Agar.io
In this simple game, which has a squared background just like a maths book, various coloured circles – cells – move around on a map. You control one of these circles.
The aim is to make your circle as big as possible, by collecting small bits of mass which you find scattered around, or by eating other players. However, you’re only able to eat them if you’re 25 percent bigger then them; if they’re 25 percent bigger, of course, they’ll eat you.
Before you start the game you can customise the name of your player and if you choose specific names the shape will have a specific appearance – for example, if you type ‘mars’ then the circle will look like the planet Mars.
Millions of people around the world are playing this game, but if anyone near you is playing they will enter the same server, making it easier to compete with your friends. It’s extremely addictive, especially if you end up playing against your mates, and very competitive.
Your mass is listed at the bottom left of your screen; there’s a rankings list at the top right, which includes the top 10 players with the biggest mass. If you reach number one you can screenshot and brag about it to your friends, or just carry on playing. Henrique Pedrette
Candy Crush Soda
Highly addictive match-three blockbuster Candy Crush Soda presents you with a grid of brightly coloured sweets and related items. You have to line up three or more of the same items or colours, which makes them explode and causes the vertical line to fall and bring different items into play.
Once you finish a level the next one will be automatically unlocked for you to play: in our experience, the more levels you unlock, the more you want to play as you’re drawn into the challenge. Fail the level and you’ll get another chance, but you only have four lives; after that you’ll have to wait for a timer to give you another.
The game has many levels and they rise in difficulty as you play along, adding more features such as obstacles and unique challenges. There’s a score at the top right which tells you exactly how well you’re doing, and a table indicating how close you are to a one-, two- or three-star rating for the level. Henrique Pedrette
Contre Jour
This physics puzzler was gorgeous on iOS, and it’s similarly beguiling in the browser.
The aim is to guide a little trundling eyeball with stumpy legs to a glowing blue goal. To do so, you warp the ground and make use of sticky tentacles to nudge, roll, and fling the oddball critter around. The primarily monochrome visuals are stunning, the piano soundtrack is suitably relaxing, and the puzzling action is intuitive but challenging – especially if you want to grab the three sets of fireflies littered about each stage.
Cube Slam
You’ve probably played – or at least heard of – Pong. Two bats. One ball. Ushered in home gaming. And so on. Cube Slam is more or less that ancient favourite, except you’re facing off against a dopey bear, and the decidedly cuboid ‘ball’ often collides with power-ups that affect the game. Any nonchalance at being faced with such an old arcade test vanishes when your bat shrinks to a sliver and three balls rocket about the place.
Cut the Rope
Greedy green blob Om Nom has been dumped on your doorstep and is demanding all the candy. For some reason, said candy is dangling from ropes in a series of oddly elaborate boxes. Your aim is to get the sweet stuff to Om Nom’s maw, making use of the various contraptions before you.
Despite now being years old (the game debuted in 2010 on iOS), Cut the Rope remains charming and engaging, not least when on failure Om Nom gives you an expression that makes you think floods of tears are imminent. (Note: to play the game, scroll down and click ‘Give it a try’.)
Fist of Awesome
Answering the eternal question “What would happen if bears took over the world?”, Fist of Awesome finds a bearded lumberjack punching and kicking his way through time, trying to fix a world that’s gone horribly wrong.
This amusing premise has you initially scrapping your way through Bearhattan, duffing up furry critters who’ve “evolved homicidal tendencies”, and whose local cafés advertise ‘flame-grilled human flesh’ and ‘tears of our enemies’. Later levels find you immersed in prehistory, fending off cavebears and dinosaurs. David Attenborough might have stern words to say regarding its historical accuracy, but if you’re a fan of side-on brawlers, Fist of Awesome is, well, awesome.
Happy Wheels
Warning: under default settings this game contains extremely graphic and bloody cartoon injuries.
There’s two aspects to this game. The first is taking on a level and reaching the end without dying. (Some levels are specific for one character while others let you select whichever you fancy; each character has a specific shape and size so this choice may be critical to your success.) The second is creating your own levels for others to play. Who knows, you may find your level reaches a play count of 87 million, just like the number-one map in the game.
Happy Wheels is a single-player game but you can easily share your laptop or computer and take turns. It’s extremely fun and entertaining and even suitable for younger players, provided you tone down the blood/gore level in the advanced options. Henrique Pedrette
Gridland
The brilliant thing about Gridland is that it isn’t what it first appears to be.
Fire up the game and you see a grid with symbols. You’ll be tempted to dismiss it as yet another match-three game – and one lacking the visual polish of Bejeweled. But Gridland is a deeper game, switching between a day challenge where you match items to manage resources and construct buildings, and a night where you fend off evil with a trusty sword and shield. (Hint: speed is very much not of the essence.)
The game explains nothing, and much of the fun is in discovering each of its twists and turns. (It works nicely on iPad, too.)
Last Horizon
This is a cut-down take on the iOS and Android game about the last survivor of a failed civilisation. The aim is to fly through space, landing on planets to repair your ship, pilfer oxygen and fuel, and steal ecosystems like some kind of intergalactic vampire. On reaching your destination, your new home planet can be terraformed. Getting there is tough, though, since your craft is twitchy, and space is full of danger, from black holes to hostile aliens.
Miner Z
In this fast-paced arcade title, you’re a survivor of the zombie apocalypse and must dig or die. The controls are a bit odd, forcing you to dig down and left or right, carving your way through dirt and rock. Pathfinding is therefore something you must quickly think about at every step, lest you blunder into a stash of TNT some idiot’s buried, or get horribly eaten by a chasing zombie horde.
Slither.io
Essentially an online multiplayer Snake, slither.io (which is also available for iPad and iPhone) has you dumped into an arena as a tiny worm, munching dots that gradually make you grow. The tiny snag: you’re not alone. You must therefore avoid crashing into other wrigglers, and use careful manoeuvring and boosts to have rivals crash into you (at which point they transform into tasty, nutritious dots to hoover up, catapulting you up the leaderboards).
Note that if the game stutters on your Mac, you should turn down the graphics quality setting.
Swoop
With controls that’ll be familiar to anyone who’s played a ‘copter’ game (hold down to gain altitude; let go to dive), Swoop comes across like a simplified take on iOS title Whale Trail. Your colourful plane collects levitating gems, performing somersaults and avoiding surprisingly deadly clouds. Comb the ground and you’ll find the odd golden spanner to repair your plane, adding further seconds to your journey and boosting your score.
Vector Runner Remix
The original Vector Runner is a 3D survival game set in a stark vector world. If anything, Vector Runner Remix simplifies things further, taking a side-on approach that echoes Canabalt and other one-thumb leapy games.
Your little blue craft automatically zooms along, and you click to make it jump over the many gaps and obstacles. Fail and one of five lives is lost. Clever track design forces you to keep rethinking your approach; and the game rewards mastery, transforming what might have been a throwaway title into browser-based choreography.