We’ve all been there, scrolling through Snapchat or YouTube, only to find an ad for a mobile game. These aren’t “normal” mobile games. They’re deceptively simple and always accompanied by text that says “Only 2% of people can beat this game!” or “Harder than it looks!” Not to mention these ads are always showing someone so inept at the game it’s impossible not to get frustrated and think you can do better.

I’ve decided to look at some of these apps, determine their worth and see if any of them are actually “harder than it looks.” I’ll finish off each review with a recommendation on if it should be downloaded or not.

Woodturning:
This game involves cutting down a block of wood into a shape that’s overlayed on top of it. It markets itself as insanely satisfying, and it kind of is. Widdling down wood into shapes vibrates the phone and seeing the carving completed is rewarding. The downside is that the app is mind-numbingly easy. If you get your carving even slightly close to the stencil, when you’re done it’ll fix itself and tell you that you did perfect.
Well, no, I didn’t do perfect. I know this because the game just had to clean up the edges I missed.
There are also 30 second long ads in-between every level. That’s fun.
If you like mindless fun, I can recommend this one as a timewaster for 5 minutes. Download.

Aquapark.io:
The task here is to get to the bottom of the waterslide against 16 other opponents. You can jump off the slide to land farther ahead and sometimes obstacles on the slide need to be avoided. I immediately found this game more entertaining than woodturning because it was actually structured like a videogame. There is a clear goal, opponents, characters to unlock, tasks to complete, the full nine-yards. The game actually is a little harder than the woodturning app too; not much, but enough to the point where I lost a couple of times. So far neither has been “harder than it looks.” Despite this it still had me hooked and I’m not proud to admit it.
Interestingly enough it was made by the same company that made the wood carving app, Voodoo.
The ads after every level gave it away. Classic Voodoo.
Addictive and fun.
Download.

Picker 3D:
Another game that aims at being “oddly satisfying.” You play as a U-shaped net trying to collect as many balls in front of you as you move forward. After a while, you reach the end and can progress only if you collected a specific number of balls. This one threw me for a loop. It’s actually harder than it looks, not to the point where it’s hard, but there is some challenge. Everything is physics-based. Once you get the balls in the net, you have to keep them in, so the more balls you collect the harder it is to keep them all in. This one is okay, but pretty boring after the first round.
Don’t download it.

Sandwich:
I’ll go ahead and say this now: this is actually a good game. Maybe the bar has been set so low by the last three my perception of what makes a good video game has been perverted. Still, this one shows the most promise and is the least blatant app designed just to make money.
This is a puzzle game where you have to flip over layers of a sandwich to get all the ingredients in the middle and the bread on either side. It actually can be challenging sometimes if you don’t think of how you’re going to flip over the ingredients before rushing in.
Download.

Draw Climber:
Our favorite game developer Voodoo is back with another hit! Like the title suggests you draw legs onto a block, and if the legs can successfully navigate an obstacle course, you move to the next level… after watching an advertisement of course. It actually gets more interesting when the game puts you up against a computer opponent to see who can draw more efficient legs. The flaw with this game though is that it doesn’t really matter what legs you draw, you’ll probably get through the course fine. This one is definitely not harder than it looks.
Don’t download it.

While none of these apps truly proved to be quality games, they ended up being fun for five or so minutes, which is what a mobile game really accommodates for anyway. If you really want something engaging and challenging, I’d look elsewhere.