Actually hidden object games (also known as hidden objects games) are very popular with the gamers today. Still for playing hidden object games and getting pleasure of it one should have a special habitude. Unlike many other genres, hidden object games may seem a little bit archaic (what concerns the game mechanism) even for pretty simple mini games.
The gamer's intensive work is hidden under the mask of rare mouse clicks: one has to find the objects he needs on a cluttered up playing field. During the search a gamer can be guided only by a list of objects or a list of their... silhouettes and sometimes (in the most difficult occasions) one uses "hints" the amount of which is usually limited for every level.
Another kind of tasks in hidden object games is searching for differences between two alike objects or collecting objects of the same type (candles, plates, bottles). Doesn't it remind you something? Of course, many readers must have caught paper brain-twisters which newspapers and magazines used to publish. For example "find ten objects at the picture" or "find ten differences between the pictures". But in those games for obvious reasons there were no any "hints" and the playing field was much less interactive.
In hidden objects games the objects you have found disappear from the playing field when clicked on in order not to interrupt the further search. And some objects from the list can even be hiding behind other objects or inside the installed mini-locations (a refrigerator, a shelf, a safe).
Some new hidden object games (those referring to the latest generation ones) besides the traditional tasks contain also the elements of such a genre as "quest", still these elements don't change the process of a game but only supplement it. Even the latest novelties in the area tend to preserve the role of hidden object game tasks as it's the basement of that kind of games.
Hidden object games often have many various kinds of games installed (arcade and logic ones) which recompenses certain monotony and labour-intensiveness of the process. Online hidden object games have appeared recently. All you need to play is to go online. You can always download free hidden-object games in this section.