Common Sense Media Review
By Leslie Crenna
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Deep selection of thought-provoking game links.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
The ENGINEERING.COM GAMES page is essentially a collection of game links with popular and featured ones at top. Each game has its own qualities; some are RPG- or quest-oriented whereas others feature physics, and still more resemble spatial logic board games. All are single-player games, and they run either within or separately from the website. There's no login or registration; kids simply play. There are tons of options: Koutack asks kids to stack adjacent squares in a particular sequence so one stack is left at the end, testing spatial reasoning and problem-solving; Factoryballs is a sequence puzzler that challenges kids to create balls according to specifications using belts, sunglasses, paint, and more; and related games are listed at the bottom for kids. Links to Google Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and more allow kids to share. Some games have YouTube-based walkthroughs.
Is It Any Good?
Each game on this site could have its own separate review, but most of the ones played for this review were of good quality and generally thought-provoking. On the simpler side, JECT is a balls-and-obstacles game, like Pong for the new millennium with an Angry Birds-type slingshot thrown in. Cargo Bridge is a bridge-building engineering app with somewhat dubious connector qualities, but it's otherwise appealing and educational. On the character-driven end of things, Fractured is a platform-based game that seeks to reunite a lost boy with his mom, but it doesn't seem to ever load. Ninja Mushroom is a logic platformer based on a masked fungal dude who must avoid property-endowed obstacles to reach a golden stump, all in tune to a relaxing soundtrack. Knightfall 2 is a humorous, spoofy quest that starts with our unfortunate hero getting kicked out of his thatched-roof cottage by his "Princess" (wife) who then throws the game rule book at him. Battles are played out on rotatable Rubik's Cube-like puzzle boards with deadly rats, curing potions, and keys for exiting once the goal is reached. The beginning tutorial is too long, and the font is a bit hard to read, but otherwise it's entertaining. Although quality does vary a bit, the site is definitely worth checking out as most games have educational value.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what these games have to do with real-world engineering tasks. You also can talk about what engineers actually do.
These games are meant for adults as well as kids; play along, or challenge your kids.
Website Details
- Subjects : Language & Reading : following directions , reading comprehension , Science : engineering , chemistry , physics , Social Studies : history
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : applying information , collecting data , decision-making , deduction , logic , part-whole relationships , prediction , problem solving , strategy
- Genre : Educational
- Pricing structure : Free
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
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