Sometimes when the day is long, and I’ve been cracking my knuckles, rolling my head from side to side, and staring at the clock, waiting in agony, in impatient agony, for the day to be over and for me to return, restlessly, to my humble cottage with its plush white duvet, whitewashed walls and pillows in all shapes and sizes, I don’t want to read, my brain completely spent, and I certainly do not want to complete that long list of chores I keep neatly tacked on the refrigerator, those inked words of responsibility staring back at me coldly, still unchecked. Mostly, I want to vegetate, to settle like mashed potatoes on the couch and watch some mindless, gossipy TV series by the name of One Tree Hill, or else play endless rounds of some mindless video game like Pac-Man, Bubble Bobble, or StoneLoops of Jurassica.

Thankfully, it seems one developer read my mind. Okay Games knows that simple, cutesy, repetitive games are big winners among all age groups (small kids that giggle and laugh uproariously at wee little lions flying, and mid-life adults wanting escapism and childish reversions). They recently released Zoo Olympics seemingly with me in mind, as it contains not just one, but six games rolled into one app. I know, fantastic, right? 6 games for the price of one. Of course, try it out knowing that each game entails simple tasks, like jumping from one platform to the next, without any special rounds, bonus points, or any further complexity other than what’s at face value. So, this isn’t like some double feature for the movies. Actually, it reminds me of what my boyfriend’s dad likes to say, regarding his horde of Chihuahuas (he has five): “It’s like having one big dog.” Hmmm, really? Because it’s kind of like having 5 small dogs. Okay, so maybe that doesn’t really prove my point about Zoo Olympics, but it comes close.

The six minigames are all surprisingly fun, and their difficulty increases progressively – meat falling faster, jumping platforms getting increasingly smaller. Falling meat? The games you have to choose from are Sea Escape, Lion Ball, Enjoy Flying, Memory Card, Jumping High, and lastly, Eat Meat, my favorite. Eat Meat entails your lion character running back and forth across the scene, trying to catch falling pieces of meat in his basket. Juicy thighs and whole chickens fall gracefully from the sky, increasing in speed the more you catch. Avoid at all costs the falling bombs, which plunder the whole screen alongside the tasty meat treats your lion craves. Your lion certainly does not appreciate being blown up into a grayer, shrapnel-dusted version of himself. The controls to move your lion aren’t intuitive at all, and Mr. Lion will often get stuck along one side of the screen, or go in the opposite direction you wish him to go, so expect to see a dizzying array of meat rain past you and not in your basket.

Sea Escape is probably the most difficult, and the most annoying, if you, like me, are the competitive type, and rage whenever you see your submarine explode in a seemingly unavoidable cross-collision with tiny black specks otherwise known as bombs. A small controller on the lower right is easily used with your thumb, and the movement proves to be very natural – a good thing, since your underwater lion needs all the help he can get in avoiding the bombs hurtling toward him, faster and faster, from all angles. Go ahead. Last longer than 20 seconds. I dare you.

If you need a break from exploding and from blaming your cute lion character, you can move on to the Memory Card game. It’s easy, breezy, and altogether suitable for the semi-conscious senior citizen. Like any memory game – you played as a kid, right? I hope so, otherwise you might actually suck at this game – you must flip two cards over and remember their positions so when you encounter a matching pair, you can flip them over. Yay! A matching pair! Now on to all the others. Apple trees, elephants, paw prints, and your ever present lion character adorn the card’s pictures. The game is over almost as soon as it begins, but I find it pretty addicting – I’m always trying to improve my skill and dexterity, and this game does a good job at testing me in that department.

The other games, Lion Ball, Enjoy Flying, and Jumping High are similarly simple games that test your patience, and prove to be highly entertaining. Lion Ball is quite fun, bouncing a ball around with your finger to shoot into a lion mouth basket that opens and closes. Each bounce increases the numeric value of your ball, so refrain from immediately bouncing the ball into the lion’s mouth for your lions share of the points. Jumping High has your lion timing your jumps from platform to platform, and Enjoy Flying has your lion dressed in a cape, flying to avoid impending obstacles that increasingly go by faster and faster.

Even though I enjoy Zoo Olympics, with its cute graphics and simple but fun games, I can’t help but feel I’m willingly playing a 4 year old’s game. The interface, the animations, the objectives, and the games themselves remind me of those Nintendo DS games meant for little girls, like Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp or Bella Sara or even the sappy titled Let’s Ride: Friends Forever. The games no self-respecting teenager, let alone adult, would be caught playing (disregarding the question, of course,  how I even know about Barbie Horse Adventures *tugs collar embarr1assingly*). To test my theory on the childishness of these games, I had my boyfriend, Ocie, tinker with them, and after seeing the expression of pure, daft delight seep across face, I knew I had a winner. So, aside from adults with guilty pleasures for cutesy, playful games, Zoo Olympics is a fantastic buy for the young child with dexterous fingers and a crafty mind.

If you feel like trying out Zoo Olympics for free, Okay Games has generously provided our Appstruck readers with several promotion codes. Make sure to nab one before they’re all gone!

