Parents' Guide to Cookie Run: Kingdom

The fighting, plot, and constant attention to building your territory will keep players coming back for more. The visuals stand out in Cookie Run: Kingdom from the start, as the Dark Enchantress Cookie descends to attack the main characters, and pink neon lighting flashes from the sides of the screen when you tap on a character during battle. Players will volley between fighting and spending some of the resulting earnings on construction needs as they rebuild a village. Sugar Gnomes provide information about an extended plot that's woven into the experience and also supply occasional tasks, such as removing a cake log from an area. Players can set building projects into motion and either pay extra to speed up them up or wait.

They'll need to click through some conversations that feel a bit drawn out, but they can skip or speed up some portions of the game, such as battles, if they opt to make them automated. If players fight manually, the battles might not involve too much strategy. They choose a team of characters before they begin, but they'll have to hunt to get some information about what characters' skills involve -- and even then, the skills aren't described in extensive detail. This could limit planning and end up resorting to clicking on characters whose cooldown period has ended, allowing them to attack again. Overall, though, there's fun to be had while playing. The scene settings change as you advance, which helps keep it from feeling repetitive. Baked good-related jokes add some humor to the situation. Players could potentially get locked out of the game if they run out of Stamina Jellies, but they're given a fairly high amount to start, and the jellies replenish over time, so that shouldn't be a pressing concern. The battles may not be overly dynamic, but with numerous items to collect and build, there's plenty to do -- and, as an added bonus, aside from some images that pop up touting other games or in-app purchases, parents and kids may be pleased to discover Cookie Run: Kingdom is essentially ad-free.