Monday, February 28, 2022

All-Time Favourite Games

I am not an avid gamer but I do enjoy video / computer / mobile games. If you ask me about Mobile Legend or Among Us, I have to admit that I don't play those kind of games. Nor do I play games with other online players (well, blame it on being an introvert). And until this day, I couldn't figure out how to play The Sims which my sister was crazy about.

I think the earliest computer game that I played in the 90s was Oil's Well:

Credit image: https://www.squakenet.com

The game's objective is to suck those oil pellets and avoid those spiders. I spent hours on my dad's PC playing this game but my siblings and I had to take turn because there was only one PC.

Then my dad installed Pac-Man and it became my favourite game for a while (like, who doesn't like Pac-Man?). Then more games were made available - Street Fighter II (which my brothers played against each other) and Prince of Persia (oh, I missed this exciting game full of suspense!).

Prince of Persia (Image credit: http://bestretrogames.blogspot.com/)

We did not have enough money back then to own a video game player, but I still got the chance to lay my hands on a joystick and played video games on my cousins' console. My all-time favourite were none other than Super Mario Kart and Sonic The Hedgehog.

When I became an adult, I did not stop playing games but now my favourite games ought to be Diner Dash and Wedding Dash:

Wedding Dash (Credit Image: https://www.freeridegames.com/)

Credit image: https://dinerdash.fandom.com/

Sometimes during particularly mind-numbing online meetings or after work, I whipped out my phone and started to distract myself by playing Diner Dash Adventures. I am addicted to this game!

Playing games is not just fun, it also promotes creativity at problem-solving (you need it to move to next level or figure out your next move!), a way to bond with one another (playing online games with my kids) and also a great stress-buster!

Recently when my husband and I had to be quarantined separately from the kids because we were Covid positive (the girls were still negative then), my eldest daughter FaceTimed me and cried because she was really worried about both of us. No amount of talking and reassuring that we were ok and definitely would survive Covid had any effect on her as she continued to sob in their room.

In order to cheer and distract the girls from worrying about us, I gave them a link to an online games platform so they could pass the time in quarantine playing online games. And it worked!

Credit image: plays.org

Plays.org is a free browser-based online games site offering hundreds of free games across any genre. The best part other than the games are FREE, players do not have to download the games but instead play directly on web browser. Cool huh?

So throughout the quarantine period, my kids and I FaceTimed each other on our laptop and played games together. They soon forgot their worry and became engrossed exploring those online games.

I was delighted to find my favourite childhood arcade games on this site (but in a different version):

Pac-Rat inspired by Pac-Man and oh, I forgot about Tetra Blocks which is inspired by Tetris!

Hey, I forgot about Solitaire! These were my favourite too, along with Minesweeper (they came pre-installed in Windows OS).

Credit image: plays.org

That was how we passed our time during quarantine - by playing online video games thanks to Plays.org.

You can visit their website here: https://plays.org/

Trust me, you are gonna love those games as much as we do!