Every once in a while I come across a game that I find so wildly addictive that I start to question whether I should have started playing it in the first place.
My first experience of this was when I was in my early 20s and the game was called Plane Control. All the game required was for you to land planes by adjusting their direction of travel as they approached the runway. As time went on, more and more planes started appearing, and you had to make sure none of them crashed. It was a game I just couldn’t put down.
Fast forward 15 years and I’ve left Plane Control behind but now I’m addicted to a new game. It’s called Geometry Dash Lite and, as with most addictive games, the premise is simple. You are a square-shaped character with one simple aim: jump and fly your way through the levels while avoiding life-threatening danger.
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This rhythm-based action platformer is particularly addictive because every time you crash, the game automatically restarts with your character traveling forward.
Geometry Dash Lite includes a range of levels that have names like Stereo Madness and Polargeist. All the levels are accessible without having to complete previous ones, although new features are added as you move through the levels. I would therefore recommend trying to complete each one before moving on to the next.
Now that is easier said than done. The first, and easiest, level took me countless attempts to even get beyond the first few obstacles. The game is all about timing your jumps and I clearly wasn’t very good at it, especially when trying to land on and launch off small platforms. With no desire to be outdone and with the thought that my children would probably put me to shame, I persevered.
But boy were there high levels of frustration. Maybe if I wasn’t so competitive, I would have given up much sooner. My only saving grace was the practice mode that is available on all levels. The feature lets you drop a checkpoint midway through a level and return to that point if you crash rather than right back to the beginning. This helped me perfect my skills.
As well as high levels of game frustration and addictiveness, more frustrating is that the Lite version of Geometry Dash is peppered with ads. They’re not interesting ads either, just recommendations for apps that you’re unlikely to ever want. The ads appear after every few deaths and they’re a pain to skip. You must wait a certain amount of time before a skip button is even visible.
Of course, all of this is purposeful, as the app developers are trying to force you into paying for the complete version. They seem to have got the balance between creating a super addictive game and serving up annoying ads just right. It’ll make you want to pay for the full version after only a few days. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
The complete Geometry Dash game offers a larger selection of levels, a level editor to create custom levels, online features, and more unlockable content. There are also none of the annoying ads that are found in the Lite version.
Geometry Dash Lite is available on both iOS and Android platforms, as well as on the web. As the Lite version acts as a trial for the full Geometry Dash game, it is completely free for all users. If you’d like to leave the Lite version behind and upgrade to the full alternative, that’ll cost you the small sum of $2.99 / £2.99.
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paulo.n.hatton@gmail.com (Paul Hatton)
