Free smartphone, tablet games for holiday travel

The holidays are rapidly approaching, which means road-trip season for millions of families. Or perhaps you'll be taking to the friendly skies for a little R&R.

Regardless, one way to stay sane is to load up your smartphone or tablet with mobile games.

There are hundreds of thousands of game downloads available at your favorite app store. Many of these fun time wasters are free — though a good number of them offer in-app purchases for virtual currency, extra content or the removal of ads.

The following are a few of the new and newsworthy downloads to help reduce the "Are we there yet?" from the backseat.

• Candy Crush Soda Saga

If you thought Candy Crush Saga was addictive, wait until you get a taste of King's Candy Crush Soda Saga (iOS and Android), out in a week or two. Featuring more than 150 levels, this new puzzler once again has you swapping candies on a board so that at least three of the same color are in a row or column — but you now need to release purple soda from bottles for Candy Bears to float up toward the top. You must also create Swedish Fish that swim around; use frosting, licorice and honey for special moves and combos; and unlock new, challenging modes at higher levels. Along with the colorful graphics, King recorded the catchy soundtrack at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra.

• Circle

Consider Ketchapp's Circle the new Flappy Bird: a one-handed mobile game that's easy to pick up but impossible to put down. In Circle (iOS and Android), simply tap anywhere on the screen to bounce a circle. Your goal is to keep the circle hovered over a moving black line, but preventing the top or bottom of the circle from touching the line. Yep, it's that easy — in theory. Gamers will try to see how many points they can rack up before losing a life, with each tap counting as one point. A recent update to the game adds collectible diamonds, unlockable circle characters (like a penguin), new achievements to earn, and more.

• The Silent Age

If you prefer something slower paced and more cognitive, House of Fire's The Silent Age (iOS and Android) is an adventure game, with the first chapter available for free. It's the early '70s and you're a janitor who stumbles upon a mysterious dying man who warns you of a terrible event that will wipe out the human race. He hands you a time-travel device and begs you to change the course of history. Your goal is to manipulate time, collect items and solve environmental puzzles to stop the destruction of the planet. Ideal for both smartphones and tablets, this engrossing game with stylized graphics and moody music is a must-play game. Episode 2 costs $4.99.

• Run Sackboy! Run

Those who've played one of Sony's LittleBigPlanet games will no doubt recognize Sackboy, the adorable, knitted protagonist. Now he's playable on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Starring in an "endless platformer" game, Run Sackboy! Run has you controlling the little guy through an ever-changing handcrafted world by running, dashing and jumping away from obstacles while earning power-ups and upgrades. PlayStation fans should appreciate the familiar worlds and characters from previous games, plus it's possible to customize Sackboy in unique costumes, and collect bubbles, stickers and prizes. Too bad there's no Android version yet.

• Toilet Time

Whether you admit it or not, many smartphone and tablet owners take their devices to the bathroom. Now we've got an official game that celebrates this private downtime on the throne. While you can play it anytime and anywhere, Toilet Time from Tapps Tecnologia da Informação (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) lets you have some fun while you're doing your business. This handful of quick bathroom-related "micro games" includes regulating the temperature of the shower, finding a toilet stall to use, unrolling an entire roll of toilet paper, killing cockroaches that come out of the drain, and adjusting the toilet seat for men and women. Note: Some games might be deemed inappropriate for young kids, such as urinating to clean dirt in a toilet bowl.

Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at techcomments@usatoday.com.