Stack the Countries

App review by Jenny Bristol, Common Sense Media
Stack the Countries Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 8+

Pile up nations while you pile up geography knowledge.

iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Windows app Paid Education
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Parents say

age 10+

Based on 1 review

Kids say

age 7+

Based on 2 reviews

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  • Stack the Countries App: Screenshot #1
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  • Stack the Countries App: Screenshot #3

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this app.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Stack the Countries is an educational geography game teaching and quizzing kids on the countries of the world and their shapes, neighbors, landmarks, capital cities, languages, flags, and other geographical facts. The difficulty is both low and high enough for a wide age range, including adults. The game supplies world maps and flash cards with country facts that can be studied before playing the game portion of the app. Gameplay involves reading questions and choosing from four different countries or country shapes as the answer. The game is not timed. If the player answers the question correctly, they get to drop the country onto the waiting pedestal. Kids keep dropping countries on the pedestal, moving or rotating them as desired before dropping, until enough are stacked up to reach the checkered line. Then the player receives a random country that gets placed on the world map. Once kids receive 20 countries, a second game called Map It is unlocked. After 50 countries, a third game called Pile Up is unlocked. Six different profiles can be saved in the game, and there is also a guest player option.

Community Reviews

olivia R.
olivia R. Adult
October 10, 2016
age 10+

Stack the Countries Review

The application Stack the Countries, is a user-friendly geography application that targets many ages and engages the user in a fun game. The game can be used in multiple languages, English, Spanish and French. The game teaches users different countries geographic locations, capitals, languages, flags, monuments, as well as many other facts about the countries. While the display and graphics of the game lend to a younger audience, the information within the application is somewhat advanced, yet important for everyone to know and understand. The game builds on itself to allow for more learning over time and across different skills. To ensure that users have some sense of geography before playing the game, there is a “Learn Before You Play” option, which allows the user to go through the 193 different countries on flash cards to get a basis of what is to come, or to refresh their previous knowledge. While the user learns information on each country, they stack them up in order to reach the next level. Every level beat earns the user a random country which they then add to their continents until the get all 193 countries and complete all 7 continents! One downfall to the application is that it is not free, which may pose a problem for some schools. However it is only 2.99 and has additional games within. As well as completing the continents, earning more countries unlocks two separate games for the user, “Map It!” and “Pile Up!” Both of the additional games are also about geography and build off of “Stack the Counties” and the knowledge gained in that application. So the user is ultimately getting three games for the price of one. A great feature of this application is the option to focus on a specific country or on the whole world. This would allow for instructors to assign specific countries at a time and base lecture plans around that country and the applications information on them as well. This application is great for history or geography classrooms because of the imagery of each country, along with the detailed information on each. Because this application is fun and engaging it would be a fun in class assignment or a relaxed homework assignment that the kids would enjoy. Recently the Colorado Academic Standards for Social Studies added the intentional integration of technology use, especially at a high school level. This allows for students to access these concepts and skills in a way similar to the 21st century. This application would be a great addition to history or geography classes in high schools and could add fun to their work environment. Overall I really enjoy this application and wish a more user friendly application would have been available when I was learning geography. The application is very helpful for adults who need to brush up on their geography, adults who need to learn and education themselves on geography and different facts about the world, and for children of many ages that need to learn geography but may need or want a fun and interactive way to do so.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
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What’s It About?

Kids can read the flash cards before playing the game on Stack the Countries. For the main game, kids read a multiple choice question and choose from four different countries or country shapes as the answer. If the player answers the question correctly, the country drops onto a pedestal. Questions keep coming and kids keep dropping countries on the pedestal, moving or rotating them as desired before dropping, until enough are stacked to reach the line. Then the player receives a country that gets placed on the world map. Once kids receive 20 countries, a second game called Map It is unlocked. After 50 countries, a third game called Pile Up is unlocked.

Is It Any Good?

STACK THE COUNTRIES is a fun way to learn and test knowledge on the geography of the world. Since players can change which parts of the world and types of questions they are asked, the game can be tailored to what players want to learn at any given time. The countries all have happy, smiling faces that look at one another as they sit on the pedestal. Because of the different country shapes and sizes, it can take anywhere from one country to a dozen or more countries to stack up high enough to complete a game. The strategy of stacking the countries as efficiently as possible adds a truly entertaining element to learning geography facts. The game also has nice touches like a changing background that displays several different important locations on the planet, such as the Great Wall of China and Ayers Rock. The pedestal also changes to fit the background theme.

When kids answer a question correctly and are given the country to drop on to the pedestal, the country changes in size to be accurate relative to the other countries on the pedestal. So, for example, Russia and Canada end up very large, and Benin and Montenegro end up very small. Stack the Countries keeps kids' and grown-ups' attention for quite a while, as they test their knowledge and country-stacking abilities.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Younger kids may have trouble reading some words in questions or pronouncing the names of unfamiliar countries, so be nearby to lend a hand with reading.

  • If your kid isn't answering many questions correctly, suggest they read the flash cards first.

App Details

Our Editors Recommend

For kids who love to learn with apps

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