Don’t play in front of friends or family because they will try to take the game away from you, sometimes the most obvious strategy is the right one, know your angles and learn the strengths of each bird type.
Price Point: $4.99
Addiction Rating: 5 stars
3. GodFinger
Oh the joys of playing God. In GodFinger, you’re a deity with a commanding finger you can use to turn people into followers and put them to work on your planet.
The idea of the game is to create a thriving planet populated with followers to do your bidding. Earning gold, mana, and awe let’s you level up and build better items to help you earn all three achievements as fast as possible.
You earn gold by placing followers at barns or farms. It is used to buy new items in the store. You need mana for rain, sunshine, lightning and the other natural elements required for planet functions. You can earn mana by placing followers at your shrine. Awe is a special element that you earn each time you level up, and you can use it at the Awe Store. You can also buy it if you get desperate.
GodFinger — like We Rule — is an Ngmoco game, so gameplay begins with a challenge-based tutorial. You level up based on the experience points you accrue through in-game actions. Pay attention to each task and prompt in the tutorial mode, as instructions include information that will become vital to the health of your planet and your followers.
Tips for ruling wisely: Wells and taverns are great for faster rejuvenation, gold that you don’t collect erodes, upgrade your shrine to generate mana faster, zoom out to visit neighboring planets and save your awe to buy cooler items in higher levels.
Price Point: Free
Addiction Rating: 4 stars
4. Plants vs. Zombies HD
Zombie fan or not, this game will suck the life out of you as you fall victim to each engrossing level.
The ultimate goal of the game is to prevent zombies from entering your home in each level. Should they succeed, you will die.
The game starts out with a few semi-harmless zombies and some less-than-potent plants that you will need to attack and kill the oncoming onslaught of the undead. As you level up, the zombies become more menacing and the plants more lethal.
Your biggest challenges will be deciding how many sunflowers to plant, figuring out how to protect them, and picking plants to use in your arsenal of attack for each level. Don’t forget that you will need the sunflowers to buy the plants you need. Also, the plants you choose for each level will vary on whether it’s day or night, and their ability to kill depends on the zombies you’re fighting against.
Tips to stay alive: Plant as many sunflowers as you can during the first few moments of each level, the double sunflower is a waste of money and space, always buy more slots for plants when you can and make sure you have at least one big attack plant for each level.
Price Point: $9.99
Addiction Rating: 5 stars
5. Dizzypad HD
Who knew having frogs leap from lilypad to lilypad could be so addicting? But in much the same way that DoodleJump can entertain and frustrate players for hours at a time, so too can Dizzypad HD for the iPad.
The object of the game is to get the frog from one lilypad to the next, by carefully timing each leap so as not to land in the water and lose a life. Unfortunately, this is one of those games that is deceptively simple: It will lure you in with its easy premise and then make you feel like a fool when you can’t beat your own high score.
Unlike most great games on the iPad, this one comes completely free of charge — but only if you’re fine with just playing the classic mode. If you’re anything like me, you’ll fork over the $1.99 (each) to add sliders, memory, and battle modes. They’re definitely worth the extra cash.
Pro tip for leapers: Learn to leapfrog as many lilypads as you can early on. For each lilypad you leapfrog, you earn an extra life. Those extra lives will come in handy as lilypads become harder to reach.
Price Point: Free
Addiction Rating: 3.5 stars
[img credit: Jesus Belzunce]
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More iPad resources from Mashable:
- 10 Awesome Apple iPad Cases
- 10 Great Sites for Watching Video on Your iPad
- iPad Accessories: A Quick Guide to Apple’s Official Add-Ons
- 10 Insanely Great iPad Apps We Can’t Wait to Use
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