Parents' Guide to Burn the Rope

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Common Sense Media Review

Christopher Healy By Christopher Healy , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 9+

Fun, original puzzler challenges you to play with fire.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 9+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

What's It About?

Tap any place on a design to start the flame burning, rotate your device to keep the rope vertical for fast burning, rotate again to slow down or turn a corner. Kids have to decide when to burn up ants to best burn matching color rope, beetles to best burn in a radius, and lightning bugs to ignite a nearby buddy. Kids can retry as many times as they wish, trying different approaches and paths. There are ample levels, and it can take endless tries to get every last bit of rope on some of the harder designs.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say : Not yet rated
Kids say : Not yet rated

BURN THE ROPE is both a brainy logic puzzle and a challenging test of manual dexterity. The premise is that you are provided a rope design and you need to work out the best place to start your flame -- and the best path you should make it take in order to cover the entire length of the intricately twisted rope. Plus, at the same time, you need to have quick and steady hands to turn and twist your device and keep the flame on your chosen path. There are all sorts of new strategies to try out when you realize that intersections will split the flame and send it off in multiple directions at once. It's very entertaining and thoroughly original.

Scoring 100 percent becomes a major challenge right from the get go -- we would have liked a few more "beginner" puzzles. Also, the frying of insects feels gratuitous. They add more challenge when you need to use them to change the color of the flame and burn colored ropes that correspond with them, but it still feels a bit sadistic.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Talk with kids about ways fire can be used safely -- cooking, candles, fireplaces, campfires, etc. -- emphasizing that it's important for them to follow your family's safety rules for matches.

  • Visit entomology museums, collections, or websites to gain a true appreciation of these incredible and resilient creatures.

App Details

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