Parents' Guide to I SPY Riddle Race

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Kids' Games
I SPY Riddle Race Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Christy Matte By Christy Matte , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 6+

Familiar and fun seek-and-find game adds timed stress.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 6+?

Any Positive Content?

  • I SPY Riddle Race App: Screenshot #1
  • I SPY Riddle Race App: Screenshot #2
  • I SPY Riddle Race App: Screenshot #3

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What's It About?

Kids first choose to "Play" or "Practice." The play version starts with a maze that a marble moves through, landing on different detailed pictures. They have 10 minutes to search three separate pics for a list of items (provided in riddle form), and then increase their score with a bonus round, finding as many items as possible before time runs out. In the practice version, kids search one picture for the items in the riddle without being timed. Kids can enter their name on a leaderboard when they get high scores.

Is It Any Good?

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

I SPY RIDDLE RACE is a timed and somewhat frustrating version of the I SPY series. The puzzles are difficult enough to complete with no available hints, but the timed aspect merely adds to the stress. To make matters worse, the bonus round sends you on a hunt through your previous puzzles (you guess which one) to locate items that are sometimes very difficult to see. In addition, the game doesn't always recognize when you have found a correct object. It's almost as if they simply shrunk the game from a larger screen without recognizing that a kernel of corn might be hard to find/touch on such small real estate. The app was played on an iPod Touch for this review; perhaps the larger screen of an iPad would improve the experience.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about perseverance -- what does it feel like to find that last item in a game of I Spy? How do you push past the frustration?

  • Play I Spy in real life with whatever happens to be around you; animals, colors, words -- there's always something fun to find in the world.

App Details

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