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Casual Video Game (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[Casual Video GamesGame]]s are video games that are primarily aimed at [[Gateway Series|people who don't tend to game much]]. These games are usually distributed online and come with a free hour-long trial. If they're lucky, these games could get a boxed version available for purchase at retail stores. Others are made specifically for consoles rather than PCs, or are made for non-gaming devices like cellular telephones and distributed over a telco's data service. Still more are Flash or Java in browser, meaning they can be played anywhere with a web browser that has the necessary plug-ins installed. Surprisingly, perhaps (at least to younger gamers), many of these games are the spiritual descendants of what was cutting edge in the 1980s, during the era of the great stand-up arcade games, proving that an immersive world, hardware-stretching graphics, and complex AI don't inherently mean great gameplay.
 
The ideal Casual Video Game should be simple and intuitive in its controls. It should also be something you can pick up, play for ten minutes, put back down again, and replay for years. Casual Games are designed to relieve boredom during short breaks, not occupy hours of time.
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While casual games often get accused of [[It's Easy, So It Sucks|being too easy]], difficulty is not part of the definition. The game must be easy to ''learn'' to be considered casual, and be relatively simple by design. In terms of completion or mastery, some are easy, some are [[Surprise Difficulty|hard]], and some are [[Nintendo Hard]]. Some games also use [[Rank Inflation|platinum medals]] to entice the [[Challenge Gamer]].
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=== Notable Games Include: ===
 
{{examples}}
* ''[[Angry Birds]]''
* ''[[Bejeweled]]''
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* ''[[Gratuitous Space Battles]].''
* ''[[Heavy Weapon]]''
* ''[[Hey You, Pikachu!]]''
* ''[[Imagine Make Up Artist]]''
* ''[[Insaniquarium]]''
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=== {{examples|Subgenres Include: ===}}
* Brain Training Game: ''[[Brain Age]]'', ''Big Brain Academy'', ''My Word Coach'', ''Hot Brain'', etc.
* Collecting Game: Online scavenger hunts like ''Hatchlings'', ''[[Mousehunt]]'', ''Treasure Madness'' or ''Enchanted Island'' make [[Gotta Catch Them All]] a simple matter of clicking stuff for a few minutes each time you visit their sites. Some incorporate [[Plot Coupons]] that must be found in order to access other items, while others just leave it up to luck. Some have storylines, others are just a bare-bones indulgance for players' acquisitive impulses.
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* Cooking Game : ''[[Cooking Mama]]'' comes to mind. (''Personal Trainer: Cooking'' is a cookbook, dammit.)
* [[Exergaming]]: ''[[Wii Fit]], [[Wii Sports]],'' and ''[[Wii Sports Resort]]'' fall under this.
* [[Hidden Object Game]]: ''[[Mystery Case Files]]'', ''Travelogue 360°'', ''Hidden Expedition'', etc.
* Marble Popper Game: ''Zuma'', ''Luxor'' and the like.
** One could say ''Puzzle Bobble'' falls under this.
* [[Match Three Game]]: ''Columns'', ''[[Bejeweled]]'', ''Big Kahuna Reef'', ''[[Jewel Quest]]'', ''7 Wonders'' and way too many other games to count.
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* [[Party Game]] & [[Mini Game]] [[Minigame Game|collections]]: ''[[Wario Ware]]'', ''[[Mario Party]]'', ''[[Raving Rabbids]]''.
* Quiz games.
* [[Rhythm Game]]: The easier difficulties/levels of ''[[Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan]]'', ''[[Guitar Hero]]'', ''[[Dance Dance Revolution]]'', and ''[[Rock Band]]''. Most well-known [[Rhythm Game|Rhythm Games]]s include extremely hard songs that require a lot of dexterity and skill (and therefore lots of practice, undermining the "casual" label), and ''Rock Band'' has Pro Mode, in which you play the songs with ''actual musical instruments''.
* Same Game:<ref> sah-may-gah-may (????)</ref>: Clicking clusters of the same type of block to make them go away. ''Poppit'' and ''Super Collapse'' are the kings of this genre.
** A twist on the genre came courtesy of the game ''Knightfall''.
* Simple [[Retro Gaming|Retro Games]] and [[Arcade Game|Arcade Games]]s (especially arcade games, since they were designed specifically for a walk-up-and-play experience): ''[[Space Invaders]]'', ''[[Pac-Man]]'', ''Asteroids'', Pinball...
** As the percentage of the population that has habitually played games rises, the definition of 'simple' continues to rise. Heck, maybe ''[[Quake III Arena|Quake Live]]'' will really take off some day?
* [[Simulation Game]]: ''[[The Sims]]'', ''[[Sim CitySimCity]]'', ''Virtual Villagers'', ''Kudos'', ''Westward'', ''Nintendogs'', ''Fairy Godmother Tycoon'' and so on. These are a strange place amongst casual games - many of them can turn into major timesinks, but they still fit the rules of being a casual game because of the ease of use, the lack of goals, and the ability to start and stop at any given time.
* [[Time Management Game]]: ''Diner Dash'', ''Cake Mania'', ''Carrie the Caregiver'', ''Lucy's Expedition'', etc.
* [[Tower Defense]] games.
* Virtual [[Card Games]] and [[Board Games]]: Mah-jongg, Solitaire, Spite, Billiards, etc.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Index Index]]
[[Category:index{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Casual Video Game]]
[[Category:Video Game Genres]]
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