Parents' Guide to Band Together

Band Together Poster Image

Common Sense Media Review

Chris Morris By Chris Morris , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 8+

Kids help critters avoid deadly hazards in tricky puzzler.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 8+?

Any Positive Content?

Parent and Kid Reviews

What's It About?

Kids guide the Bandies around the screen with finger swipes, moving them through levels as individuals or groups. The Bandies only move when they're near candlelight, so one wears a candle as a hat and must remain in proximity to the others for them to complete any actions. Players attempt to guide the Bandies to a safe exit, avoiding various hazards placed on each level.

Is It Any Good?

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

Only a select few puzzle games manage to be charming. Band Together hits that mark while still presenting a challenging and thoroughly enjoyable set of puzzles for players to solve. The game borrows equally from Lemmings and LittleBigPlanet, with plenty of fresh twists -- including a few puzzles where you'll need to sacrifice one Bandie so the others might survive.

The game's controls aren't perfect, which could lead to unnecessary Bandie deaths, but it's easy to restart them and there are no penalties for trying multiple times. The game is full of style and put together wonderfully. The biggest complaint puzzle fans will have is it ends too quickly.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • If you have younger kids, play the app yourself before letting them play. Gauge whether the content (mean experiments on Bandies that can cause death) may be too much for them.

  • Midge elaborately records his story in his journal. Encourage kids to keep a journal, either on paper or in a journal app.

App Details

  • Device : iPad
  • Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : hypothesis-testing , problem solving , solving puzzles
  • Pricing structure :
  • Release date : June 20, 2012
  • Genre : Puzzle Games
  • Publisher : Backflip Studios
  • Version : 1.0
  • Minimum software requirements : iOS 4.3 or later
  • Last updated : November 11, 2020

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by

Band Together Poster Image

You May Also Like...

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

See how we rate