The Best and Worst of the Hunger "Games" of 2012

Let the Hunger Games begin! And may the odds be EVER in your favor.

Wouldn’t it be cool to participate in the Hunger Games? Well… except for the part when everyone dies. But could you imagine the thrill of being out in the wilderness, surviving off of your own cunning wit and skill? All virtually straight from your living room? If you haven’t, I have. And I have compiled a list of real Hunger Games that will test your skill, knowledge, and survival abilities on the computer, iPhone, and in real life. I’ll be ranking them from best to worst in each category, so join me as we uncover the real(free) games that for us could recreate the Hunger Games.

Hunger Games: Computer Games:
(Links will be provided at the end of the post)
1. The Hunger Games Adventures: Beta! This came in first place because overall it was the best. It was the easiest to understand how to play. Additionally, it is the most interactive, most addictive, and longest game. While it still needs a lot of improvement, it  maintains the bases for a great Facebook game, resembling Sims Social, Frontierville, and other games of the sort. I rather enjoyed the music. And the game had a plotline. For example, Katniss taught me how to use a bow and arrow. I went to the Hob to get soup in exchange for a bird I had killed. I went to Peeta to get bread for Katniss. While some items cost Facebook money to buy, a lot of stuff was available for free. The characters look as ugly as your uncle, but other traits made up for it. The game was both easy to understand and to play. It fit the Hunger Games story line, and you advance by completing chapters filled with different quests. All together, it is a fascinating Facebook game that models the book. While I do not highly recommend it, I feel that you should check it out sometime because it isn't all that bad.

I am now cooking meat on the fire.

2. Trial by Fire. This game has two parts. Trial by Fire and Tribute Trials. Trial by Fire is interesting because it is a simulator of the actual Hunger Games. You are asked questions and given a certain amount of time to answer them. Based on your answer you either advance in the game or die. I made it quite far before getting killed by my supposed ally. So much for befriending people and saving their lives. Anyway, I invite you to test your luck in this game. Tribute Trials starts off by showing you a lot of pictures. When you click on a picture, you are then asked a “what would you do?” question. It tells you what skill you are conveying when you answer the question. At the end, it tells you what you did well and what you need to work on. While I’d recommend playing Trial by Fire, Tribute Trials is very long and not as interesting. Still, they both had really dramatic music and were really well made. 

This is what I got for saving someones life!.

3. Hunger Games- The Game. This game places last because it sucks. First, you have to sit through a commercial before you can even begin playing. Once the commercial is over, you can’t even play the game. I have tried repeatedly to get past the Cornucopia and have failed every time! The best part of this was the stupid drum music. I don’t understand this game, and it is poorly made. All together it is a fail. Not recommended at all. It is a complete waste of time. Unless you guess the trick. PS. That was not a challenge. Or was it?

"May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor!"

That about wraps it up for the Hunger Games as far as computer games go. There aren’t many out there yet, but I expect more to be made in the future. 

Next up is...


iPhone/iPod touch App games:

Run, Katniss, Run!

1. The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire. This is by far one of my favorite games. At first, I was a little bit confused seeing as they don’t provide directions as to how to play, but it was actually quite simple. Basically, the game consists of Katniss running by trees. She can either run on the ground or on the trees. You can make her switch by dragging your finger across the screen. The whole time you are running, Tracker Jackers will try to kill you. You can tap your finger on a tracker jacker to have Katniss shoot an arrow at it. Slowly, it will progress from Tracker Jackers trying to sting to trying to shoot you with their poison to wearing shields and trying to shoot you. Although it’s a simple game, the graphics are good, and like any other great iPhone game, it provides for hours of pointless entertainment. I recommend this game for any iPhone/iPod touch game lover. It won’t disappoint.

This was one of the easier questions!

2. Ultimate Trivia: The Hunger Games. This trivia game tests your knowledge on both the book and movie. It asks about events that happen in the book and who played whom in the movie. This is really only for people who are at least avid fans. If you answer enough questions correctly on easy, you can move on to medium and then hard. This game is not for the weak minded. It is fun though, and I recommend it because if you read the books, you get to see how much you really know of them and can see if you are a true fan, which I clearly am not with a score of 15/20 on easy. 

3. Hunger Games: The Hunt. This is the worst iPhone Hunger Games game simply because it doesn’t offer enough. It functions as a hidden object game in which you travel to the different places in the Hunger Games to find objects that have to do with the book. The reason I ranked this so low was not only because of the obnoxious music, but also because it only offers one level for free. It doesn’t give you unlimited amounts of hints, so you can easily not be able to advance, and it’s just really hard to identify any of the objects without seeing what they look like first. My favorite games are Hidden Objects games, and this was one of the first ones I hated. I would never recommend this to anyone because it sucks.

Can you find the number 13?

Now that we’ve explored the realm of Hunger Games apps, we will take a look into the most interesting games you will ever play, and also the most challenging ones. You can play these games in real life. Not on the computer and not on the phone, but in real life. These games also don’t involve killing other people, which is also a plus side. One being more epic; the other being more practical. Let us begin.
Real-life Games:
1. My friend Rachel found this first idea when she watched a video from the Vlog Brothers. It involves playing Hungry Hippos and eating cookies. But there’s a catch. Half of the cookies you make by putting in disgusting food like mushrooms and turkey. The other half you put in delicious foods in like Gushers and marshmallows. Then after they’re done baking in the oven, you put the bad cookies on a plate labeled bad and the good cookies on a plate labeled good. When you’re done, you play Hungry Hungry Hippos. The losers have to close their eyes and choose a bad cookie. The winners get to choose good cookies. I played this game with my friends, and it was a blast. Maybe that was because I won every single time though. Haha. Regardless you should still try this game out with your friends. Watch the video below to get a better understanding of how it’s done. This should be the Hunger Games movie trailer. HAHA.

Let's all go play in the woods for four days and pretend to kill each other.

2. I saved the best for last with this one. This idea comes from Harrison Miller, a Senior in high school who will be attending college at Yale in the fall. He will be attempting to create a real life simulation of the Hunger Games. I can’t say much about this because it’s top secret, but basically it will be the closest thing to the real Hunger Games as possible. There will be twenty-four tributes, a cornucopia, and weapons. As I promised, no one would die, but this game will be intense. To become a tribute you have to be in shape and have to know your way around the wilderness. . Harrison explains, “This stuff is really serious. Like in order to qualify as a tribute, you have to have wilderness survival skills. I mean, the game makers even considered using poison ivy at one point!” It is truly amazing stuff if I do say so myself. While Harrison shares that his game will be unique to Yale, it just goes to show that with a bit of creativity and imagination you can come up with a great game too. In Spring I’ll be doing a full report on the game during which all secrets will be revealed.

Thank you for reading my blog about the Hunger Games. 

The Hunger Games Adventure: Beta!

Hunger Games: Trial by Fire

Hunger Games- The Game.

All of the apps can be found in the Apple store.

I'd like to thank Harrison Miller for allowing me to interview him.

A special thanks to Rachel for the edit.

And Miriam-chan for the quick edit.

Tune in next time for my review of the Legend of Korra, and thank you for reading.