30 Second Life Review

In 30 Second Life players can "live" their whole life and literally watch it pass before their eyes over and over again with different outcomes every time. This little game is basically a life simulator -- not too different from games like The Sims -- although on a much, much smaller and simpler scale. In fact, much as its title suggests, each life lived in 30 Second Life only takes about thirty seconds to live to completion.

The mechanics in this game are as simple as they come. The player starts a game at birth and as the seconds tick by, the baby grows into a child, teenager, adult, and so on until it's a old man. The player pushes either of two on-screen buttons marked "Work". The faster these buttons are pushed, the harder the player's character works in their life. Pushing more rapidly will result in statuses like genius and billionaire, while pushing slowly or not at all will result in statuses like convict and dropout.

By alternating periods of rapid and slow button pushing, players can activate different "combos" which occur when one specific life status leads to another in an entertaining or historically significant way. For example, the "Bruce Wayne" combo can be achieved by gaining the billionaire status, followed by the playboy, monk, vigilante, and fugitive statuses in that order. Trying to figure out how to achieve all of the dozens of different combos is so much fun, and trying to get to all the different statuses is as well. The fact that each life only takes a handful of seconds to live makes this all the more enjoyable because players can jump from life to life seeking more and more combos and life stages. Luckily the game will keep track of which ones players have unlocked because otherwise the sheer number of possibilities would be overwhelming.

The retro 8-bit graphics are seriously entertaining and every one of the 160 life stages has its own unique graphic representation. Quick games and the seemingly endless payout of entertaining life stage shifts will keep players burning through lives as quickly as they possibly can.