Parents' Guide to Rush Royale

This tower defense game can be fun, even though some elements, like merging units and balancing attack skills, add complexity and confusion to play. Rush Royale's premise is actually fairly simple: Keep a steady stream of incoming monsters from reaching your gate or they'll cause damage. Kids click on a button to add units, which have different skills, such as shooting arrows or infecting enemies with poison. They're randomly scattered on the board and start attacking automatically when creatures approach. The main action involves kids choosing to merge units to make them stronger, adding more basic-level ones or powering up units that are already on the board when their Mana reaches an appropriate level.

Due to the tower defense structure, kids' role in the game isn't overly active. They may feel like they're spending a lot of time passively watching the battle unfold and waiting for their Mana to refill so they can add or augment units. Some aspects are out of your control -- you can't choose where new units end up on the grid, for instance. Other components, such as the way the merging process works, might at least initially be misunderstood. Although a visual included in the Knowledge Base illustrates the way it works somewhat, the written description isn't very clear, and the game doesn't really explain why kids have the option of merging units multiple times if it will reduce their power. Even with some uncertainty, the game can still be somewhat fun to play -- kids may enjoy seeing how their upgrade and unit additions play out. Strategizing in a logical way can be challenging in Rush Royale, though, because kids may not know what impact their choices will ultimately have on their performance -- and if they aren't able to advance, playing could start to feel repetitive.