Parents' Guide to Ingress Prime

This updated augmented reality game has had a couple of changes, but they're not entirely all for the better of the game. The original Ingress was unique in the app gaming world, blending video games in the real world and laid the groundwork for Pokemon Go, but Ingress Prime has a flashier interface that could prove confusing to veteran players. Worse, the lack of an in-depth tutorial could prove confusing for newcomers. As before, the story and game-playing elements will appeal most to people who immerse themselves in the rather complicated game fiction. (The pushback against the interface was so strong, the company released Scanner REDACTED, which temporarily restores the old look of the game.) Beyond interface confusion, the game drains phone batteries faster and there's sometimes a noticeable lag in the software. And some players will gain an edge by buying advantages, rather than earning them in-game.

Like Pokemon Go, you'll have to get up and walk -- sometimes a fair distance -- to find a portal or waypoint where you can actually play the game. That's great for making kids more active, but it also makes it challenging in a geographic sense. Large cities will have many more portals than small towns, where they can be several miles away, rather than a block or two (and kids may have to cross dangerous roads to get there). The game encourages social interaction, as it takes teams of players from one faction to gain control of a portal run by another. It does require either a Facebook or Google+ account to register, though. That said, because of the location-based interaction and chatting feature, parents either need to play along with their kids or make sure kids are venturing out with trusted friends. Setting strict limits around communication with strangers, either through chat or in person, also is important. The chat functionality is unmoderated, and though it might not always have inappropriate comments, it's certainly possible to appear. You can block other users, there are safety suggestions outlined in the Community Guidelines, and the general culture does seems to be totally game-focused, but this is definitely a game that needs supervision.