Apps

Godville and Dreeps, though visually dissimilar, are aimed at my demographic exactly: the lazy but easily entertained gamer. Both are RPGs that follow an autonomous hero through a rich fantasy world, but where Dreeps is sincere, Godville is irreverent, mocking itself cheerfully. Because, come on–a Zero Player Game?

My hero, Neris (a name I made up by mashing my fingers all over the keyboard), is blessed by her patron goddess Mrs. Mustache (that’s me). I can encourage her or punish her, but either way, Neris is under no obligation to listen…and she really doesn’t, complaining mightily about my smiting while pounding back beers and picking fights with monsters before looting their corpses. I found myself getting attached to her and laughing out loud at her antics, which are delivered through short diary entries that describe what she’s up to and the trouble she’s in. She’s always in trouble, and I pray to Me that one day she’ll actually listen to Mrs. Mustache, who frets sometimes and showers her in healing potions, sort of like an overprotective and out-of-touch parent.

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What’s the worst part of playing a RPG? The time, right? Whether it’s spent grinding or traveling or even figuring out where to go next, the sheer amount of time that a RPG can suck up is just the absolute worst. Let’s cut to the good stuff and just ignore all the other junk, right?

Or, you know, if you’re the creators of Dreeps, you can cut out all of that. Literally.

Dreeps only asks the player to do one thing: set an alarm. The alarm goes off, you and your little avatar wake up, and as you go about your day, so does your RPG hero. He explores new lands, makes friends, battles enemies, and levels up, all without your input. You can check in on him periodically to see how he’s doing, but you don’t have to, and you can’t affect anything he does. Still, it’s sort of a neat idea, of this tiny fantasy pixel-hero peacefully going about his day as you go about yours.

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Forget Candy Crush, I have found America’s next cell phone game addiction! Does this even count as a video game? I don’t know, but I’m enjoying it; it’s like Guitar Hero for your fingers! The game I am rambling on about is called Smule. It comes for the piano, guitar, and karaoke. So far I can’t stop playing it, and I have to say it’s a little embarrassing. It’s a smartphone app that’s available for iOS and Android devices (though I have yet to find the guitar version for Android). The basics of the game are easier enough to understand. You have a guitar neck with all the strings and frets, then a series of dots and lines move across the screen. The point of the game is to touch the dot with your finger or slide it down the line once it reaches the line of play.

There are multiple songs you can perform and unlock that range in difficulty, and they all make you feel like a rockstar (as did Guitar Hero). Beware of the piano version though; those levels get so high that you eventually find yourself trying to use two fingers. They use recognizable songs that you can hear yourself playing. This means that if you don’t hit the correct notes then your song will sound terrible and you can’t even get through a phone game. So maybe it could be a video game, maybe it’s just a mind numbing app that makes noises on different levels. Either way, it’s completing its purpose of bringing me entertainment in order to keep my stressed out mind occupied.