Android is an operating system that can increasingly flaunt an enviable catalogue of video games. We Android gamers know perfectly well that we can enjoy every genre under the sun on our devices: from graphic adventures or the two installments of The Walking Dead to football games like FIFA 14, roleplay titles, or first-person action games. It’s for that reason that we tend to forget that the biggest classics of all, those games like Minesweeper or Solitaire we’ve been seeing on our computer screens for more than 20 years now, are also available for Android. And they are just as entertaining as ever.
If there was ever a game to entertain office workers and receptionists the world over throughout the years, it’s undoubtedly solitaire. The reason: the legendary one-player card game is perfect for how long it lasts, its simple control system (point-and-click with a mouse or a finger), and how easy it is to leave a game open in the background to carry on playing later. And obviously, these are the same things that make it equally ideal for Android devices. While it’s possible that the latest generation of gamers doesn’t fully understand the appeal of a game that doesn’t give experience points and gold coins every time you pick up a card, many others will find in Solitaire or Spider Solitaire their top-pick game for metro or bus commutes.
Another timeless title from this first generation of games pre-installed on desktop computers is Minesweeper. This classic has a few features similar to the aforementioned Solitaire, in the sense that it’s very easy to leave a game “for later” and that they usually don’t last too long. Nonetheless it’s a game that’s always made lots of room for friendly competition, and if on shared computers it was already pleasurable to leave your best time open to impress other players, this satisfaction increases tenfold with the possibilities offered by Android devices.
Despite a rather later arrival than Minesweeper or Solitaire, when the legendary Pinball also made it to computers it stuck for good. And on Android it’s been no different. Titles like Pinball Arcade Free, Pinball Pro or Zen Pinball HD offer several free tables for fans of these old-school machines. Now, of course, there are many more light and color effects, more 3D objects, more powerful licenses, more of everything, in fact—but the main gameplay remains the same as in the perennial Space Cadet.
While never pre-installed like the others, another of the first games to arrive to computers—probably on a floppy disk—was also a classic among classics: chess. This turn-based strategy game can be enjoyed on Android devices with all the modern comforts you’d expect: different difficulty levels when playing against the computer, the option to play against another human player, different boards and pieces, online leaderboards, etc.
The gaming world will keep evolving year after year with new releases, and Android will certainly keep receiving them with open arms. Some games will become trendy and others will fall by the wayside. Some will stick with us for years and others will vanish in a matter of weeks. We’ll install and delete hundreds of games from our Android phones. We’ll do all this and much more, and Minesweeper, Solitaire and Pinball will continue to be as entertaining as they were the first time we ever played them.