Promotion Codes:

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*When using the promotion code to download for free, it’s on a first-come, first-served basis. Out of courtesy, please leave a comment below mentioning you’ve used the promotion code.

I never played cards as a kid. Growing up, my brothers and I ran like the semi-feral children we were in the backwoods of Sunbury, Pennsylvannia, climbing trees, discovering old miner’s cabins with the tell tale water wheel, building snow forts, and piecing together entire Lego towns when mother’s orders delegated us to the confines of indoors. I remember in sixth grade watching with astonishment the deft thwap thwap thwap cards would stutter when shuffled in the expert hands of my fellow 11 year olds. I would let out embarrassed squeaks of apology when others watched mystified my shuffling skills, consisting of violently smattering cards in a pile of anarchy, my hands like a baker grappling with dough, and thus I usually took on the role of spectator, observing the likes of Solitaire, War, Crazy Eights, Spite and Malice, and Five Card Draw, all of which still hold relatively little meaning to me. In college I was reintroduced to that sweltering heat of obliviousness when peers took to playing variants of Poker, Texas Hold’Em being the apropos choice of the time.

With the help of my computers over the years, I’ve been able to teach myself the likes of Solitaire and Hearts – thankfully the mainstays of computers today as amongst my friends I have a notorious reputation for being difficult – and even some dabbling in Bridge, which will forever remind me of retirement homes and the smell of oatmeal. However, the iPhone being oh-so-portable and amazing – and now with the 3GS, a potentially more potent gaming device – I have taken to card game apps. Durak by Lost Token Software is the latest in my attempts at redeeming my worth among card players.

In Durak, pronounced “doo-rock,” you may choose single player or multiplayer mode; in single player you can have up to three computer AI bot opponents, while the multiplayer option searches nearby wi-fi for other durak aficionados – it seems to be pretty popular for a new game as there were several available people in my area. The game is set up with your hand obviously facing you on the lower screen, with your opponent on the opposite side, a deck of cards to the right with a trump card revealed beneath, and a dotted area beneath is the “graveyard”; the area between your cards and your opponent’s is designated as the play area. The game itself is graphically nice, with pleasant music in the background that doesn’t distract or dull, and, much to my pleasure, is played in landscape mode.

The point of the game is to be the first to rid yourself of all your cards; as the game’s motto goes “There are many winners, but only one Durak.” Game-play consists of turn based attacks and defenses in the typical clockwise rotation. When it is your turn to attack, drag any card from your hand to the play area. The opponent must then defend with any higher card of the same suit or a trump card – the trump card is revealed beneath the main deck from which cards are dealt and serves, obviously, to trump any card so long as it’s not a higher trump card. This back and forth attack and defense continues until your opponent can longer defend and must gather the cards into his hand, or until you no longer have any cards to attack and must siphon all the cards in the play area to the graveyard. Should you be a bit confused as to what cards to play, the game will indicate either a red or green highlight to indicate if the card you’re considering is either not playable or playable, respectively – kind of like a helpful nudge in the right direction. Unlike other digital card games, you physically drag your cards to the graveyard, drag a lost defense to your hand, and double tap cards to be siphoned into your opponent’s hand.

Let’s say I put down a six of hearts. The defending player must deflect my attack by playing a higher card within the heart suit, like a seven or higher or even a trump card of any value. Should I have any cards that match the numbers played – six and seven, say – I can continue attacking with the hopes my opponent will not have any cards to play, in which case all the cards must be gathered into his hand and I have the satisfaction of seeing my hand get smaller. Don’t necessarily play with the highest card first to ensure a potential win (you high ace rollers, you). You can gamble with siphoning more cards into your opponent’s hand by starting with a lower number and then playing more and more cards in an attack – this is a good strategy to get rid of cards if you happen to have several cards in the same suit; however, if your opponent put down a high card of the same suit and you can’t defend, then all that mass card playing goes right back to you. Like I said, it’s a gamble. This is when trump cards can really come in handy.

Like any card game, there are some special plays that really take the cake in attacking. You may reverse an opponent’s attack by dragging a matching card next to the attacking card in the play area, a move called “turnover.” Your opponent will then need to defend against both cards while you sit back and laugh haughtily, albeit temporarily, as the attack can be reversed again by an opponent with another matching card (cue sound of crushed ego).

You may also throw in additional matching cards when the opponent loses an attack by you in a move aptly called “throwing in.” This move is especially cruel as you may toss in as many cards as the opponent has in his hand, should have that many matching cards – unlikely to happen. When you are finished adding cards, double tap to add the extra baggage to your opponent.

Card games remain a mystery, an appealing art form to me that still sparkles with a sexy allure of nimble fingers, quick and predictive thinking and gloating bouts of smack talk. Learning Durak has boosted my confidence in playing and understanding card games, but mostly it’s just a really fun and madly engrossing game that is easy to learn, but hard to master (how many times have you heard that about a game?). More fun than the bland-sounding Solitaire, and less stress-inducing than Poker, Durak is a finely balanced game I’m sure will become more popular, maybe even a household name, because of the cheap $2.99 iPhone app. If you’re a card player, or just fancy yourself one, download it today.