Common Sense Media Review
By Paul Semel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Artsy "game" will delight some, confuse others.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
KIDS
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 KIDS, players use the touch screen to lead a little person around until they do something that leads them to the next area, where the process starts all over again. Sometimes this means leading a pack of them into a black hole, while other times it's avoiding that hole. You're never told anything about the game, such as why you're doing this to these poor, mindless kids who mostly do whatever you tell them, which leaves this plot point up to the player.
Is It Any Good?
Less of a game than an art project, this curious app will confound some, engage others, and probably do both to the rest of the people that pick it up. In KIDS, you use your device's touch screen to tell a bunch of black and white line drawn kids what to do and where to go. You're just never sure what that is; instead, you have to figure it out. For instance, at one point, the kids start running around, and it isn't until you get them to run in the same direction that anything changes. In other parts, you have to get them to fall into a big black hole, while other levels have you telling them to avoid the hole. The kicker being that these are kids, not sheep, so they don't always do what you tell them. Well, at first, anyway.
It's all very weird and confounding, and that's both the problem and the great thing about this "game." For some, this will be too artsy, too esoteric, and too lacking in direction. For others, though, it will be delightful and quirky and, well, artsy and esoteric. The downside, no matter where you stand, is that this isn't terribly long, and there's not much reason to play it more than once or twice. But if you're think the word "pretentious" is a compliment, KIDS will keep you on the straight and narrow for an hour or so.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the powers of deduction. In this game, you have to figure out what to do so you can progress to the next stage, but what did playing KIDS teach you about when you have to figure things out for yourself? How important is it to know when to ask for help?
In KIDS, the characters do what you tell them, and they often follow each other's lead, but does this show you why it's important to think for yourself and not just jump into a black hole because someone else did it?
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Pricing structure : Paid ($2.99)
- Release date : May 31, 2019
- Genre : Puzzle Games
- Publisher : Playables GmbH
- Version : 1.0.3
- Minimum software requirements : Requires iOS 10.0 or later; Android 7.0 and up
- Last updated : October 3, 2019
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