As with any addictive drug, you’re probably finding that you don’t get quite the same rush from a new high score in Flappy Bird . Fear not, though; There’s another addictive app called Threes! It was a hit on iOS, and now Android users can stretch their brains with it as well.
Threes! has secured a spot among the Top 20 paid iPhone apps on Apple’s App Store, meaning that millions of people have seen fit to drop $2 for an entirely other kind of frustration. Whereas Flappy Bird and its flock of clones rely on fast-twitch tapping responses, Threes! will suck you in with its charming design and deceptively simple concept: just add together matching cards in multiples of three – 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, and so forth, just like you remember from your times tables – and get higher scores for pulling together higher-value cards.
If you’re a bit of a math nerd like us, you’ll probably be entertained by Threes! scoring system. All of the possible scores in Threes! , of course, are multiples of three. Threes! system, naturally, relies on exponential scoring. Trust us, it’s fun.
Simple, right? Indeed it is, but it’s engrossing. Talking with Polygon , the Threes! developers Sirvo said that the average play session for the game is 20 minutes. Every day, the company says, Threes! players put in the equivalent of 11 years in gaming time, meaning Threes! players have put in about 327 years of play time since the game was released.
The important thing about those Threes! factoids: that’s only counting iOS users, since the game only launched in the past 24 hours on Google’s Android platform. Threes! on Android costs the same as it does on iOS, at just $2. That’s a bit of a commitment, though, we understand, so you may want to go and check out a free JavaScript version of Threes! before you buy. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
We’re guessing you wound up spending a good five minutes in the Java Threes! sliding around the number tiles. Told you: it grows on you.
If you’re already hooked, we’d suggest sliding over to the App Store or to the Google Play Store in order to pick up Threes! and thus be able to tell your friends you were all about Threes! before they’d even heard of it. Because that’s what we’d do. Polygon has also put together a nifty little tutorial on how to boost your Threes! score with just a few (totally counter-intuitive) tactics.
One last hint, though: once you start playing Threes! , do yourself a favor and don’t look at the high scores on the leaderboards. The degree to which some other Threes! players are better at the game than you are is… let’s say “humbling.”