Parents' Guide to Sliding Seas

The game is a creative take on the matching genre. Kids combine like-colored objects, as in other games, but instead of the tiles getting cleared from the board, they're often upgraded as they’re matched in Sliding Seas. Four light blue tiles would transform into a life raft, for instance. A match can trigger another match when the tiles move, which is referred to as a combo. Kids are also working toward an ultimate goal to get survivors to dry land and safety that ties into the overall theme. Survivors who have been rescued are taken to an island that gradually gets bigger as new buildings and other items are added. Their island can provide additional tasks in some levels, such as rescuing a VIP character who is involved with a pizza restaurant.

While turns aren’t limited in number in most rounds, a fair amount of strategy is still involved because you need to anticipate how moves will affect the chance of getting survivors toward shelter. The number of moves counts, though, if a survivor has asked for help, indicated by a life preserver that appears above them. The app offers suggestions of next moves unless kids disable that feature in the app settings. A failed attempt to save a survivor who has asked for help will cause kids to need to repeat the level, and they'll lose one of their lives, unless they use diamonds to extend the round. That's seemingly an incentive to make an in-app purchase, or watch ads for additional items to help make progress. The app isn't overloaded with ads, though, and if kids can keep beating levels by rescuing the requested amount of survivors -- and not losing any who asked for help, or failing to meet other stipulations -- they won't need to buy anything. Without having to shell out any cash, the new challenges the app periodically introduces and somewhat addictive matching-based gameplay can make sailing the Sliding Seas legitimately fun.