It’s gaming on the go
WHILE this August might not see many of us jetting off to sunnier climes, there are still plenty who will be hoping to escape away to spend some quality time with the family.
There’s nothing more relaxing than a week by the sea, or a cottage getaway, but it can also be nice to have a distraction.
If reading isn’t your thing, you could feed your gaming fix on your travels with some great games on your phone.
Something to bear in mind is that, while these games are free, that’s because there are in-app purchases the makers want to push.
So if you’re planning on letting the kids loose on any of them, make sure you’ve locked down the purchasing rights. Words of caution over, here are some of the best free mobile games to download and take away with you.
ALTO’S ODYSSEY (PEGI 3)
LAST year Alto showed us the more relaxing side of snowboarding. This year, he’s taking us to the desert for some sandboarding thrills.
For a mobile game, the graphics are beautiful – the vast desert giving way to a stunning horizon.
You can soar over windswept dunes, traverse canyons and explore long-hidden temples on your sandboarding journey, not forgetting to grind across vines, bounce atop hot air balloons, and escape mischievous lemurs.
Controls are fairly simple, and as it’s a free game it does serve you adverts – but they’re not too intrusive.
FORTNITE (PEGI 12)
IF IT’S taking all your time to peel the kids off Fortnite on their consoles, the mobile version may just be the bargaining chip you need. While some mobile games are often boiled down versions of the console counterparts, this is the real deal – even down to seeing updates and additions as they go live.
It also means it’s stuffed to the gills with micro transactions, with everything from cosmetic changes and new skins, to battle passes having to be paid for.
But it’s a small price to pay if it means you can convince your teenager to join the family holiday.
ROBLOX (PEGI 7)
ONE of the most popular mobile games in the world right now, surpassing Minecraft with more than 100 million monthly users, Roblox allows you to program games and play games created by other users, and while it’s been around for a few years, that just means there is an absolute wealth of content to explore.
The danger with that is you can stumble over stuff that’s more adult in nature, so if younger children want to play this, it’s worth keeping an eye on what they’re doing.
As well as micro transactions to buy items to create your own masterpieces, you can also sell virtual content to earn the site’s virtual currency, known as “Robux”, with a percentage of the revenue from purchases split between the developer and Roblox Corporation.
SUPER FOWLST 2 (PEGI 12)
AS the first game had passed me by, I was delighted to discover this quirky and surprisingly violent actioner.
You play a deadly chicken who is on a mission to stomp out evil.
Players jump, dodge and crush their way through the procedurally generated levels with all the grace you’d expect of a chicken with a Rubenesque behind.
And if those fancy moves fail to finish off the bad guys, then there’s always the chicken-shaped mech suit to fall back on.
CARMAGEDDON (PEGI 18)
ONE of the more surprising finds on Google Play was this blast from the past.
Released in 1997, Carmageddon was an exercise in vehicular destruction dressed up as a racer.
While the aim of the game is to be first past the post, the points are earned in the amount of damage you cause on your way around the course – be it to building, beast or bodies.
Given how shocking the game was considered when it first came out, it’s surprising how quaint it feels now. And while you may not slake your bloodlust as much as you once did, the game’s tongue-in-cheek humour will still leave you with a wry grin.