attention deficit disorder
at·ten·tion deficit disorder
(?-ten'sh?n)
n.
Abbr. ADD

1. A childhood syndrome characterized by impulsiveness and short attention span, and sometimes by hyperactivity that often leads to learning disabilities and various behavioral problems.
(Courtesy dictionary.com)

Tinymania, the creators of Tiny Trials, seem to have had ADD in mind when they developed this collection of minigames. They come at you at a rapid pace, in succession, leaving little time to recover before the next one attacks with sadistic intent. It reflects the Four Second series from a couple of years ago, but adds an online leader board, updated in real-time to reflect your standing against other people playing around the world.

The minigames range from arcade games where you shoot monkeys in barrels to mind-benders where you have to guess the next number in a series. The scoring method varies by game. One has you controlling a little race car (think Super Sprint), racking up as many laps as possible in a limited time. Another has you tap the left and right arrow buttons to balance a ninja on a ball for as long as possible.

The real-time leader board keeps tabs on the currently logged in players and their progress. You are assigned a percentage based on your score, but I'm not sure what it is being compared to. The more games you play, the more points you gain, the further your percentage goes up, and you slowly climb the leader board. Of course, if you make too many missteps, it's going to take quite a bit of effort to take those top few positions.

Analysis: The creators of Tiny Trials actually refer to these games as "microgames," and that term fits them quite well. Each one lasts a maximum of 30-45 seconds, with many of them much shorter. In about 25 minutes, I went through almost 80 games, which includes time in-between games to show the score (about 5 seconds). The remarkable thing is the sheer number of games available. Out of 80 games, I did replay a fair number, but each one has a number of variations, such as shooting aliens popping out of craters instead of monkeys in barrels.

Replaying the same game usually won't give you a huge advantage, with one notable exception. The "Guess the Celebrity" microgame presents you with a silhouette and slowly fills it in with the features of a famous person's face. The goal, of course, is to guess the celebrity's name correctly before the reveal. Not so bad, I guess, except that there are only three variations, the choices are always the same, the answer is always the same, and they seem to show up more often than the other games. The fact is that these particular microgames exist to promote a trivia site. A banner for the site is displayed on the score screen after you choose your answer, and stays there for a good 15 seconds, much longer than any of the other scoring screens. I guess you've got to pay the bills somehow, but it's all pretty blatant, and really takes you out of the rhythm.

That quibble aside, I have to say that though the games are tiny, they're big on fun. Whether you sit down for a marathon go and try for the top spots in the leader board, or you just want a two-minute fix of quick gaming, you're bound to have a blast with the plethora of microgames in Tiny Trials.

Play Tiny Trials.

Thanks for the recommendation, Simone!