My 12 year old daughter, like most kids her age, is already a fairly experienced gamer but only with age-appropriate videogames and apps. I keep a close eye on that sort of thing, and try to point my kids in the direction of apps that aren’t just mindless time-wasters and don’t contain material I wouldn’t want them exposed to.
If you’re looking for game apps for your tween that are fun, encourage creativity or logical thinking (to solve puzzles) and are age-appropriate, here are the ones my daughter and I can both recommend very highly.
My Singing Monsters (4.5/5 stars, guidance suggested [due to in-app purchasing capability], currently FREE)
Welcome to My Singing Monsters!
Collect, breed, and listen to your monsters sing. You have never seen a game like this before!
Features:
• 30+ monster species to collect, nurture, and love
• Amazing art, animation, and audio effects
• Lush islands, each with its own theme
• Numerous decorations and structures
• Create unique landscapes and sound combinations
• 3D sound
• Built-in social features
• More monsters, islands and music coming soon!
Populate an island and watch what happens. Create unique havens by landscaping and arranging your creatures. Name them, feed them, make them happy; each monster is loaded with personality. You’ll experience game play and music as never before with this innovative technology!
Badland (4.5/5 stars, guidance suggested [for in-app ads and social / multiplayer capabilities], currently FREE)
BADLAND is an award-winning atmospheric sidescrolling action adventure platformer taking place in a gorgeous forest full of various inhabitants, trees and flowers. Although the forest looks like it’s from some beautiful fairytale, there seems to be something terribly wrong. The player controls one of the forest’s inhabitants to discover what’s going on. Through his journey he discovers astonishing amount of imaginative traps and obstacles.
BADLAND takes side-scrollers to the next level with its innovative physics based gameplay combined with the extremely beautiful atmospheric graphics and audio.
BADLAND also features highly original local multiplayer for up to four players playing with the same device. The multiplayer is all about survival of the fittest with no rules. It’s completely okay to push your rivals to spinning circular saws in order to survive.
“BADLAND is a standout game that we can’t stop playing.” — AppSmile
“BADLAND’s unique gameplay and atmosphere make it a must-download.” — Slide to Play
“BADLAND doesn’t simply look pretty, it’s an absolute treat to play” — AppSpy
“A hallmark of excellence.” — Destructoid
WINNER of Nordic Indie Sensation Award in Nordic Game 2013
WINNER of Best Project in Game Connection Europe 2012
WINNER of SCEE Award in Game Connection Europe 2012
Selected Indie Game in PAX 10 2013
Scribblenauts Remix (4/5 stars, all ages, currently priced at 99 cents)
THINK IT! CREATE IT! SOLVE IT! The award-winning, best-selling video game is now available for Android devices. Help Maxwell acquire the Starite by creating any object, bringing it to life and using it to solve each challenge. Let your imagination run wild in this groundbreaking puzzle game. Summon to life a ‘colossal, winged car’ or a ‘shy, frost-breathing, robotic hippopotamus’! If you can think it, you can create it.
It’s the perfect game for the casual player looking for fun and extensive replay with unlimited solutions and different outcomes. Or, the Scribblenauts fan wanting the complete Maxwell experience.
Whether you’re 8 or 80, the only limit is your imagination!
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And, the critics love it!
> “Editors’ Choice Award” – IGN.com
> “A work of utter genius.” – Touch Arcade
> “A brilliant game.” – Wired.com
> “4/4 Stars. A highly recommended puzzle game for all ages.” – USA Today
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