Addiction isn’t always a good thing, but when it comes to gaming there’s an exception. In this context, “addictiveness” simply describes the ability for a game to compel you to want to keep returning for more. It’s a metric that’s been used to rate video games since the early 90s, and it can be applied equally to the latest crop of web3 games. The very best of them are possessed with a certain moreishness that will keep players coming back time and time again.
Whether you’re a hardcore web3 gamer or are new to the format, the following titles are among the best in their class. They’re immersive, entertaining, and addictive in the best possible way. Play them once and the odds are you’ll wind up playing them a bunch more before this summer is done and dusted. Consider yourself warned.
My Neighbor Alice
My Neighbor Alice (MNA) just keeps getting better, with the launch of “Chapter One: A New Adventure” on Chromia capturing everything its developer team have been working towards for years. This is the full fat version of Alice and it’s brimming with character – not to mention characters, now that the alpha seasons have given way to the full public release. The ability to play directly in-browser with Chapter One is a bonus, as is the web3 abstraction which allows players to get started instantly.
Under the hood, there’s also a bunch of performance improvements been incorporated thanks to Chromia’s magic. Gasless transactions, for instance, make gameplay seamless. The use of Chromia’s relational database structure, meanwhile, ensures that the game state is stored onchain, while the game’s native ALICE token has been deeply embedded in ways that meaningfully advance gameplay and character development. With Pudgy Penguins also now kicking about in MNA within their own winter zone, there’s a lot going on in Alice land these days, providing ample reasons to keep returning to check in with virtual frens and complete new quests.
FIFA Rivals by Mythical Games
It’s the feel-good hit of the summer and everyone’s playing it – including plenty of footie fans who’ve never even heard of web3. That’s the beauty of Mythical Games and their latest smash FIFA Rivals. The mobile game has already rocketed past one million downloads within weeks of its release, attesting to both football’s global fanbase and Mythical’s game development genius. Admittedly, the industry was expecting FIFA Rivals to go great guns given that predecessor NFL Rivals had already broken all records.
FIFA is a different beast though in that it caters for a sport whose fans are heavily represented across every major continent. It also helps that football’s national governing body are onside, enabling FIFA Rivals to feature the star names that enable players to build their dream team. The combination of arcade-style football and strategizing hits the spot, while the in-built marketplace allows players to enhance their squad and add new apparel and other accessories including exclusive digital merch developed by Adidas.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds occupies that upper echelons of web3 gaming, inhabiting the rarified atmosphere where only a handful of million-mark titles reside. We’ve already covered one of them in FIFA Rivals, and Alien Worlds, with around 700K monthly players, has also made it to the top. Less of a game and more of a world (or is it a world within a world?), it’s impossible to describe Alien Worlds without using the term “sprawling” so let’s get it out of the way. Alien Worlds is a sprawling open game that spans galaxies and which has spawned its own community-developed lore.
The core game is ostensibly about mining on a planetary prison colony, but the battle extends much further. Indeed, the battles extend to the furthest flung corners of the universe, with weekly PvP tournaments giving players a reason to log in and head to the arena. There’s so much going on in Alien Worlds that once you’ve entered its community, you’ll find you’re in no hurry to check out and go elsewhere. This game is gonna run and run, with the ever-deepening lore adding new layers to delight hardcore players.
Aurory
You’ve heard of RPGs, but have you heard of a JRPG? You will once you’ve taken Aurory for a spin. The Japanese Role-Playing Game combines a story-driven narrative with battles, quests, and rewards galore, making for a thrilling adventure that has surprising depth. Sure, the graphics are cutesy and the format feels familiar, but as you progress you’ll find that Aurory: Seekers of Tokane, to give it its full title, offers much more than mere gaming tropes.
Developed by more than 60 gaming veterans, Aurory combines clever tokenomics with a shallow learning curve that makes it easy to get started, with no web3 knowledge required. With more than 10,000 monthly active users, Aurory is nicely getting up to speed, its community members having hatched more than 340,000 Nefties to date and completed 1.8M lands. Based on a 10K digital collection of Aurorians, this charming JRPG will delight anime fans especially.
Catizen
Catizen is proof that web3 gaming doesn’t have to be complex to be enjoyable. Indeed, there’s a case for saying that the simpler a game is, the better the experience with web3 – provided the difficulty curve and addictiveness are dialed in just right. Catizen’s nailed these attributes, despite the premise of the game not ostensibly sounding like the stuff that a veritable blockbuster is made of. And yet there’s no other way to describe Catizen, which has accrued more than 12M players.
How? Well, it should be noted that only around 700,000 of those are web3 gamers – the rest are playing without the benefits of these blockchain-based bells and whistles. But make no mistake, 700K web3 gamers is a remarkable feat in its own right. Who’d have thought there could be so much enjoyment to be derived from creating your own cat-themed cafe and completing mini-games with fellow feline lovers? This TON game provides endless fun. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
Great games are addictive in the best possible way. When they’re designed just right, they’ll keep you returning time and again – without taking over your life entirely and leaving no room for other pursuits. Y’know: stuff like work, school, and sports. The five featured here are very different, yet share this much in common: they are utterly unputdownable.
