I need a twelve step program to overcome game addiction. Games like “Angry Birds” and “Bejewelled” could well mean sleepless nights and the fall of mankind, but they are so darned fun to play.
“Bejewelled” involves moving one colorful gem at a time to make a row or column of three of a kind and eliminate them from the board. If you are lucky, you can match four or five jewels and gain special board clearing skills. It’s simple and easy to lose track of when you’re on a train and miss your stop.
Games like these are fast-paced and don’t involve violence (unless you feel sorry for egg-stealing pigs, in which case you would pass on those teed-off avian cuties, whom you launch at pigs to explode them in revenge).
The fun offered by “Bejewelled” is intoxicating for me because I like to dabble with jewels that don’t run the risk of theft or falling out of a ring setting. They may not come in a Tiffany box, but there are rows and rows of them, and as you clear sets of gems, more appear. If you gain a five-gem group, you can eliminate one set altogether from your board; a “power jewel” enables you to produce a lightning bolt that seeks and destroys in ways even the Emperor in Star Wars couldn’t do.
Yes sir, you can see I’m hooked.
“Angry Birds,” on the other hand, requires some aim and ability to launch a slingshot by touch. I have no aim. I can’t even throw like a girl. The birds are rather cute as they arc through the air to smash lumber and bricks to break up the swine defensive front, so even if I don’t win the game, it’s fun to play.
With these games, they can go on forever for old folks like me. Kids can probably whiz right through each level with ease. Besides, they wouldn’t want to know that adults like the games, too. It’s just our little secret.
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