Common Sense Media Review
By Paul Semel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Morbidly fun survival game with fighting, hallucinations.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Don't Starve: Pocket Edition
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
In DON'T STARVE: POCKET EDITION, you play as Wilson, a scientist who mysteriously finds himself alone on a deserted island and has to forage for supplies and food to survive. Once you're on the island, you're too busy trying to find helpful items and avoiding all the bees, spiders, and pig people to have any other adventures. You gather resources and craft survival items such as shelter, tools, and weapons and fight all manner of monsters. Through day and night cycles, players must maintain their health, sanity, and hunger levels and keep a light source to fend off the darkness and deadly creatures.
Is It Any Good?
What sets this engaging point-and-click survival game apart is its TIm Burton-y style, whimsical creatures, and mysterious atmosphere. Set on a small, open island that has a wide variety of flora and fauna, Don't Starve: Pocket Edition has you picking carrots, collecting sticks, gathering rocks, examining trees, scaring off birds that are trying to eat your food, building traps, and basically doing whatever you have to do so you won't die. In addition to the standard crafting elements are the creepy shadow creatures and sanity maintenance, which are unique features that add to the overall atmosphere. Because this was a PC game first, there's a well-established community and online resources that kids can lean on. While it's rather challenging, especially at first, it's also so compelling and darkly funny that kids likely won't mind trying over and over to explore and conquer all this rich world has to offer.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in games. Does it make a difference when the violence is cartoonish in a game?
Talk about survival techniques. What can this game teach us about surviving in a deserted place alone? What skills and character traits help overcome obstacles?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Release date : June 29, 2016
- Genre : Role-Playing Games
- Topics : Adventures , Animals ( Bugs , Wild Animals ) , STEM
- Version : 1.07
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 8.0 or later
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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