And yet, search as you might, they defy detection. That is, hidden-object games make it clear that the objects you’re looking for are sitting right there in front of your nose – all you have to do is point at them with your mouse and click. It would seem a frustrating task, but what makes these games so compelling is the way they turn the faith you have in your perceptive abilities on its head. There’s something intensely satisfying about hunting for and finding that elusive needle. “Finding items in a cluttered mess is, quite literally, picking out the needle in the haystack.” You want to put it down and walk away from it … but you simply can’t.īefore your very eyes“Hidden-object games hit that sweet spot in our brains that craves order,” says John Bardinelli, a writer for game review site. This may not sound like particularly gripping fare, but trust me, a good hidden-object game is easy enough for anyone to pick up and yet it’s such an enormous brain tease that when you go to quit it, it’s as if you’ve super-glued the thing to your hand. A broom, a banana, a rolling pin, a key ring. You’re then presented with a list of items that you must find secreted there among the bric-a-brac.

But while this bedroom is populated with the usual items (furniture and whatnot), it’s also festooned with an assortment of objects and knick-knacks.

For example, you might be given a picture of a bedroom. It’s called “Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst,” and it’s a game so absorbing that it will leave you staring unblinkingly at your computer screen until your eyeballs shrivel into raisins and begin rattling around in your skull.įor those of you who haven’t played a hidden-object game, these games typically present players with a static scene. That is, over the recent holidaze, I found myself staying up into the wee hours of the morning playing the latest “hidden object” game from Big Fish Games. But here’s the question I’m forced to ask: Why is it that I get so blindingly frustrated when I’m obligated to hunt for some simple object misplaced within the cluttered reaches of my home … and yet I’m downright thrilled to spend endless mesmerized hours doing the same thing when it’s presented to me in video game form?

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