Smiles

Smiles makes no attempt to be more than a light diversion. The pieces are coloured smiley faces, the rules explain themselves without a word of instruction, and there is no hidden system waiting to be learned.

Its appeal is the shape of a session: short, over quickly, restarted immediately, and demanding no sustained concentration. It fits the five minutes between other things, especially since nothing from a previous attempt needs remembering.

In a house full of shooting and dark scenery, this is the light thing placed deliberately in between. It is not remarkable for depth, but its role is perfectly clear — something that can be opened without any preparation at all.

One word of warning: because a round asks so little, it is easy to keep starting another one without noticing. That is either the point of the thing or the problem with it, depending on what the afternoon was supposed to contain.