5 great free Facebook games

There are literally thousands of great games to help you fritter away the hours on Facebook. So many, in fact, that it’s easy to miss some gems. Here are our five favourite Facebook games, some you’ll know, others you may not.

Uno Boost:

Uno Boost is a fun game and great for killing time.  It is a card-based game with number cards that go from 0-9 and come in four colours similar to suits in a regular pack of playing cards. You can play a card if it is the same colour or number as the card that is already showing, then it is your opponent’s turn, your opponent is computer generated and varies in difficulty depending on who you select. There is an effective tutorial which guides you through the early stages.  The user interface is easy to understand although my one criticism would be the number of pop-up ads when you begin to play. After the first few games they soon stop.

Alas, the game is very repetitive and therefore it’s difficult to remain interested for more than a few games. But from time to time, Uno Boost is a great time killer.
 
rating: 3/5

Ninja Saga:

Ninja Saga is a turn-based RPG (role-playing game) in which you choose a specific path of the martial art ninjutsu that allows you to use abilities to defeat your enemies.  There are five to choose from: water, fire, earth, lightning and wind.

All of the paths give different benefits and playing styles making this game able to outlast similar turn based RPGs. The different paths you can create introduce different characters which you level up separately. All have different playing styles. 

Abilities cost chakra – similar to mana in other RPGs – when your chakra is running low you must take a turn to recharge it and therefore risk losing your advantage in a particular fight. There are missions that you complete to level up and with leveling you can learn new abilities called kinjutsus at the academy. 

Overall it is a good game, albeit one that is similar to other RPGs.

Rating: 4/5 

Farmville:

Farmville, one of the most popular facebook games, is a very fun game that involves planting, growing and harvesting crops. 

It takes time to use. For example: a field of tomatoes will take four hours to grow. So in four hours you have to check back on them and harvest them. If you miss your harvest then the crop will go bad and you need to plough the fields and start again. 

Missing the harvest is the most annoying part of the game. If you go away for a weekend all the crops on your farm will die and you will have to plough and start over. 

This could be improved by adding a pause option into the game which stops time from moving forwards in game, preventing the frustration caused by not playing. But then, perhaps that’s the point. Because of this real-time interface you must keep playing the game continuously as a week’s break will completely ruin your farm.  If this game were more flexible then it would be perfect for casual gamers, but as it stands it is too frustrating and is really only for those people with lots of time to kill.

In conclusion, the idea of the game is fantastic, but flexibility needs to be improved to fit people’s lifestyle.

Rating: 4/5

Cooking Mama:

Cooking Mama is, as the name suggests, a cookery game in which you are guided through cooking techniques by your very own ‘Cooking Mama’. This character will show you what to make and how to make it, following Mama’s instructions allows you to make increasingly complex meals; from buttered toast to fungus quiche and many more fantastic dishes! 

As well as the variety of foods to prepare there are the many different methods to learn such as moving the mouse back from side to side whilst frying chicken and jolting the mouse upwards to flip a pancake. 

This game is truly great, the different menus and methods of preparing food ensure you will never be tired of cooking and preparing food with Mama!

Rating: 5/5

Downhill Snowboard:

Downhill Snowboard is very simple, you slide down a hill leaning back and forwards with the arrow keys and occasionally jumping on to rails and other obstacles. Leaning backwards or forwards enough when you are airborne will allow you to perform a flip. Points are achieved when you manage such a flip, jump or railslide, as well as for the overall distance you have travelled. 

This game has a wonderfully simple concept and works brilliantly.

Rating: 4/5

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