After receiving a Walkman for my twelfth birthday, I was never without it. Then came discmans, which were a pain to cart everywhere, but it had to be done.

And then came mp3 players. Sometimes I think about time travelling back to my younger self, showing her months’ worth of music on something smaller than a cassette player and blowing her mind.

At the same time, I’ve never cared for phones. People call and interrupt your thoughts and expect a response straightaway. My most recent mobile answered calls and that was it. I could also send texts, something I did roughly ten times a year at most.

Music players were supposed to play music. Phones answered calls.

Then my mp3 player finally died and the next in the line was one of those touch screen jobbies that does everything.

I scoffed. I would only be using mine to listen to music, thankyouverymuch.

So now I’d like to tell you about the best apps I’ve found for the darkly inclined among us.

This post is about hidden object games on Big Fish Games , which (if they’re good) combine interesting plot, characters, incredible artwork and atmosphere. Big Fish Games offer a trial period, then you can unlock the complete game. I’m not including the titles I tried and chose not to unlock. The majority of their hidden object games are wonderful, but occasionally a stinker gets through.

I have played and recommend:

• Death at Fairing Point
• Doors of the Mind: Inner Mysteries
• Enigmatis: Ghosts of Maple Creek — This one was particularly immersive and is one of the best I’ve played thus far.
• Haunted Hotel: Lonely Dream
• Haunted Hotel II
• Haunted Manor: Lord of Mirrors
• Shiver: Vanishing Hitchhiker

• Snark Busters & Snark Busters 2 — while not Goth, they’re very Alice-Through-the-Looking-Glass and quite well done.
• Twisted Lands: Shadow Town
• Weird Park: Broken Tune

These are only so-so:

• Awakening: Moonfell Wood — The graphics were nice, but the controls could be needlessly fussy. Tapping on an object didn’t work so you had to work out where they wanted you to tap around the object.
• Empress of the Deep — The map was far too sprawling and the hidden object scenes were nearly impossible. I didn’t hate it, but I won’t play the others in the series
• Mirror Mysteries — This one didn’t have much in the way of narrative-it was pretty straight-up finding things. The atmosphere wasn’t as creepy as I’d’ve liked.

These had the potential to be great, but failed in one way or another:

• Haunted Legends: Queen of Spades — I got stuck at one place and restarted the game, thinking I’d missed something out. When I got stuck at the same place, I used a walkthrough and did everything in the order prescribed. And still became stuck in the same place. Others didn’t seem to have this problem, so it’s up to you if you’d like to give it a go.
• Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven — This one wouldn’t load on my iPhone, but I’m playing it on my computer.
• Stray Souls: Dollhouse Story — At what have must been the end of the main story the game crashed. This meant I could not play the bonus content included in the collector’s edition. Still, it was worth the money for the gameplay I did have.

I’m currently playing and enjoying:

• Dark Dimensions: City of Fog
• Dark Tales Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cat
• Dark Tales Edgar Allan Poe’s Murder in the Rue Morgue — Enjoying the hell out of this one
• Haunted Halls: Green Hills Sanitarium
• Macabre Mysteries: Curse of the Nightingale
• Maestro: Music of Death
• Mystery Seekers: Secret of the Haunted Mansion
• Nightmare Adventures: The Witch’s Prison — I’m not sure if I’m going to finish this one, as it’s ludicrously difficult. The storyline, artwork and atmosphere are excellent,though.
• Shiver: Poltergeist

My To-Try List (I’d love to hear from people who’ve played any of these)

• Gravely Silent: House of Deadlock
• Mystery of the Ancients: Lockwood Manor
• Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles
• Twisted Lands: Insomniac

Next up: Non-Big Fish Games!