In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been following the recommendations of self-isolation. Since doing so, I’ve been trying to find ways to keep myself entertained while being locked up in the house and have resulted in downloading lots of phone games. I wanted to share the most fun, relaxing and entertaining ones I’ve found so far.

Toon Blast

For those of you who already play games on your phones, I’m sure you’ve seen many ads for this game already. If you haven’t taken the chance on it yet, I recommend doing so. I’ve completed some 300+ levels so far, and I’m low-key addicted.

The basis of the game is tapping on matching colors on the board to reach the goal given with a limited number of moves. The goal could be something like:

• Match 50 blue tiles.
• Clear out all the boxes on the screen.
• Collect 20 pearls.
• Create two bombs.

The list could go on and on with different goals it asks you to reach. If there are a lot of tiles touching each other, you can create different power-up explosions that help you reach the goal given. Some power-ups land side-by-side and allow for mega-explosions.

If the goal isn’t reached within the limit of moves given, you lose a life. Once you are completely out of lives, you have to wait a certain period of time for them to refill before you can play again. There are also competitions outside of the levels. I won first place in one competition after pulling an all-nighter playing this game and received an ample amount of rewards.

My favorite part about this game is that you can join a team of 50 or less and help each other out by “giving” lives to one another. The team that I’m on is always online and ready to give lives when someone needs help. Giving lives does not mean you are giving up your own life, it’s kind of like a donation.

Fishdom

This game is very similar to Toon Blast, however, you have to swap “decorations” instead of tapping on tiles to make matches. It gives goals per level, power-up explosions, teams to join, a limit on moves and it has a certain number of lives just like Toon Blast. But the kicker here is that you have aquariums.

In these aquariums, you purchase fish with the coins you receive from completing levels as well as decorate the aquarium. So far, I’ve completed five aquariums — I know that doesn’t seem like a lot, but there is a required number of “beauty points” that are needed in order to receive “beauty stars” to unlock more aquariums.

The different side-tasks that are given outside of the levels are quite entertaining. I’ve had to revamp and remodel a couple’s beach home for coins, decorate aquariums and feed the fish as well as clean their tanks. The exterior competitions and tasks are easy to complete and very rewarding for level play.

This game is fun because it gives your creative side a place to bloom. Each aquarium has its own theme and there are different decoration categories you can purchase from for each aquarium. Your fish talk to you and argue about how many wins you have, and, in my opinion, it’s very encouraging. Completing levels is how you can unlock different decoration items and fish.

Jewel Sliding

This game is nothing like the other two. In Jewel Sliding, you slide pieces into open slots to create a horizontal row and make it disappear. After each move, another row pops up. At the bottom of the screen, there’s a preview of what the next row will look like.

There are no teams, levels or rewards, but it is very soothing and relaxing. Essentially, you are competing against yourself to beat your own high-score. As the game progresses, more rows appear at a time and matching pieces to open spaces gets progressively harder.

Special pieces pop-up from time-to-time and allow for more than one row to disappear. There is also the possibility of the movement of a piece to have multiple rows match up and disappear. The more “combo moves” you attain, the more points are added to your score.

The game is lost when the piece at the highest row touches the top of the box. All the pieces are very colorful, but when the game is over, they fade to gray. After this, you view your stats and are able to start over again. I tend to play Jewel Sliding when I’m feeling anxious because it relaxes me and forces me to focus on something other than what ails me.

Note: I have an iPhone, so some of these games may not be available to Android users.