 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Nanovor
Common Sense Media says
Online battle game is free to play but costs to upgrade.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this turn-based combat game is free-to-play online but will later release expansion packs that will cost $1.75 each. Also driving traffic to this game is a regular Friday web-cartoon, a comic book, and a handheld toy which will be available in Fall 2009. The game alludes to evolutionary theory where Nanovor are nanoscopic creatures hundreds of times smaller than dust-mites. They are silicon-based creatures that live in high temperatures, electricity is their life force, and they live to fight, so there is some violence in the game. However, kids direct the battles between the Nanover, but don't actually inflict the damage. Defeated Nanover dissolve into dust.
What's it about?
In NANOVER, Lucas Nelson, a student at Hanover High, discovers a nanoscopic world inside his computer while researching dust-mites. These silicon-based creatures, which are many times smaller than dust-mites, live to battle and fight to live, their life force sustained by electricity. Lucas' Science Teacher names them Nanovor and with his assistance, Lucas creates a device he called a Nanoscope with which to collect and evolve these creatures. The secret is too good not to share and soon his best friends are also collecting the creatures and they let the Nanovor battle each other in turn-based gameplay. Lucas and his friends have rivals who discover what they are up to and the story plays out much like any Saturday morning cartoon with a web-movies released regularly.
Is it any good?
Nanovor is a fun turn-based online combat game which can be played with up to four other people. Similar in format to kids' trading card games, kids collect Nanovors, build a deck (called a swarm), and battle others by revealing the creatures in their swarm while taking turns. Depending on what creatures are brought out to play, kids need to think and strategize on the fly, deciding which creature to play next or if they should use one turn to boost the power for a much more powerful attack in the next turn.
Kids will use logic in evolving their Nanover into more powerful versions by playing a Master-mind like code breaking game using three colors of Energy Modules. Energy modules are only used up on success in battle. The Free Game provides you with a certain number of Nanovor and Energy Modules, but thereafter, Nanovor and Energy Modules have to be purchased with real cash either through online transactions, expansion packs, or retail packages.
Online interaction: Targeted towards children 7 to 12, the game has chat via drop-down menu-driven choices and parents control how often and how much their children are allowed to interact with others online. By default, trading is set to "Off" until parents allow it.
What families can talk about
Families can explore science with their kids. What is nanotechnology? Is it possible that there are creatures much smaller than dust mites? Could living creatures be based on Silicon instead of Carbon? What is evolution?
Families can also talk about online consumerism. Games are costly to make. Some game makers, like those that created Nanover, provide some content for
free to give players a taste of the game. If players
want more out of the game, they have to pay for it via
micro-transactions -- the buying of items for small amounts of money. How do you feel about this kind of marketing? Would you rather just pay for the game upfront?
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AGE
bloody and gory
very violent for kids game its bloody too
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AGE
Squicky goo, but otherwise fine
Only just loaded this, but pleased to see you can limit the chat functions and also parents can join as friends of the children, so we can see it for ourselves and help out with trading, etc to boost their scores.
The "good guys" seem to set a good example.
Only drawback so far - the graphics when the bugs are defeated are rather squicky (but green goo, not blood-style). Wouldn't recommend for littlies, but 9 or 10 upwards will love it.
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AGE
give it to mature 6 year olds or older!!!
good game nanovors can slice each other where blood and gore come out . blood is green goop so its not to bad except you can slice peoples heads off(again there head disenegrates and goo comes out)very amusing.
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AGE
No controls over who signs up
Nanovor lets kids sign up to play this game without parents' permission. Some kid -- I have no idea who -- hijacked my e-mail account months ago and is giving it out as his parents' e-mail. I keep canceling the account, but Nanovor lets his reopen the account with my e-mail over and over and over, even after I repeatedly explained the situation to them. Not only do they not require that the parents verify the e-mail, Nanovor doesn't even require that the e-mail be active; if messages to it bounce back, Nanovor doesn't cancel the child's account. It's a good thing the content on this site is mild, because there are absolutely no controls on it.
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| Platforms: | Windows |
| Available online? | Available online |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Smith & Tinker |
| Release date: | August 3, 2009 |
| Price: | Free |
| ESRB rating: | NR for Not rated |
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