Space Racers! (iOs) Review
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You had me at “no in-app purchases”. It’s tough out there for a parent these days. Kids loooove tech, and they love to play games on every available platform – including their parent’s phones and iPads. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to find quality games for kids – at any price. Finding a free game that […]
You had me at “no in-app purchases”.
It’s tough out there for a parent these days. Kids loooove tech, and they love to play games on every available platform – including their parent’s phones and iPads. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult to find quality games for kids – at any price. Finding a free game that is both educational and fun seems near impossible, and if you do happen to find one you like, it’s often laden with in-app purchases and/or tons of ads. Developers have to eat too, but kids just don’t understand those sorts of things, and it can make having quality screen time a difficult prospect.
Fortunately, there’s a new app for kids that turns to standard formula on its head. Space Racers! is a colorful game that is actually fun to play. It has no ads at all (not even for the Space Racers tv show), and there aren’t any in-app purchases either. It’s educational too, helping kids learn skills like cause and effect and accounting for variables. It’s a great app for fans of the show and newcomers alike (and even parents can have a little fun with it, as it does get challenging).
The basic premise of the game centers around four different airplanes (Eagle, Robyn, Hawk, and Starling from the show), who must make their way through a variety of levels, collecting stars and power-ups along the way. The planes fly up in the air when you tap the screen, and drift down when you lift your finger. That is the only actual mechanic in the game, so it’s really easy to pick up and play. It’s actually quite challenging though, as there are a variety of obstacles to keep things interesting.
First of all, the planes fly differently. A lightweight plane flies up quickly, while a more bulky plane has a slower ascent. You’ll need to account for the plane you’re using when navigating through the levels. You typically will cycle through the planes in a sort of tag team maneuver, where you land one and quickly take off with the next (although you can skip this, it may make things dicey in terms of fuel). Secondly, like real planes, these little guys really eat up fuel. There are fuel tanks scattered throughout the levels, but snagging one isn’t always a simple task, as there are tons of obstacles along the way, such as other aircraft and even meteorites.
You don’t die per se, even if you get hit by a lot of objects, and there isn’t a timer either. But you do run out of fuel rather quickly. If this happens, you simply get bounced back to your last takeoff (not necessarily the beginning of the level), so it isn’t stressful for kids who worry about dying in game. The characters are colorful and fun, and everything is really well done (particularly for a free game). Space Racers! is a great way to make every minute of screen time count, sneaking in lessons and fun in equal measure.