We all get bored from time to time. What do we usually do when bored? Play on our phones until it passes. Sometimes boredom passes because we get angry or sad or jealous from spending to much time scrolling on Facebook. But you can bust boredom without depression by doing something else on your phone: playing simple games. These are my favorite minimal iOS games to kill time when you are bored. They’re easy and addicting and don’t cause the social media blues. (They also won’t use up a ton of your storage space, battery, or data like some of the heavier games out there! Win!)
Dots
This game is so simple you’re going to think it’s even more boring than boredom, but I promise it’s not. You just connect horizontal and vertical lines or squares of dots of the same color. As you do this you earn points and level up. You can go totally stress free and just play at your leisure or you can add an element of competition with yourself by setting a timer or limiting how many moves you can make in a given game.
Two Dots
In this game, a pair of dots go on a grand adventure! No, seriously. Two dots roam around the world through up to 860 levels. To move them around the world and through each level you play boards just like the ones from the original game Dots, but now you have specific objectives to meet. It’s like Dots with a storyline. So if you’re bored with Dots, move on to Two Dots.
Atomas
This simple puzzle game will keep you boredom-free for months. You begin in a universe with only hydrogen atoms then combine atoms to create elements. The more elements you create the more options you’ll have for creating more complex elements. Eventually, you’ll want to build valuable elements like platinum. You’ll face obstacles along the way that can slow down the growth of your universe or even crush it if you don’t have a good strategy. It’s simple but requires you do a little bit of thinking to succeed.
Prune
Grow and prune trees in this simple, beautiful app. It’s a minimalist game with a chilled out vibe created from quiet music and no distractions. As you nurture your tree, a story grows with it over time. You can track the progress of your tree in iCloud and take screenshots of your tree to share with your friends. You might not think you’ll want to, but believe me you will. As soon as you see how pretty and relaxing this game is, you’ll be hooked. This game is so low-key some people even say it helps lull them to sleep if they have insomnia.
Cow Evolution
I’m pretty sure I’ve sold you on Cow Evolution just from the name of the game, but I’ll explain how it works anyway. In this game you basically combine cows so they mutate/evolve into the most bizarre cows you’ve ever seen like alien cows. You can buy more cows to evolve using coins, which your current cows poop for you. It’s ridiculously silly and fun. If you’re still bored while watching alpaca-cows poop money, then you may be bored forever.
Shades
This simple game is a relative of Tetris. You stack falling blocks in order to clear rows. It differs from Tetris though because you must create rows of the same color in order to clear the row. The object is to clear as many rows as you can as quickly as you can and never let the blocks reach the top. The familiarity of this game is really fun, as is the slight difference that means learning different strategies to beat the game.
Tetris
Yes, you can put this classic game on your iPhone. Just be prepared to get just as addicted to this game as you did when it was released for Game Boy back in 1989. Thank you, Alexey Pajitnov, for providing us with a boredom buster that has stood the test of time.
PAC-MAN Lite
Get even more nostalgia feels with PAC-MAN Lite. That glorious yellow dot with the big mouth is still munching on dots and running from those colorful ghosts to advance to the next level. You won’t need quarters or have a full-size joystick to play with, but the swipe function for controlling PAC-MAN is stellar.
Bejeweled Blitz
This game is all about exploding gems. Basically you match and detonate as many gems as you can in 60 seconds. It’s surprisingly addictive and gets more difficult to do at every level. There are obstacles like blocks that get in the way and it does require some skill to figure out which way to go to detonate the most gems in just one minute.
Alphabear
Finally! A word game! Yes, word games are some of the most fun minimal games on iOS. Alphabear is a favorite because it’s just so quirky. You just create words from letters presented to you. When you use two letters that are already next to one another, a bear appears! The more letter pairs you use, the more bears you’ll see. And the more letters you use near a letter pair you’ve already selected the larger that bear will grow. As the bears multiply and grow, you earn points. Silly, right? That’s possibly the best part.
So there you have it, ten minimal iOS games to kill time when you are bored. These are just ten of the best games you’ll find out there. If you search, the number of games you could play when you’re bored are endless. If you like cards, you could download Solitaire or Hearts. If you’re feeling nostalgic for old Windows games, there’s a version of Minesweeper. If you want to play a game with a friend, there’s always Scrabble. So now that you’re bored with reading about games – go play them! I’m sure you’re just dying to see an alpaca-cow, prune a tree, and beat your own high score on PAC-MAN.
