They make boredom and great productivity a thing of the past.
Welcome to Watchmojo.com and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 time waster video games.
For this list, we’re looking at games that are designed to be played either with no major end goal in sight,
or to be played in short bursts when you’ve got nothing else to do.
Though there are many games like Skyrim or World of Warcraft that come with dozens of hours of content,
the existence of a distinct end point, or at least end game content, disqualifies them from this list.
Sill games that could possibly break down after extensive periods are still eligible here.
Who would have thought such a simply made game could become a phenomenon?
The goal here is simply to guide your bird through a series of gaps between Mario-style pipes
and build up a high score, gaining a whopping one point per pipe passed.
While the game’s quality is questionable, it’s highly addictive nature certainly is not.
In fact, the game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, pulled it from distribution,
apparently because of the guilt he felt over the game’s addictive nature.
Whether or not this is true, or whether it was due to the questionable origin of a few of the in game assets, remains unknown,
but an endless barrage of knockoffs have followed in its wake.
This pachinko-inspired title comes from PopCap, makers of dozens of gleefully addictive games,
so you know it’s probably pretty good right there.
The goal of this game is to launch balls into a field of blocks and destroy specific ones in a limited number of shots.
Fun gameplay aside, Peggle’s true charm comes from its beautiful art and cartoony characters.
These characters, or “Peggle Masters” lend special abilities to the player.
The special abilities and limited shots give Peggle a nice strategic hook,
especially when ‘Ode to Joy’ starts playing in a burst of colorful rainbows.
When the original Animal Crossing was released in 2002 on the Gamecube,
gamers were swept up in their new small town lives, collecting furniture, helping neighbors and expanding the museum.
It was undeniably fun, but what makes New Leaf better than any in the series before it
is that it makes you the mayor of your town, lending to a greater sense of freedom.
Town ordinances let you fit the game to your daily schedule,
and public work projects add some extra life to your little hamlet.
But be warned that once you enter Animal Crossing, you may never leave:
one of our producers is over 500 hours deep.
Sure, SimCity might also be worthy of this list, but for that real digital crack, you have to get personal.
Create virtual people, put them in a house, pre-made or of your own design, and then do what you want with them.
You can help them achieve their dreams and aspirations, torture them,
play matchmaker for them and see them get it on, or just let them act on their own if you’re boring.
You could even cultivate an entire community of Sims, it’s all up to you.
Oh, and there are expansions so, bring money.
One of the most successful arcade games of all time, you guide the titular circle as he attempts
to sate his endless hunger for pellets while dodging those pesky ghosts.
Though the maze is the same every time, escalating difficulty keeps the game from getting stale.
There have been multiple sequels and remakes of this game, notably Ms. Pac Man and Pac Man Championship Edition,
but no matter the coat of paint it’s always worth playing … until the game crashes cuz you’ve gone too far.
As the original “match 3” game, Bejeweled has created a massive legacy of puzzle games,
both in its own sequels and in similar games, like infamous pay-wall nightmare Candy Crush.
A typical game of Bejeweled lasts until there are no more moves to be made,
but several new modes have been added to the series as it's gone on.
Perhaps the most popular is blitz, a competitive one-minute long race to achieve the best possible score.
There are two types of people: those who play Farmville, and those who get Facebook requests to play Farmville.
This game took Facebook by storm upon its release, with millions of people managing their little plots of land.
Planting and harvesting crops is incredibly simple, and there’s an option to fit anyone’s schedule.
While it was panned by critics, there’s something undeniable satisfying about the whole process.
Just don’t be “that guy” who constantly annoys your friends by repeatedly sending requests for livestock, you know who you are.
Whether its playing the traditional survival mode, or letting your imagination take over in creative mode,
the hours spent playing Minecraft know no boundaries.
Build a shack, now build a house, now build a castle, now build an even bigger castle.
Or, better yet, just dig a giant whole for three hours, listening to the soothing sound of the bricks popping.
Minecraft is now one of the most popular games in the world, a sandbox that’s only limited by the player’s imagination.
Just watch out for those creepers.
A huge enemy to office productivity for decades,
this pack-in application for any Windows operating system has been relieving boredom for years.
It may just be a simple recreation of the card game, but that surely doesn’t stop it from sucking you in.
By its nature, not all games are winnable so finally attaining that elusive victory is extremely satisfying.
Dance you stupid cards, DANCE.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions.
Sound familiar?
Combining the Greek word “tetra”, meaning four, as all the game’s blocks have four pieces,
and tennis, designer Alexey Pajitnov’s favorite sport, and you get “Tetris”,
the classic puzzler that has been capturing players for generations, with its several seemingly endless list of ports and variants.
What makes Tetris so great is its simple to pick up, but difficult-to-master line-building gameplay.
There’s something meditative and zen-like to the cascading geometry, making Tetris a strangely satisfying experience.
It's hard to think of another game that requires you to think while allowing you to shut your mind off at the same time,
which is why it’s a timeless classic and an easy pick for number one.
Do you agree with our list? Which game have you sunk hundreds of hours into for no reason?
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Now get back to work before your boss catches ya.