How DARE you link the non-WPCentral article here, you blasphemer!
Tough to know off-hand which games I play that don't kill battery life. They all do it to an extent, and I don't really check to see which do the most damage at a given time. However, here are just a few that I don't think are too bad on the battery:
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Wordemic (
WPCentral Review;
Store Link)--You sort of play a solo
Scrabble game for (I think) 2 minutes, then your score is compared online. I'm a big fan of it. It does require an Internet connection though, so if you can't shut off HSPA+/LTE (which drains the battery BADLY) and aren't on WiFi, the battery drain might be severe.
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Asteroid Field (
Store Link)--You basically fly around and collect floating astronauts and avoid asteroids. Pretty fun and basic game, so shouldn't be a lot of battery drain.
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Farkle Dice (
Store Link)--Little tough to explain the game if you don't know it already. Basically, you roll dice and score points. First to 10,000 points wins. Very light game, should have minimal impact on the battery.
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Tile Path (
Free Store Link;
Paid Store Link)--This one is a bit like a combination of a maze and
Tetris. You have 4 colors of blocks and have to make a path of blocks from one of the colored ends to the other. Once you do, the path disappears and the colored ends move. If you run out of move, you lose. I'm a big fan of the game myself. It's $2, but has gone temporarily free once or twice, plus there is a free version to play, I assume with ads.
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Doors (
Store Link)--You have probably seen the thread for the game, and maybe tried it. Your goal is to solve puzzles to open doors and get to the next level. It's fairly new, so there are only 30 levels (meaning you could finish it in a day or two easily), but it is a very low-power game with fun puzzles to try to solve.
There are a few suggestions that should have minimal battery drain, hope you find some you like.