At last, with the country unlocking and the days lengthening, it is time to emerge from months spent looking at screens.
So can I recommend that you go outside, suck in that spring air and . . . look at a screen?
Yes, the moment has come again for mobile gaming. In pubs, in parks, on buses, in the queue for Primark.
That’s why I whipped out my phone this week and returned to the biggest craze of 2016: Pokémon Go (★★★✩✩, iOS, Android, free).
If you don’t remember, this is a game in which little critters, the famous Pokémon, are superimposed on the actual world through your phone’s camera.
Your task is to walk around your local area and, as the slogan goes, catch ’em all.
At last, with the country unlocking and the days lengthening, it is time to emerge from months spent looking at screens. That’s why I whipped out my phone this week and returned to the biggest craze of 2016: Pokémon Go (★★★✩✩, iOS, Android, free)
What’s most striking about Pokémon Go, after all these years, is how much fuller it has become.
There are more things popping up, and more ways to spend money in the game. I preferred the simplicity of the original.
But it is also striking how its augmented reality — its mix of graphics and the actual world — still feels like a form of magic.
Simply wander and wonder. It’s as if it were made for after lockdown.
I have also spent time with other mobile games from years past.
Fruit Ninja (★★★★✩, iOS, Android, free) is still the most satisfying use of a touchscreen ever devised.
That’s why I whipped out my phone this week and returned to the biggest craze of 2016: Pokémon Go (★★★✩✩, iOS, Android, free)
Reigns: Her Majesty (★★★★★, iOS, Android, PC, Switch £2.99) is a funny, compulsive time-filler in which you build a dynasty by swiping at cards.
And 80 Days (★★★★★, iOS, Android, PC, Switch £5.99) is one of gaming’s great adventures.
But the past year has delivered new delights, among them Sky: Children Of The Light (★★★★✩, iOS, Android, free).
This beautiful, meditative game has you soaring between clouds to explore a series of windswept lands.
Reigns: Her Majesty (★★★★★, iOS, Android, PC, Switch £2.99) is a funny, compulsive time-filler in which you build a dynasty by swiping at cards
Every so often, you will encounter other players, whom you can befriend and help. It’s a demonstration of what today’s super-powered phones can do. And the best part?
Your phone stays with you as you go home and climb into bed, so you can just keep on playing. Consider it your personal lockdown.