The biggest problem I have with gaming is that it takes far too long to get "into" games. I'm generally very busy, and my gaming time usually lasts as long as it takes for the dentist to call me in from the waiting room (or possibly how long it takes me to use the bathroom, but eiw, let's not go there). For me, the perfect game can be fun even if I can play only for a few minutes. It also has to be very quick to learn, because "learning to have fun" isn't very much fun at all.

There are a few old standbys that work well: Bejeweled, Angry Birds, Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, Candy Crush and so on. The problem is, although those games are fun, I grow tired of them fairly quickly—either that or they're so addictive I fear my family will disown me for ignoring them while I play just one more level.

Here are some games I've been playing lately:

• Swish: it's a puzzle game, but it's just different enough that I find it fun. The physics seem "right" to me while playing, and the graphics are really great. The premise is that you're an alien playing basketball in space. You know, like aliens always do. There are 60 levels, and there's enough of a challenge to make it fun.

• Dumb Ways to Die 2: I loved the first Dumb Ways to Die game. It was absurd. It was funny. It was cartoonishly morbid. Part 2 is more of the same, and that's a very, very good thing.

• Asphalt Series: there are a bunch of games in the Asphalt racing series. Some of them work better than others, and all of them are fairly large downloads. I like Asphalt because you get to race really cool cars really fast. If you ever played Burnout on the PlayStation, Asphalt games will seem pleasantly familiar. You have to pay for gas if you play for too long, but I generally don't have enough time and play each session only until my gas is gone.

What are your favorite "five-minute games" for the Android platform? I never can really get into a book in that short amount of time, so it tends to be the only time I play games. If you have any suggestions, drop me a message at shawn@linuxjournal.com, and I'll try to follow up in later months with the best of the best.

Note: you can find all the games mentioned here in the Google Play Store.