Parents' Guide to

The Firm

By Paul Semel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 13+

Look, swipe, repeat in mindless, morbid memory game.

App iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire Paid Arcade Games
The Firm Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • The Firm App: Screenshot #1
  • The Firm App: Screenshot #2
  • The Firm App: Screenshot #3

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What’s It About?

In THE FIRM, you play as a young man who just landed a great job at a financial company. Looking at reports, you have to decide whether to buy more stocks in that company or to sell the ones you have. Both actions are done by simply swiping left or right. There also are memos to file that require one or two taps before swiping up or down, depending on the instructions. Do well, and you'll earn more money and be promoted, all the way up to chairman. Do badly, and you'll be fired and may (if you don't opt out of the game's sad ending) wind up facedown in the gutter, dead. Along the way, you can check in with your profile, which contains a place to buy power-ups and indicates when you've received a promotion. As the stocks stack up or you make too many wrong decisions, a warning alarm begins. When the pile reaches the top of the screen, the game stops and the screen fills with "FIRED."

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Though The Firm has its initial charm, it's not endless. But the monotony of gameplay is. To play, you simple swipe left to sell stocks, right to buy them, and deciding what to do is dictated by the earnings report on the company's prospectus, which uses an arrow chart to show how well the company is going. But it's always the same. For instance, if the chart is green and the arrow is heading down, you should sell, and if it's green and going up, you should buy; if the charts are red, you do the opposite. But once you have this memorized, The Firm is only challenging because of the volume and speed of the stocks, and the only incentives are purchases and promotions, which don't have much effect on the game. Leveling up usually means the stack gets bigger, which is frustrating, and sometimes the tap-then-swipe gesture doesn't register in the game. Also, the only profile available is a white male. Though the brainteaser quality of the game is fun for one round, the game just doesn't offer enough variation or satisfaction to keep players coming back.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Talk about how the best media is sometimes simple. Is that true of this game? Why, or why not?

  • Families can talk about financial security. Why is it important to save money? Is there something you'd like to save up for?

  • Discuss dealing with failure. Why is it important to accept failure as a part of life? What can we learn from failure?

App Details

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