Mobile games have probably been used a lot more in the past 6 months than in any other time period, due to lockdown and people searching for entertainment in more places. Mobile games, like Candy Crush and Angry Birds, have, otherwise, taken a bit of a step back in recent years. However, 2020 seems to signal their return.
One mobile game (and one that’s also available on Steam) that has provided particular entertainment over the last 6 months is Cell to Singularity, developed and published by Computer Lunch. Despite its release in 2018, it was lockdown that inspired me to start this game, and I have not looked back since. The aim of Cell to Singularity is to grow your worlds via evolution. Because of its basis of evolution, it’s also as educational as it is fun. I know the names of more dinosaurs than I ever thought I would now, and being able to evolve your lands by discovering more creatures is very interesting.
Unlike other, perhaps more basic, mobile apps, Cell to Singularity allows users to reboot their simulations, provided you have achieved enough to do so. It’s very meta, which makes the game even more addictive to play. After rebooting around 20 times, there’s still so much to achieve on the game, so it never dulls.
Another reason for this game’s addictiveness is the fact that due to its incremental stages, it develops and evolves whilst you’re off the app. Once you set up your worlds and have, for example, 100 Industrial Revolutions, each unit creates more profit with each second that passes, meaning that you can leave the game for a day and come back to discover new and exciting traits. If coming off the app and still being able create profit and evolve your worlds isn’t good enough, the game also is quite generous on its in-game rewards. Watching a 20- or 30-second advert can allow you to gain more profit and thus discover more species. With no pressure (or actual need) to spend real money, what’s not to love?
With the game’s many sectors and stages, if you ever get a bit bored of creating mammals and humans in your evolution, you can move over to the dinosaur levels. Hitting manageable targets (for example, create 100 stegosauruses) means you’re able to level up in prestige and make an even better world where you don’t have to actually do anything – the dinos create all your income for you.
Think cookie clicker, but with a firmer ground in educational entertainment.
Cell to Singularity is available on Steam or on most app stores. You can watch a trailer below.
