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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UIC chapter.

The other day I was bored and looking through my phone. I decided to browse through my app store purchase history. My cousin had deleted all of my game apps a few years ago and I just never bothered to download most of them again so it was interesting to take a scroll down memory lane and see all of the apps I dedicated my time to when I was in high school. This list won’t include any social media apps like Instagram or Snapchat (even though I did use those a lot in high school). Instead, these are just game apps you can play to remind yourself of a simpler time!

 

“Flappy Bird”

One thing I remember about “Flappy Bird” was “competing” against people on the bus and posting my high scores on Instagram. While you can’t actually download “Flappy Bird” on your phone or tablet anymore, you can access different versions of the game on various websites. I recommend opening the website on a phone or tablet if you want to get the true “Flappy Bird” experience! 

“Temple Run”

This was the first game I downloaded when I got my first iPhone. An iPhone 3GS! What!? This wasn’t my personal favorite running game and, in all honesty, I didn’t get where our temple runner was running to. 

“Subway Surfers”

“Subway Surfers” was my favorite running game! In fact, I could play this game for around 30-45 minutes straight just so I could gain more coins and unlock different characters. Maybe that’s not an impressive amount of time but for someone as anxious as me, it was a lot. I actually reinstalled this game on my phone and am excited to see if I still have the patience to play the game for more than five minutes. 

“Fruit Ninja”

The only thing that was more fun than playing “Fruit Ninja” on your phone was playing it at an arcade on a big screen!

“Candy Crush Saga”

I personally didn’t play this game much but it felt like everyone else in the world was playing it. I honestly don’t know if this app is still a thing…

“Magic Piano by Smule”

This game made me feel like I actually had talent. I would literally play songs for my mom and she would feign pride. 

“Angry Birds”

This game was successful enough to inspire movies, books, and even a sequel to the original game app! The focus of the game is to battle evil, green pigs. What’s more fun than that!?

“Words with Friends”

This app is basically a virtual “Scrabble” game. Just like in real “Scrabble,” I never won. 

“4 Pics 1 Word”

I’m not sure how popular this game really was but I remember googling the answers to the questions. Basically, the user had four pictures that were linked to one word, a word the user had to guess. You were allowed to purchase hints or, you could ruin your fun by simply cheating and looking the answer up. 

“Clash of Clans”

This was another app I never actually played but it always popped up as an ad when I was playing other apps. From what I read about this game, you basically build your own town. In order to grow your town’s resources, you would attack other towns. Players could also join together in clans and go to war against other players. 

“Kim Kardashian: Hollywood”

If you’re into games with storylines, this one is for you. The purpose of this game is to basically become super famous. You start out as an E-List celebrity and your goal is to become an A-List celebrity. You even have your own celebrity enemy, Willow Pape. You own your own boutiques, go to photoshoots, and hang out with the Kardashian/Jenner fam, amongst other things. This app requires more dedication in order to advance in the game with events lasting anywhere between an hour to eight hours. 

“High School Story”

It’s only right that I played an app called “High School Story” when I was in high school. The app is a choice based simulation game. Basically, the choices you make impact where your storyline will go next. In this app, you’re basically running a high school (while being a high school student yourself). You advance in the game by completing quests that can be anything from engaging in sporting battles with your rival high school to going on dates. You also admit different classmates (which, by the way, are all labeled from cheerleaders to nerds), build student hangouts (very cliquey), and buy land plots to grow the size of your school. So if you want to control your own school, this game is perfect for you. 

“The Sims Mobile”

I was not able to get “The Sims” for my PC when I was younger so I got the phone app. I remember I made a Facebook account just so I could request supplies from friends that also played the game. It seems like the app has changed a lot since I last used it so I’m not sure what to expect from it anymore. 

“Trivia Crack” 

This game was a great way to show off your knowledge of random facts! I loved competing against my friends and family, and even random people if no one else was responding. 

“Color Switch”

I’m not sure if it was just my friends and me, but we were obsessed with this game. “Flappy Bird” was just a warm up compared to the tapping skills required in “Color Switch.” The point of this game was to bounce a ball through an object that was the same color as the ball. If you failed to do so, the level restarted. This game resulted in hours of frustration. 

“Pokemon GO”

I put “Pokemon GO” as last on my list because it took off the summer after I graduated high school. This was yet another app I never played but I loved watching people play. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many people on my bike path as I did in the summer of 2016. I met neighbors I never knew I had! I haven’t seen them since. Overall, this seemed like a fun app and it got people outside so kudos to the creators. 

I know I missed some big apps on my list but these were the apps I scrolled past in my purchase history. There were several apps I downloaded that I never even played. I hope this list inspires you to try out an old game. Now, I’m going to be busy trying to beat my old high score in “Subway Surfers.”

Aggie is an English major with a concentration in professional writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
UIC Contributor.