If your New Year’s Resolution involves productivity, you may want to skip this post.

I’m very picky about my tablet games–they must be free, can’t be too easy, and must NOT feel like an addictive timesink (like a slot machine).

The last game I recommended over on my Tumblr was Disco Zoo, which was fun and charming for a while, but once I unlocked Mars and all its inhabitants, my completionist gene failed to kick in, so it’s been idling on my tablet for a month or two now.

Wanting a game I could play while watching TV with my sweetie–brainless, but not too brainless–I discovered Mary X.

I love its elegant art; with each level, you get a different queen’s portrait at the top of the play area. Portraits motivate me. I’m up to like…Mary 27 right now.

Also motivating me is the soothing piano music. (My brain has assigned the following lyrics to the melody: Kit-ten….Yes, my name is Moxie Kit-ten…) If I found the tune somewhere, I would probably download it. I might try transcribing it. Who knows?

The game has zero IAP, and you don’t see ads until you lose a game, or if you’re desperate for an undo.

Being a number-combo game, it plays like Triple Town, but the mechanics feel simpler–or at least, they make more sense to me than Triple Town did.

Recommended!

Next, I’m always craving word games, but many of them are too easy for me. And I hate Scrabble. And I don’t want a Google gaming account or whatever they’re called, so Words with Friends is out.

Luckily, I discovered Wordiest.

Wordiest is simple. Make two words out of a group of letter tiles. Use letter multipliers and word multipliers to get teh big scorez. Submit. See what weird word combos other folks came up with. Beat a lot of people, up your rating. Lose to lower rated people and your rating will drop. No account needed!

I play mine with dark-on-light colors. And my rating right now fluctuates from 94 to 96. The click of the tiles is so very satisfying.

The only annoying thing is the strange set of definitions they use. Whatever, man!

Got any free Android game recos? Post ’em here!