Math Agent

This is a clever way for kids to practice math skills together while having a lot of fun along the way, but the lack of clarity and the glitches are sometimes frustrating. Math Agent plays on the popularity of trading card games (such as Pokémon) while sneaking in lots of math. It's really quite brilliant and it's bound to draw in kids who love a bit of a challenge and a lot of competition. Unfortunately, the implementation isn't quite there in app form. The biggest issue is lack of clarity: The tutorial isn't as helpful as it should be, the card descriptions are lacking, and there's no in-depth glossary of available cards that explains what they do and how to use them. How would you know, for example, that you can't play a division card for defense unless the number can be evenly divided by the number you're playing? If you incorrectly play a card, your defense fails and you lose points. And you can expand each of your cards to see how they work (kind of), but not the opponent's cards, so sometimes you won't know how to defend because you don't know how your opponent's card works. Some of these challenges go away over time as you learn from previous mistakes, but it could turn kids off before they have a chance to get into it. Once a game ends, there's no way to return to the main menu. Your only option is to tap on the screen to play the next game or exit the app entirely to get back to the menu (i.e., if you want to switch from single player to multiplayer). These design choices hold true across platforms. The iOS version (on iPad), however, seems to hold a number of actual bugs that render the game frustrating and often unplayable. Certain conditions seem to break the attack button, so you can no longer play any cards on your turn. The only way out is to forfeit or keep skipping your turn until you lose. When playing a multiplayer game with an Android phone, the opposing player's cards suddenly appeared on the screen, and the display zoomed in slightly so the cards on the far ends of the screen were inaccessible. It's too bad, because Math Agent certainly has a lot going for it and it's likely to draw some kids in who might not otherwise be interested in math games. At this point, using it on Android is the best bet, with the caveat that you may need patience, but iOS (specifically iPad) is a no-go until an update happens.