Keep from getting bored by gaming abroad
Keep from getting bored by gaming abroad

If you've been paying attention recently, you'll have noticed that I've recently gotten married. (P.S. - Thanks for all the well wishes) As we all know, what comes after the wedding? The honeymoon. We went to Aruba and had a great time, but unbeknownst to her, I had the idea for this article before we left.

After the trip, the hardest part was deciding on a title for the article, should it be "Keep From Getting Bored By Gaming Abroad", "How To Shut Your Kids Up On A Plane", or, "Holy Crap, Everyone And Their Mother Has A DS". I think I stuck with the most politically correct title.

While waiting to board my flight, I easily saw more than 10 people playing with the various Nintendo DS models. Those were just the people waiting at my gate. They ranged from kids, teens, and even adults. The only gaming systems I took with me were my DS and my iPod touch.

Two GameRant favorites, Pokémon SoulSilver (4.5)and Plants vs. Zombies (4.5) kept my sanity on the 5 hour plane rides to and from Aruba. I used to play the iPod game, Flight Control, until I realized how stressful that was, since I didn't want my digital planes or my real plane to crash.

I was really surprised by the minimal amount of PSPs that I saw on the trip. Though I guess I shouldn't have been since I didn't even bring my own. If I had to put it in to numbers, I'd say there was a 10:1 ratio of DS to PSPs.

So, to keep you sane on your travels, here are just a handful of my personal favorites that you should check out. These are good for playing in short stints on lines or for long drawn out flights.

iPod Touch / iPhone:

  • :Shift: - $0.99 - A black and white puzzle platformer
  • Fieldrunners - $2.99 - Tower defense game
  • Flight Control - $0.99 - Land planes by drawing their path to the landing strip without crashing them
  • Harbor Master - $1.99 - Pretty much Flight Control with boats
  • BirdStrike - $0.99 - Get your bird to fly as high as possible while going for a high score
  • Ragdoll Blaster - $1.99 - A physics puzzler
  • Mr. AahH!! - $0.99 - Swing from column to column but be mindful wind and gravity
  • Minigore - $0.99 - Pretty much kill everything in sight
  • Canabalt - $2.99 - One button game where you run through a randomly generated skyline for distance
  • Plants vs. Zombies - $2.99 - Stop the zombies from invading your house using only plants
  • Rope'n Fly - $0.99 - Essentially you're a stick figure playing Spiderman.

DS and PSP:

What are you're favorite handheld games to play on trips? Let us hear it in the comments.