When I was a kid, I used to love the Nintendo "Game Watch" games. "Fire!" was my favorite. I also liked the computer chess games with the little plastic pieces going into slots - the pieces always got lost, and the computer was weak, but I liked it. The great unsung thing of The Smartphone Era is having incredibly good chess programs available. Shredder Chess[1] is my favorite. It's strong, and it's got a fun "puzzle" mode where you're given a position and you have to figure out the best sequence of moves (usually just 1-3 moves).<p>I also really love Plants vs Zombies[2] "Vase Breaker" mini-game. I used to be really into Minesweeper (I broke 80 sec a few times on expert) and Vase Breaker obliquely reminds me of it. (The base PvZ game is excellent, but has poor replayability. Also, don't bother with PvZ2). Note: this game was done with Marmalade[2.5].<p>Portal[3] and Portal 2 are perhaps my favorite puzzle games of all times, although again, somewhat limited replayability (although if you go for achievements and/or level building, that changes).<p>I find myself fascinated by Diablo 3[4], but mainly because it's so psychologically manipulative. It's literally an endless grind, and essentially a form of virtual gambling for kids. Fascinating, because at a certain point all of the great artwork, music, and thoughtfulness vanishes into a mechanical blur of killing monsters, filtering drops, repeat. There is very little depth, and yet it has a strange Blizzard-y appeal.<p>Last but not least, I've been playing Hearthstone[5], another Blizzard game. It's an electronic trading card game, in the same vein as WoW TCG or Magic the Gathering. It's actually pretty good - until you get to a point where you just can't compete with people who have the very powerful rare (and expensive) cards. It's chess where you can have as many queens as you can afford. The genre and the play mechanics definitely appeal to a programmer's sensibilities, but "pay-to-win" mechanic totally ruins constructed deck play for me. (This is mitigated somewhat by Arena mode, where everyone constructs a deck at random, which levels the playing field a great deal.)<p>[1] <a href="http://www.shredderchess.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.shredderchess.com/</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.popcap.com/plants-vs-zombies-1" rel="nofollow">http://www.popcap.com/plants-vs-zombies-1</a>
[2.5] <a href="https://www.madewithmarmalade.com/index" rel="nofollow">https://www.madewithmarmalade.com/index</a>
[3] <a href="http://orange.half-life2.com/portal.html" rel="nofollow">http://orange.half-life2.com/portal.html</a>
[4] <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3" rel="nofollow">http://us.battle.net/d3</a>
[5] <a href="http://us.battle.net/hearthstone" rel="nofollow">http://us.battle.net/hearthstone</a>