Parents' Guide to Hopster Saturday Club: Empathy

These silly and extremely emotional characters showcase a relatively well-rounded collection of feelings, even if some of the games are overly simplistic. Four characters model the basics like happy, angry, and sad. There are also some more complicated emotions like embarrassed or content. Kids see four different characters represent each of the 15 included emotions, which may help them recognize how emotional expressions have similar characteristics. However, it isn't always easy to confidently identify the emotions with these simplistic cartoon drawings. It's nice that kids work not only on recognizing and naming emotions, but also on exploring the situations in which someone would feel that emotion. The expression-creation game has the potential to be really fun, but unfortunately it disappoints. It would be nice to see kids have more control over the possible expressions and to label and document what they've created, for instance. Though Hopster Saturday Club: Empathy is partnered with a TV series, it easily stands on its own, particularly when parents and kids play together. Hopster Saturday Club: Empathy can be a fun, easy, and free way to spark conversations about a good number of emotions.