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Best Casual Games
I am sure that other casual players will have different opinions.
I didn’t realize that you were asking people to post their own lists! In that case, will do.
I like how each of your choices has a brief description. I’ll try adding that feature that too. Will get back with my list soon(ish).
Whew!
Finished it. Great gameplay, okay enough story. I got into the trilogy because you said the third one will stun you in the end. Hope I didn’t hype myself.
Nevertheless, game was enjoyable and looking forward to playing the 2nd. I chose the friend path.
Ok, here is my list. I tend to think of “Best of” as a critical evaluation so I will just call this list “Favorites”.
Enigmatis Series
Phantasmat
Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can
Timeless: the Lost Castle
9: the Dark Side
9 Clues: the Ward
Nightmare Adventures: the Witches Prison
Dangerous Games: Prisoner of Destiny
Legends of the East: the Cobra’s Eye
The last game is Motortown: Soul of the Machine and I hesitate to list it even though this is not a critcal list because the game is awful. You can drive a truck through the holes in the plot; it contains a lot of junkpile HO scenes that are repeated; and the actors are horrible although part of that is the lines they are given. For some reason though I enjoy playing it and it makes me smile.
FWIW, I have replaced Myths of the World: Of Fiends and Fairies with Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove in the tenth position on my “best of” list. Dire Grove is a much better game, but I am keeping Myths on the list as a personal favorite.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
It was very hard to narrow the list down to just ten favorites. Re: CE vs. SE—other gamers’ experiences may differ, but I found that buying the CE version (if it is available) is worth it for the games below. All the games are available on Big Fish except Emerald City Confidential. All are also available on Steam except Empress of the Deep 3, and the Royal Trouble series. In alphabetical order:
Beyond: Light Advent – Intruders from outer space invade Earth—an extremely unusual storyline for casual Hidden Object (HO) games. Spectacular settings and a particularly handsome, winsome hero for the protagonist to save and be saved by. Set in the USA in the 1950s. Upbeat music. Another game in the “Beyond” series recently released, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet.
Drawn Series – Lovely, stylized graphics, which are unusual for casual HO games. Intriguing puzzles and mini-games in a stark, sometimes frightening, often creatively fantastical world. All three games in the series are solid contenders for a “Top 10 Casuals” list.
Emerald City Confidential – A memorable “take” on the Wizard of Oz legend in adventure-lite form (no traditional HO screens). Good writing and voice-overs. An excellent introduction if you’re an adventure gamer wanting to see what a casual game is like.
The Emerald Maiden: Symphony of Dreams – I guess I like games with “emerald” in the title. This one has an intriguing story, an unusual setting in a hotel beneath the sea, and various surprises in store. Something about it reminds me of Morpheus (the adventure game). Chief downside – there are a lot of HO screens, though they are of varied types (list-based, fragments of items).
Empress of the Deep Series – Unlike many casual games that hem you in, keeping you to a handful of screens in a tight locale at each stage of the plot, this series gives you large, surreal environments to wander around in. The games are puzzle-heavy rather than HO-heavy. The later games (which are more spectacular graphics-wise than the first) continue the story, though there isn’t a great deal of character or plot development, so you could probably start with Song of the Blue Whale, then go on to Legacy of the Phoenix, and skip The Darkest Secret if you want to stick to the later, more polished games.
Enigmatis Series – Some very good storytelling in this Hidden Object Adventure series. An atmosphere of supernatural, bordering on horror. My favorite is the second game, The Mists of Ravenwood. In fact, it’s my favorite casual game of all time (this has nothing to do, of course, with the fact that one of the characters is named Becky). The first game, The Ghosts of Maple Creek contains a lot of standard HO screens, but it’s well worth playing to establish the story and then go on to games two and three, which are not so HO-heavy.
Lost Lands: The Four Horsemen – A medieval fantasy world, plenty of magical influences, magnificent landscapes, a Tolkien-esque ambiance. A likeable heroine and an extremely persistent dwarf. There are other games in this series – I haven’t had the chance to play them all yet.
Namariel Legends: Iron Lord – Steampunk influences, adventure-lite puzzle gameplay (no traditional HOS), and a science fiction-ish story. Plenty of gadgets, robots, and quirky characters.
Nightmare Adventures: The Witch’s Prison – A creepy atmosphere, adventure-lite gameplay with some multi-stepped puzzles, and a likeable heroine coming to grips with the terrible situation she’s gotten herself into. One satiric HO screen. No voice-overs, as I recall. There’s a sequel which extends the story, and (judging from the second game’s cliffhanger ending) a third game in the works that hasn’t released yet.
Otherworld: Spring of Shadows – A newly-acquired country house with odd visitors, a missing girl, and a gateway into another dimension. There’s a mystery here that’s fun to solve as you go back and forth between reality and fantasy. Hidden object screens are varied, involving finding multiples of an item or fragments to put together, as well as a couple of the traditional list-based HOs. There are two more games in this series, which I intend to get around to finishing. An expected fourth game (a game for all seaons?) hasn’t released yet.
