What is the sound of one hand clapping? I don’t know, and I probably never will. Not because I don’t wish to reach enlightenment, but because I’m too busy using both hands to play this iOS app.
It’s pretty amazing that an app can simultenously help you relax, keep your mind working, and utterly enthrall everyone who watches. Zen Sand for iOS does all three, beautifully. In fact, it’s currently the biggest hit in our house.
The object of the game is to manipulate a stream of falling particles through a variety of obstacles and into the appropriate waiting urns using bamboo stalks. That doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? But the lovely, soothing challenge of the game is just as addicting as flinging birds at pigs. My kids are oddly fascinated by watching over my shoulder, and I can’t play at bedtime, or my husband will micro-manage my sand-sifting past midnight.
The app is divided into four sections for Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer, and each section has sixteen challenges to unlock.
It’s especially nice when you’re waiting in line and can’t concentrate enough to sink into a book. Relaxing music, vibrant backgrounds, and charming quotes each time you win a level combine to create an experience that feels less like a game and more like an exercise in zen. Which is… exactly what they’re going for.
I love pretty much everything about it–except the level that I’ve been stuck on because wind really messes up particle physics. –Delilah
Find Zen Sand for $1.99 at the Polygon Play website or on iTunes.
