They're Coming!

Day 35: Unlike "Angry Birds," "Plants vz. Zombies" puts your reflexes to the test. I had downloaded it to my Kindle Fire after running out of Angry Birds the first time, but it didn't hold my attention like I'd hoped it would. I played the first few games of the "Adventure" level, and then "Birds" came out with a new universe and an update for an older one. I went back, gleeful at being able to pitch birds once again. When I'd earned three stars in all the levels, I shifted gears and began trying to improve my previous scores. That kept me occupied until the release of "Angry Birds Star Wars 2."

For about three weeks, I was in Bird Paradise, although I could hear a voice in the back of my mind saying, "If you play more than one game each day, you're going to run yourself out of birds again." I told the voice to put a sock in it and kept playing. Just as predicted, I exhausted the basic game, thinking I'd buy more characters and try to earn all the avatars, but when I checked the prices for "points" of purchasing power, my eyes dropped out of my head. The cheapest packet ($9.99) barely gave you enough points for one minor character. Saddened, I put "Angry Birds" aside.

Re-enter the Zombies! Desperate for some way to waste time, I resumed the game and found it to be more fun than I had remembered. I'm still not out of the "Adventure" level yet, and I've run up against a batch of Zombies I haven't been able to defeat in four days. Frustrating as that may be, it fills the description of "time-waster" perfectly and after all, that's why I bought it.