Parents' Guide to Alchemy ~ Genetics

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android , Kindle Fire Paid , Free Puzzle Games
Alchemy ~ Genetics Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Leslie Crenna By Leslie Crenna , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 9+

Kids create crazy animal combos in fun but repetitive app.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 9+?

Any Positive Content?

  • Alchemy ~ Genetics App: Screenshot #1
  • Alchemy ~ Genetics App: Screenshot #2
  • Alchemy ~ Genetics App: Screenshot #3

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Privacy Rating Warning

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • Unclear whether this product uses a user's information to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for personalised advertisements.
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What's It About?

Starting with three animals, kids drag one animal over another or tap to create new animals. The plus button allows kids to add any existing animals to the playspace; pressing and holding in the list window will display characteristics, existing combinations, and a link to a Wikipedia entry for the animal. The challenge button (light bulb) displays current target creatures.

Is It Any Good?

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

ALCHEMY ~ GENETICS is similar to other entertainment-oriented combination apps like Alchemy and Doodle God. The difference? This one leaves out the mature content and adds links to Wikipedia articles for every creature created. (In some ways it's more like Pocket Frogs.) Some creature-loving kids will love creating and collecting up to 525 animals and may even read about the real-life critters. Others will get bored with the repetitive gameplay and won't engage with the adult-level scientific information.

A great deal of gameplay is simply testing sequences of possible combinations over and over. Some kids will actually try to think about characteristics to create the challenge creatures, but, for the most part the logic is not all that logical: Hedgehog plus dragonfly makes opossum; ant plus squirrel makes flea; owl plus opossum makes eagle. Others have some logic: Ant plus rat [tailed] equals scorpion; fish plus scorpion [venomous] equals scorpion fish. If nothing else, Alchemy ~ Genetics will get your kids wondering about animal characteristics. Try introducing your kids to the Simple English Wikipedia website if they are struggling with reading the Wikipedia entries or just ignoring them.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Introduce your kids to Simple English Wikipedia website if they're struggling with the Wikipedia entries.

  • Kids interested in animals and collecting will enjoy Pocket Frogs.

  • Use our Wikipedia tips to help kids understand how to evaluate sources of information.

App Details

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