When you think of Google, casual gaming probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.
But the search giant happens to have a downright enormous cache of diversions over on its Arts & Culture site. At your disposal: everything from virtual pottery to travel adventures to music makers and more. Here are five of my favorites.
Cultural Crosswords
Have fun with humanity’s greatest invention, the crossword puzzle, and learn something at the same time with Google’s Cultural Crosswords offering.
There are five categories to choose from, spanning the arts, geography, sci-tech, fashion, and nature. The puzzles offer up a good mix of challenging clues but aren’t so difficult that you’ll get bogged down all morning trying to solve them.
Puzzle Party
Humanity’s second greatest invention, the jigsaw puzzle, gets digitized and thrust into the 21st century with Puzzle Party. You’ve got a wide range of art-themed puzzles to choose from, and easy, medium, and difficult skill options.
Best of all, you can invite other people to remotely work on puzzles with you. It’s all the fun of puzzling without the initial sorting, piece flipping, and cleanup.
Art Coloring Book
Take an existing masterpiece and make it your own: That’s the promise of Art Coloring Book, a Zen-like experience that ensures you always stay within the lines. If you can’t get enough coloring but you’re going to be offline for a bit, there’s a handy 39-page printable version that ought to keep you occupied for quite some time.
Fourth of July Fireworks
Like any human being with a soul, I love a good fireworks show. And with the Fourth of July Fireworks game, I can put on a jaw-dropping display any day of the year. Part pyrotechnic extravaganza, part rhythm-based timing game, you’ll need to hit one of five buttons at just the right moment to send a respectable blast into the air.
You can also choose from some very cool venues: Liberty Island in New York, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, and a few others.
Guess the Line
Who among us doesn’t enjoy having our drawing skills judged by a cutesy AI robot? When you play Guess the Line, you’re given a Pictionary-like clue, which you then must draw for the robot to guess.
You’ve got 60 seconds to score as many points as you can. Clues start on the easier side–”draw a TV”–and get progressively harder. I failed miserably when tasked with drawing an “architectural dress” (whatever that means).
Games galore
As mentioned, these five just barely scratch the surface. There’s a veritable treasure trove of diversions over in the Play section of Google’s Arts & Culture site.
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