Royal Trouble Series – Comedy with a satiric edge infuses this fairy-tale-like story, which starts out in a dungeon, moves on to a castle, and just gets pleasantly dafter as the series progresses. Whimsical music. Good voice-overs by the narrator (though the main characters aren’t voiced). Adventure-lite (no list-based Hidden Object screens that I can recall).
Nice list 
Lost Lands - Four Horsemen and Royal Trouble were on my list of 20 that got pared down to 10. Royal Trouble would have been next in line once I added Dire Grove to the list. Namariel Legends: Iron Lord was the only one that I didn’t like all that much.
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Anyone played Chip’s Challenge? That is probably on of my most favorites.
Cyfoyjvx—I hadn’t heard of Chip’s Challenge before, so I looked it up. Apparently Computer Gaming World said the puzzles are “... a quick fix for testing the acceleration speed of one’s brain.” Would you say that’s true?
Good lists. I’ve played The Emerald Maiden series, Empress of the Deep Series, Beyond: Light Advent, Lost Lands - Four Horsemen and the demo of Lost Lands: The Wanderer. They would have been on my Best list as well. I hit a snag in the Otherworld title because an object I needed inexplicably disappeared from my inventory and I wasn’t able to retrieve it.
Here are the ones I particularly liked:
The House of a 1,000 Doors series
Amaranthine Voyage series
Calavera Day of the Dead
Twisted Lands series (except the second one Insomnia)
Surface series
Eternal Journey series
Timeless series
The Treasures of Mystery Island: Ghost ship
Lost Lands series
Corpatros: The Hidden Village
And one who’s name escapes me but I’ll add it if I remember.
Cyfoyjvx—I hadn’t heard of Chip’s Challenge before, so I looked it up. Apparently Computer Gaming World said the puzzles are “... a quick fix for testing the acceleration speed of one’s brain.” Would you say that’s true?
Oh yes. There is a learning curve but I think there are over 100 levels so you learn as you go. What makes it a great casual game is the levels are quick so you can jump in any time and have a go without needing to remember what happened, if you were stuck before you might be able to finish a level in 2-3 minutes. Great for coffee breaks from work!
Excellent lists, including some new-to-me games to look for.
As for these ten, all I can say is that I personally enjoyed them, and I think each one has some unusual angle that makes it worth trying. I played the CE of all of these, on a Mac. Alphabetically:
Angelica Weaver: Catch Me When You Can - An absorbing mystery storyline that ends with a twist.
Beyond: Light Advent - what Becky said. I love games that give you that sense of surprise as they pull you into a world you have never seen in a game before. The second one is OK but not as fun because it lacks the spoof element.
Cadenza: Music, Betrayal and Death - many unique qualities including the New Orleans setting, diverse characters, storyline, music and art. One of kind. The rest of the series is not as good.
Calavera: Day of the Dead - Talk about something different! Slow start but soon improves. Does a marvelous job of carrying the theme into the storyline and artwork. Unusual extras.
Lost Lands: The Four Horsemen - immersive (and lengthy) fantasy storyline. Everything you play casual games for. Some others in the series are good, lately seem unappealing.
Nevertales: The Beauty Within - a rather lame storyline but some great puzzles. The two heads on the door knocker who ask riddles are my favorite puzzle-lock ever. Quality of the series varies but always worth trying the demo.
Nightmare Adventures: The Witch’s Prison - An older game without bells and whistles, but I enjoyed it because practically every object in a scene could be clicked on for a snarky comment. No HOPs.
Off the Record: The Italian Affair - A very personal choice. I lived in Italy for a couple of years and the scenery here is so spot-on (making allowances for necessary simplification) I was awash in nostalgia. It also happened to be a good game with some unique puzzles involving a camera device. This is another series always worth trying the demo.
Royal Trouble - A real Fractured Fairy Tale, complete with lofty narrator. Very funny, and some good puzzles. The sequel is more of the same. (No CE.)
Vermillion Watch: Moorgate Accord - Complex storyline involves you with 19th-century literary and real-world characters in a criminous adventure with a steampunk vibe. All-around top quality.
I’m not sure this is a “casual game”, but I don’t know what else you’d call it, so I’ll list it as a bonus:
Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle, aka Blue Toad Murder Files - I played this on the iPad; it’s also available for Windows at Steam. Pure silly fun for puzzle lovers and fans of British mystery fare, which is mercilessly satirized. Six episodes follow the pattern: someone is murdered, you interview the suspects and to get each answer you have to solve a puzzle, then you say whodunit. There is a wrap-up at the end. No HO scenes.
These days I go everywhere with a carpetbag containing a crowbar, a flashlight, a screwdriver, an oilcan, a ladder, a zipper tab, and a chihuahua.
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