2048: 24 hours of a mobile game craze

By. Prologue

It always starts because you hear about something new from a friend. You know this person. You like this person. So when they suggest you play a new game, you take the idea into consideration. It seems innocent enough, it being just a game for your phone. Curiosity gets the better of you. The game is even free when you find it on your phone’s app store. Finally, you download it, and it consumes your life!

This friend of mine had given me recommendations before, and it always ended up in me spending too much time on the game. I can’t be happy until I’ve either finished the game, or I’ve won it, or what have you. It doesn’t help that my friend knows me pretty well. He knows my perfectionist tendencies, my love of color coordination, and my passion for deceptively simple games. 

The game 2048 has one goal: making one tile of that exact number. You have 12 spaces where random 2's and 4's appear. The player chooses two adjacent tiles of a similar value to double them. For example, 2+2=4, and then you take the 4 and match it with another 4, hence 4+4=8, and so on. Sure sounds simple, right? But the most addicting games are always the simplest. The goal of the game is doubling the numbers until you reach the sum of 2048. If you love math, this game is for you. If you hate math but are capable of matching tiles of the same number, this game is also for you. But of course, the game is much harder than it looks, and it's very addicting. 

It took me 24 hours to achieve the 2048 tile. I was happy. I was thrilled. I was over the moon! I screamed with the excess of victory. 

Then, the game congratulated me and told me what my new goal was: 4096.

That’s how it goes with the best mobile games. Victory is but a bittersweet aftertaste.

DLaw plays: Brave Frontier (iOS and Android)

By. DLaw

I’m not sure if I’ve found a new addiction, or just another reason to drain my phone’s battery in next to nothing. This little gem is called Brave Frontier, a pretty simple RPG that’s available both on the Apple’s App Store and on Google’s Play Store.

  The game’s story revolves around groups of summoners gathering power to defeat an evil and more powerful one! That sounds so original, right? But don’t worry too much about that. The story isn’t what gets you hooked, it’s the combat and the way the game works that keeps you coming back for more.

You get a team of five heroes, which can be unlocked by using Honor, which are friend points gained by using other players on your team, or by Gems, which are purchased to unlock strong and rare units. Before fighting, you’re presented with the option of selecting either a friend or a random summoner to help you out in battle. 

  The most addicting aspect about the game is the battle system. You tap on a hero’s portrait to attack, and each hero varies how quickly they strike. The point of the game is to quickly eliminate the opposition. If you manage to synch all your attacks at the same time, you create Spark, which is a super strong critical attack that can defeat many bosses with ease. But actually getting Spark is not as simple as it sounds! You either have to practice attacking in synch, or just keep tapping each hero at different rhythms, figuring out how to do the most damage to be the most powerful summoner in the land.

  The game is free and offers a lot of tutorials to help you level up, as well as getting your heroes stronger by making them fuse with weaker units. It also has daily dungeons that help you out in the long run. Overall, the game is just really fun to play, even though there’s no actual player versus player mode.

  I definitely recommend the game. Just don’t blame me if your phone’s battery runs out constantly because you start playing too much. I just can’t get enough!