My Casual Games

Azada has become one of my favorite games. Why? Because it combines many different puzzles and it takes a long time to play. With over 40 unique puzzles, including hidden object, matches, mazes, logic, word, and jigsaw puzzles. These are all combined with great visual style and haunting music.

The background story is that you are trying to release the hero, Titus, from an enchanted room. But the backstory is just a setup for some of the most interesting games around. I played this game with my family, and we all enjoyed it very much. The puzzles were easy enough at the beginning for my 10-year-old son, but they eventually got harder so that they challenged me and my husband.

The puzzles also played to different puzzle-solving strengths. There was also a maze/dexterity puzzle that my husband could finish, but that really frustrated me. Lucky I had help.

This game is definitely worth the $19.99 that you pay for the full verson. The puzzles are good, and the game lasts a long time. To try a free hour, click here.

Pat Sajak’s Trivia Gems is a surprisingly fun game that combines Pat’s gentle humor with some challenging questions. There are 2 game modes that you can play, and each one has its advantages. If you don’t have that much time, the Trivia 10 game is quick and fun.

If you have more time, the Trivia Players game starts off easy and gets progressively harder. First, you start off playing on Monday, and you have to make it to Friday. Each game consists of a pyramid that you have to climb, with 5 categories of trivia questions to answer. During these games, Pat also throws iin some bonus rounds of Gem of a Question and Brain Buster.

The game does a good job of mixing up the trivia questions. They are almost all either multiple choice or true and false, but they are sometimes tricky. I had a ball playing this with family and friends one day. Although the action is fast, everyone could weigh in on the answers.

See whether you have the knowledge to get to Friday! Download a 1-hour free trial or buy the game for only $19.99 here.

Oh my god! icanhascheezburger.com has the funniest cat pics and captions around. Of course, I’m an English nerd, so the captions make my teeth clench, but the pictures are so funny that it’s worth it! I spent a lot of time going through the 90+ pages of pictures (what? yes, I do have a life, really….). The picture here is from page 4.

Catch the wacky cats (and an occasional mouse, ferret, bunny, and dog) here.

Who knew that Agatha Christie’s work could be translated into a hidden object game? It’s actually a really good one, too. In Death on the Nile, you help Poirot solve the mystery by uncovering clues and finding hidden objects.

This game is familiar to anyone who’s done hidden object games. There are some gorgeous scenes, and some tricky ones, too. And the mini-games are good, for example, matching the suspect with the weapon, etc.

The unique piece to this game to me, though, is the helping Poirot aspect. I’ve played some of the other Agatha Christie games (like And Then There Were None), but they were hard and I didn’t like spending hours retracing my steps. In this game, I get the feeling of solving, but the ability to pick up and leave off without any problems.

Click here to download a free trial or buy your copy of Death on the Nile today.

Yummm… chocolate. What could be better than one of my food obsessions?  Combining it with a game obsession, of course. This tasty game combines a mouthwatering premise (you make chocolates) with a dash of resource management and the thrill of global journeys and starting a business.

As the title character, you inherit some recipes from a relative and you’re on your way to starting a chocolate empire. Collect recipes, buy ingredients, sell exclusive chocolates, and purchase factories.

The matching part of the gameplay is pretty easy. Each chocolate requires a certain number and combination of ingredients. You buy these, and then set up your factory to make them. Each time, you have to play a mini-game to see how fast you can make the chocolates.

But the real challenge of the game is balancing what you’re making with what you spend. Expanding is tough. Making sure the factories stay productive, buying low and selling high, and buying the best property were the ingredients that made this game fun for me. Just as in real life, growing a business was hard, but when I succeeded, I was ecstatic.

To download or buy your copy of the Chocolatier game, click here.

“I’ve Got Mail” - I love this song by The Richter Scales! It’s funny, and perfect for anyone who’s gotten junk email. They’re really good, and you can also enjoy ”I Hate A Cappella” and “Stockholm Syndrome.”  You can also buy their album, with even more songs.

Watch Nora the kitty play the piano. It’s a cute video, and if you imagine that she’s playing some stream of consciousness jazz, she’s pretty good.

Another great game from Gamedesign, Peg Solitaire is simple. Jump the pegs over one another so that the last peg is on the black circle. Easy, right? Well, at the beginning, yes, but after a few levels, you’ll be using the “reset” and “undo” buttons a lot.

Stained Glass is a flash game with a colorful twist. The opening screen is two squares. The left one is full of blue sky, the other is full of squares with triangles. The object is to move all the squares from the right to the left side. The trick is that colors on all sides of the squares must match. Drag the squares from the right to the left with your mouse.

Stained Glass starts out with a 9-square puzzle, but each successive level adds more squares. It’s a deceptively simple game that gets harder the more you go. Try it now.

Many puzzle purists insist that solving puzzles isn’t about the picture, but about the shape of the pieces. Some even make a point of putting together puzzles backwards so that they don’t see any part of the picture. Well, the White Jigsaw flash puzzle is made for them.

Every piece of this jigsaw puzzle is white. That’s right, no picture, only shapes. The object is to drag the pieces onto the board with your mouse. The puzzle gets increasingly harder each level, since the number of pieces keeps increasng.

I’ve spent hours doing these!