Spring Break is coming up and even if you’re going somewhere fun and exciting with real water to swim in, chances are you’ll still have some downtime. Maybe it’ll be on a plane or in a hotel room. Or maybe Facebook games are no longer cutting it for you, and you’re looking for a new distraction. You don’t have to drop hundreds of dollars on a game system, or even $60 on a game. Here are four games that cost $10 or less with a bonus: They will work on just about any laptop you use for class.

 

‘The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition’

In the 90s, LucasArts established itself as a house of best-in-class point-and-click adventure games, churning out more than Star Wars products. The company’s games emphasize storytelling, puzzle solving and exploration and 1990’s ‘The Secret of Monkey Island’ is one of the best. The player assumes the role of Guybrush Threepwood, an affable yet clueless young fellow on a quest to become a mighty pirate. Quirky puzzles and hilarious dialogue abound, and the special edition’s graphics and voice acting make playing this game a delight. Much like Harry Potter fans would jump at the chance to have a drink of butterbeer, playing this video game classic will have you pining for a grog at the SCUMM bar. More than 20 years later, the game’s characters and world are all still vibrant and memorable.

 

‘Braid’

The most brilliant video games are ones that set out to accomplish something that can only be achieved through the interactive nature of the medium. Much like a poem requires you to apply your experiences to it to be fully appreciated, these kinds of games need you to interact with them to dig up a new meaning. ‘Braid’ is a game about time, and how we relate to it as human beings. It’s simple to play (think ‘Super Mario,’ but with a painterly aesthetic and beautiful music) but difficult to explain. It starts innocently enough: You’re Tim, off to save the Princess from a terrible monster. But all that begins to unravel with a simple question: What if you can take back the mistakes you’ve made? It’s a question that drives much of the narrative and the gameplay, but it’s also the question that brings about one of the most poignant and unsettling endings in video games.

 

‘VVVVVV’

A terrible way to motivate someone to play a video game: ‘Try to complete this without dying 900 times.’ But in the case of ‘VVVVVV’ (pronounced ‘Veeeeeee’) it is a simple fact. You will die about 900 times while playing ‘VVVVVV,’ but you’ll love almost every minute of the roughly three hours it takes to complete. While ‘VVVVVV’ is cruel for being so challenging, it is also kind. Death has almost zero consequence. When you die you’re sent back to a checkpoint, and this game is extremely liberal with its checkpoints. Maybe it’s because the game’s six characters (each with a name starting with the titular V) are ridiculously adorable in their 8-bit simplicity. Or maybe it’s because it has a most thrilling and energetic chiptune soundtrack. Either way, playing the game is simple. Try and find your friends by moving left to right and flipping gravity to get past death traps. Good luck.

 

‘Crayon Physics’

‘Crayon Physics’isn’t the most memorable name in video games — it’s kind of dry, actually —but it tells you exactly what to expect. And what you get is surprisingly entertaining and plenty challenging. ‘Crayon Physics’ is a puzzle game that is, as it states on the website, ‘not about finding the best solution. It’s about finding the awesomest one.’ Your goal is to get a small red circle from one spot on a page to another, marked by a star. There are different obstacles, platforms and contraptions in each puzzle. Players solve them by drawing in things like boxes, gears and bridges, which all respond to gravity and inertia. Mind-bending and playful, ‘Crayon Physics’ pulls off with ease the most important trick in puzzle games:It makes you want to solve its puzzles.

jmrive02@syr.edu

Published on February 26, 2012 at 12:00 pm