My favorite games to play are the ones that challenge you without you feeling completely overwhelmed. Games where you feel like you are learning with each move but in a watching an afterschool special way not a writing sentences way. The app Game For Two has four games that let you learn and have fun at the same time. All 4 games are twist of board games, but are on iPAD. They all have different challenges, are great brain games.
The app itself is pretty straight forward. You pick your language (three languages available, including English). Then you choose between “two player” or “versus robot” mode. You have a choice of four games: Caro “A variation of Gomoku”, Tiling “Make lines get tiles”, Co-Ganh “A Vietnamese traditional chess”, and Coloring “Fun coloring game”. Each can be played at easy, medium, or hard difficulty levels.
In case the descriptions above are of no help to you (because they sure didn’t help me), let me break it down a bit more. Caro, to me, is like a Connect Four but you have to connect five. I didn’t win one game against the robot the entire time. You can tell when the robot is being strategic. However, I still couldn’t make the adjustments I needed to win. Co-Gahn is my least favorite and my 9-year-old’s absolute favorite. There is a grid of lines within a box. The box is outlined on one half by red dots and by blue on the other. The object is to move your pieces within the grid and end up in between two opponent’s pieces to make them disappear. Whoever makes all their opponent’s pieces disappear first wins.
My favorite games are Tiling and Coloring. Both games played and won at the medium level. Tiling is my absolute favorite. It is like playing Tetris except against someone and slowly, thoughtfully, and with more strategy. You can make lines vertically as well as horizontally. I could play this game all day every day. Coloring had me a bit stumped at first. It has these “null” blocks that you can make by coloring the outside of a still white polygon with the four different colors, making a polygon that can’t be colored anymore since two polygons can’t have an edge that share a color. That wasn’t entirely clear to me in the instructions but I rocked it once I figured it out.
What I liked best about Game for Two was playing it with my daughter. She is always up for games that challenge her and games that she can beat me at. This app gave her the opportunity for both. We both found games that played to our individual strengths. Each of these games requires strategy and critical thinking. You are always thinking two steps ahead. This app is well worth checking out for what it has now but more games are promised to come.
Game for Two is available for iPhone and iPAD. It is $1.99 on App Store.
If you would like to check it out or purchase it, please use the App Store link provided below. The cost is the same to you, but iGameMom gets a small percentage. Thanks for your support! Note: The link works for all countries.
For more fun brain games, visit Best Learning Tools for Kids – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills.