Simple but fun games keep you engaged

Graphics-heavy, three-dimensional video games can be overwhelming as you jump, hit and shoot through various adventures. But a calmer experience can be had in beautiful, stylish games that could be called one dimensional — some just need a single finger for control.

Dragon Hills is a fabulous new game in this category. It’s an auto-runner, which means your character — a purple-haired, sword-swinging warrior atop a dragon — automatically runs forward through the levels, leaving you in charge only when you jump.

The control is simple: Your dragon slithers along the ground, and buries itself into the soil when you hold the screen with one finger. Then it leaps out into the air when you let go. Its teeth munch when you tap the screen, helping you take bites out of enemies and obstacles and gather awards and tokens as you zip along.

Dragon Hills is equal parts funny, enjoyable and easy. It is also challenging as you boost the strength of your dragon by adding armor and facing trickier obstacles. Dragon Hills is $2 (Rs 133) on iOS and free on Android.

Chameleon Run, also new, has a similar setup, with the character running in a straight line through a series of levels.

You must also jump over gaps, leap over obstacles and collect items. But the graphics in Chameleon Run — colourful geometric blocks and shapes that soar through the air — are even more minimal than those in Dragon Hills.

This game features two controls to manage. As well as using one finger to jump you need another finger to change the colour of your character to match the colour of the block you’re going to land on. If the colours do not match, or if you fall into the void because you miss a landing, you explode and the game is over. The game is $2 (Rs 133) to download on iOS and Android.

Where Dragon Hills is amusing and Chameleon Run is frenetic, Fotonica is psychedelic. Part “Tron” and part “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the game takes a first-person point of view. You see the platforms and obstacles racing toward you and your hands flailing to the sides as you run ever faster.

Its graphics are like first-generation computer games, line-like vectors that sketch out the details as you race along, winding around the screen and dazzling you in a surprisingly enjoyable whirl of colors.

The game has a single control, but the levels are difficult, and getting the timing of your jumps right is hard. You can play it as an arcade game, with levels to complete, or as an endless runner, with platforms that just race at you until you finally fall. It’s $3 (Rs 200) on iOS and Android.

Finally, check out Stride and Prejudice, a weird but adorable 1-D game in which you have to jump a character over platforms made of the entire text of Jane Austen’s most famous novel. It’s even possible — just about — to read the story as you jump along, though as you get faster you may have to practice a bit of speed reading. If you do find you like the story, the game lets you start from where you fell off last, if you want to read on. Free on iOS and $2 (Rs 133) on Android (via Amazon).