Parents' Guide to Boom Karts

The controls in this racing game are fairly sensitive, so it may take some getting used to before you're successful, but once you do, there's a lot of fun to be had. It doesn't take much motion for your car to spin out, but players can get back on course fairly quickly in Boom Karts. If you have a hard time turning back in the right direction, the app will even automatically reset you to the middle of the course's lanes. Players also get to drive through different settings that generally feature decent graphics. They'll zoom over a bridge in a city scene, for instance, and weave through train tracks in a mining town.

The clothing gamers can unlock as they play isn't particularly necessary or exciting, but other elements, though, such as engines, will help with races. Weapons probably didn't need to be included -- you're moving too fast to use them much of the time, anyway, and being able to fire a rocket at another player doesn't exactly send a good sporting behavior message to younger players. The app gets some points for not locking players out of the game quickly to encourage them to spend some cash on extras, though. Driving into hot lava, water, and other potentially dangerous situations won't end a round, and players aren't given a limited number of lives, so they shouldn't find themselves having to repeat levels over and over again to try to get past them. They might not place first in each race -- but even if they don't, there's still plenty of fun to be had trying to get to the finish line in Boom Karts.