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game review: "stack the countries" (ipad)
Jan. 26th, 2012 12:56 pm"Stack the Countries" is a geography learning game based entirely on multiple choice questions. As a reward for a correct question, the player gets to stack the country on top of countries from previous correct questions, with the aim of reaching a target height. When answering the questions, the four possible answers are presented as name/country shape, with all of the countries the same size, but once you are ready to stack them, the country sizes are all to scale - there was much glee with getting Australia and China, both of which reach the line all on themselves!
As well as the relative size aspect, there are some very neat features to the stacking. You can rotate and move the countries to best position them, and you can drop them from any point on the screen. However, if you drop them from too high, they bounce, and can in fact bounce off the side of the platform, completely losing them. They also don't stay in the relative position you place them in - they treat the bottom of the screen as down, and 'fall' to a balanced position. I am very impressed by this aspect - the added bit of thinking is great.
There are a number of other features that I like a lot. First up - you can have multiple games running, enough so that the whole family can be playing in their own way and own time. In addition, the game is scalable, depending on how challenging the player wants it. You can choose to focus on a single continent (of six), or the whole world; and you can decide how many categories you want to be questioned on at once (minimum of two from continent, flags, languages, bordering countries, landmarks, and a couple that I have forgotten).
For each time you reach the target line, you unlock a country, which enables you to find out information about it (there is also a 'learn' section which has the information for the whole set). Unlocking multiple countries leads to unlocking more games - I'm looking forward to that!
In terms of age range - I think that any competent reader is going to get something out of it, unless their knowledge of these topics is encyclopaedic. I am slightly embarrassed to say that one of the first countries unlocked is one that I've never heard of (Palau). While I am finding the questions relatively challenging, youngest is finding it captivating as well - the multiple choice option is really working for zer, even though zer guessing would appear to be well above chance.
This was completely an impulse purchase - I've been looking for a decent geography game with some of these features for a while, but most of the ones that I have found are flash, and I don't usually want to play such things when I'm at home. For $2, I'm pretty happy with it so far - youngest is playing away, and learning lots about the relative sizes of countries, as well as some possible relevant facts. Eldest and middlest are staring over zer shoulder, and eldest is back seat driving - I'm fully expecting an explosion soon. As a starting bid for rating, 4.5/5. If it keeps the attention of more than one person for more than today, and the other games are fun, I'll be putting that up to 5.
Edit: There is a light version in the app store - I can't see what the difference is between them. I'm happy to have paid for something that I'm going to make use of, but it might have been nice to try it out for free first.
As well as the relative size aspect, there are some very neat features to the stacking. You can rotate and move the countries to best position them, and you can drop them from any point on the screen. However, if you drop them from too high, they bounce, and can in fact bounce off the side of the platform, completely losing them. They also don't stay in the relative position you place them in - they treat the bottom of the screen as down, and 'fall' to a balanced position. I am very impressed by this aspect - the added bit of thinking is great.
There are a number of other features that I like a lot. First up - you can have multiple games running, enough so that the whole family can be playing in their own way and own time. In addition, the game is scalable, depending on how challenging the player wants it. You can choose to focus on a single continent (of six), or the whole world; and you can decide how many categories you want to be questioned on at once (minimum of two from continent, flags, languages, bordering countries, landmarks, and a couple that I have forgotten).
For each time you reach the target line, you unlock a country, which enables you to find out information about it (there is also a 'learn' section which has the information for the whole set). Unlocking multiple countries leads to unlocking more games - I'm looking forward to that!
In terms of age range - I think that any competent reader is going to get something out of it, unless their knowledge of these topics is encyclopaedic. I am slightly embarrassed to say that one of the first countries unlocked is one that I've never heard of (Palau). While I am finding the questions relatively challenging, youngest is finding it captivating as well - the multiple choice option is really working for zer, even though zer guessing would appear to be well above chance.
This was completely an impulse purchase - I've been looking for a decent geography game with some of these features for a while, but most of the ones that I have found are flash, and I don't usually want to play such things when I'm at home. For $2, I'm pretty happy with it so far - youngest is playing away, and learning lots about the relative sizes of countries, as well as some possible relevant facts. Eldest and middlest are staring over zer shoulder, and eldest is back seat driving - I'm fully expecting an explosion soon. As a starting bid for rating, 4.5/5. If it keeps the attention of more than one person for more than today, and the other games are fun, I'll be putting that up to 5.
Edit: There is a light version in the app store - I can't see what the difference is between them. I'm happy to have paid for something that I'm going to make use of, but it might have been nice to try it out for free first.
