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Parents' Guide to

Cato's Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey

By Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Maze puzzler makes learning programming an adventure.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Paid Education
Cato's Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Cato's Hike: A Programming and Logic Odyssey App: Screenshot #1
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This product does not have a sufficient privacy policy.

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
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What’s It About?

CATO'S HIKE: A PROGRAMMING AND LOGIC ODYSSEY puts kids in a hiker's shoes (either Cato or his friend -- kids' choice) on an odyssey to find a way through the magical world they've stumbled into and to get back home. Kids use programming commands to tell their character where to move and how to get past such obstacles as water, rocks, and trees, collecting jewels and hearts along the way. To move their character, kids drag command cards into the program. They can work with beginning-level commands, telling the character to walk or jump or turn, or use more advanced tools such as loops, goto commands, if/then commands, branches, and chaining. Kids can save their in-progress programs and email them to friends. A tutorial walks kids through the basics, and a written manual is included.

Is It Any Good?

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

Cato's Hike uses a method similar to other introductory programming apps: kids drag commands into a program to learn programming concepts. The adventure story adds a fun element, and the option for kids to create their own maps extends the challenge well beyond the included 60 levels. Kids can share their programs by email, which adds some social interaction and potential for peer feedback -- important in programming, especially when working on a team. Another great feature is the wide age range. Kids as young as five can solve levels using elementary programming skills, whereas teens (or adults) can get more advanced with sophisticated commands and logic. The story is a really fun addition, and even though the writing isn't stellar and the text includes missing words and punctuation, it's still understandable.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Encourage kids to replay levels to find more efficient solutions. Discuss how, in coding, there can be multiple successful programs but the cleanest code is the most efficient.

  • Review the written manual in the help section to get an overview of what kids do in the app.

App Details

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