Five Of Our Favorite Facebook Games

We wouldn’t know anything about playing Facebook games while hard at work in the office. We’re too busy writing about console and PC games, and playing console and PC games so we can write about them. If there were games that we liked playing on Facebook, we would play them at home exclusively because we’re (mostly) responsible adults. These are the five games that we only play at home, and not while we’re waiting for meetings to start, or pretending to work, or waiting for a review copy of a game to come in, or procrastinating on a preview.

Blockbox – Let’s not beat around the bush here: Blockbox is a Tetris clone. It’s a good one, though, that allows for multiplayer and single-player modes, and then piles on another bunch of modes just to keep things interesting. One mode has the player competing to delete 40 lines as fast as possible. The pieces don’t fall on their own, they can only be hard dropped. Blockbox also includes Marathon, a mode akin to Tetris Grand Master mode, which is a super difficult version of Tetris not available in the United States. Pieces immediately fall to the bottom, the hold ability is gone, and you only have one preview for upcoming pieces. As you play the game, you unlock additional Marathon modes, which become more and more difficult. Another nice thing about Blockbox is that it doesn’t beat you over the head to share your progress with Facebook friends.

Solitaire Blitz – It’s not standard solitaire, and frankly it’s not very close, but it’s hard to stop playing, so it has that in common with solitaire. As the word Blitz implies at the end of the game’s title, it requires a bit of speed. You’re on a timer clicking adjacent cards to make your way through the deck. It’s simple and addictive, and the more you play, the more power-ups you will be able to use. You can also use earned money to buy different kinds of decks, but it doesn’t do anything to change the gameplay. One annoyance is the game’s insistence on requiring you to use energy to play each round. If you run out of energy, you have to wait until it resets. The game also politely requests that you invite friends and share your high scores on your wall after almost every round.

Marvel: Avengers Alliance – Marvel: Avengers Alliance is a simplified turn-based RPG that features a huge cast of Marvel heroes and villains to both join your team and beat up. There is a storyline running throughout the game, but you can skip it and get right to the action. Whenever dialogue pops up you can select "more story" to hear what everyone has to say, or you can click "next" to move right along. You can purchase new weapons and armor with earned experience, as well as health and single-use grenades and weapons to be used mid-battle. It still requires you to wait from time to time for things to happen, and of course it wants to invade your wall as much as possible in order to recruit new players. As a simple click-to-fight, turn-based RPG though, it’s pretty easy to get lost in.

Lucky Gem Casino – Popcap delivers a very simple, visually enticing casino slots game. It’s all themed around Popcap games and other properties like Battleship and Monopoly. All you do is click to spin the slots and watch your money rise or, more commonly, go down. All the bonuses are themed around the slot machine you’re playing on. It’s perfect for the gambling addict who is trying not to spend any real money. When you hit a particularly impressive bonus, an option to share your achievement appears on the screen, and the only way to make it go away is to click the barely noticeable "X" in the top right corner of the pop-up box. If you don’t notice the "X" you assume the only way to make the box go away is to click "share". Popcap is crafty that way.

Bejeweled Blitz – I don’t know why lining up like-colored and like-shaped gems together is so absorbing, but there is something about it that is undeniably addicting. The Blitz version of Bejeweled adds a one-minute time limit to your matches, making each game a race. It also means the game is very easy to play for a few minutes at a time. As you play and level up, new levels will unlock, and you can buy more power-ups that can be used during games. It doesn’t do anything groundbreaking or new as far as Bejeweled goes, but you’re too busy playing Bejeweled to really worry about details like that. Don’t worry, it takes every opportunity to remind you to remind your friends that Bejeweled Blitz exists.

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