Grow Home

Simply put, Grow Home is sublime. Kids will love the exploration and B.U.D.'s goofy, underdog nature: He awkwardly steps and hops around like a baby chick and emits fascinated gurgles and digitized "uh-oh" beeps when he finds himself in precarious situations, which will happen a lot. You'll spend most of your time in Grow Home climbing bean stalks and seizing growing flowers to grow more vines that take you to other faraway floating islands. Some of these islands contain gems you also can scoop up to unlock new abilities for B.U.D., such as zooming out for a better lay of the land, or you can get a jet pack to buy you some more time in the air as you float and follow your whims to save the planet.

From the get-go, you catch on to how the game works. It's simple but can be deceptively challenging -- it's able to goad you into doing ridiculous stunts such as jungle-gymming your way with B.U.D.'s gripping claws all the way under floating islands. Since there are no enemies, you're free to try going anywhere and everywhere. And since you're rewarded for wanderlust by uncovering spooky caves and save points, the point of the game is to tinker and go wherever you think you're supposed to -- and wherever you think you might not. It's fun and focused and a really enjoyable time.