Wubbzy's Wow! Wow! Ring Catch
The following is a reader-submitted review by Marc:
Some of the reviews on this site are tagged as "kidsafe", but a few months ago, when my 2-and-a-half-year-old was begging me to find him some fun games to play on the Internet, I couldn't really find very much at Jayisgames that he would enjoy.
So, I had to scour kids' sites to find stuff. The problem with a lot of the sites is that they are poorly designed—they might have a good game here and there, but they are buried under so many links (and dead ends) that my son would get lost on the site, trying to find the game.
We're down to 6 sites that I would say are well-designed, and which actually have content that a toddler would enjoy. In no particular order, they are:
- cbc.ca/kidscbc
- thisisdanielcook.com
- thomasandfriends.com
- sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet
- toopyandbinoo.com
- nickjr.com/playtime
Many of these are Canadian sites, but that may be because I got a lot of suggestions on a Canadian parenting forum.
My son started with toopyandbinoo.com (he taught himself to use the computer mouse, so that he could navigate this site) and has moved on from there. I'm not going to go into detail about all the sites. Most of them are of limited interest to adults.
Some of the games, though, are actually kind of fun, even for me. The one that I will highlight is Wubbzy's Wow! Wow! Ring Catch. We don't actually get Nick Jr. on tv up here, so while we've certainly seen a lot of the shows highlighted on the website (Dora and Diego, for instance), Wubbzy is not a character I'm familiar with. Nor was my son, but that didn't stop him from exploring that part of the website (after playing through all the Dora games, of course).
In any case, Wubbzy's Wow! Wow! Ring Catch is very simple: use the mouse to move Wubbzy and try to catch falling rings on his tail. The more you catch, the higher your score. Blue balls also fall occasionally, and you get bonus points for bouncing these off Wubbzy's head, up to five times for each ball (the bonus points increase after each bounce). Acorns and books should be avoided, but all they seem to do is stun Wubbzy for a second or two. On the later levels (there are only 4), the real challenge seems to be maximizing the number of bonus points you get with the balls, and trying to sneak in an occasional ring along the way. My top score is a paltry 657.
The game won't entertain forever, but I think that it demonstrates an important gameplay element for "all-ages" games—it has to be simple enough for tiny tots to play (the most important aspect for this, I think, is that you cannot lose, and you cannot get stuck), but it's interesting enough for adults to try to get the highest score possible. Another Wubbzy game on the site, Wubbzy's Amazing Adventure, shares the same benefits, although it's a completely different game. (My top score on Amazing Adventure is 1006, but I think I could probably get that up to 1020 or so.)
So, probably a link of limited use for this site, but on the off-chance that anyone else out there has a 3-year-old (or so) who likes games as much as WE do ... there you go.
Hmmm .. that's odd. I was under the impression that a large part of the stuff here was kidsafe. Maybe not. In any case, when you mentioned kids the first two websites that popped into my mind were Ferry Halim's Orisinal, and On's Eyezmaze - if you haven't seen those, be sure to check them out.
Haven't play anything other than the ring catch game yet, but that's pretty nice for a brief diversion. I think it's a bit too lacking in challenge (and maybe overly cutesy? the sounds get annoying after a bit..) to keep older gamers interested for very long, though.
Managed 692 in my one attempt; the trick is definitely to focus on the bonus balls - each one can net you 20 point in 5 bounces (2+3+4+5+6), which is much quicker than catching that many rings.
This game is very cute!
While the games here are mostly kid safe, it doesn't necessarily mean that they would be enjoyable by a toddler. I personally find that even though the games are child safe in terms of content, they are still geared towards an older audience.
Either way this game was cute and fun to play for a few minute break. :)
There's a different between "kid-safe", which means there's no reason to prevent kids from playing a game, and being the kind of game a kid - especially one as young as 2.5 - would enjoy. I'd say eyemaze has excellent games for children around 5-6 years or older, but younger kids probably don't have the hand/eye coordination most of their games require.
Yeah, I realized that myself right after I posted that - the difference is between kid-safe and kid-oriented. Maybe jay needs a new tag?
I tried the Amazing Adventure - nice, has a very "Super Mario Bros. 3" feel to it, I think. Got 1014; could've been higher. Tip - for bonus points, run into all the 'harmful' stuff when you have the helmet on.
I got a 554 on the ring catch game, it was actually a lot of fun! Thanks for the links, I'll be sure to forward them onto my cousins, many of whom have toddlers.
"kidoriented" sounds like a perfect tag to use for this, and I've added it to the entry.
It does help to distinguish from the other tag, "kidsafe", which was designed to indicate G-rated content, as with movies for a general audience.
Are there any other games/reviews here that anyone feels would benefit from this new tag?
Jay, you should tag The ABC game: https://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/09/the_abc_game.php
Thanks for the review Marc, my sisters will probally like these.
My daughter (4) has jayisgames in her bookmarks, she really has some favorites here. Samorost, 3wish and that game with the girl that lost her balloon-head for example. The difference between her and me in playing this games, is the replay-value. I could play samorost again after a year, but she had a time playing it three times a day, clicking around and watching the same old story over and over again. Nevertheless we had a great time figuring those games out together and she definately was helping.
http://www.boohbah.com/zone.html is one of the strangest sites she visits imo, allthough 'kid-oriented' a lsd-junkie could have his share there too.
if you stay at the bottom of the street you can even bounce the ball a 7th time for 7 extra points...
some of these games are great for the younger people
there seriously needs to be a delicous listing for jayisgames games
lol the ring game is fun....i just wonder how many 3yr olds owned my score though 698
hhm... I havn't had time to post a comment in a while...
But apparantly I wasreally good at this game, I have a suspicion it tells everyone that though...
nice game for a short diversion, made me smile :)
I agree, Ferry Halim has created a site (Orisinal) simply chocked-full of games that would be enjoyed by both parent and child alike. My favorite is "Pocket Full of Stars" The games are simple yet entertaining, with very little in the way of words a child may or may not be able to read (only whats in the simple instructions) so thats always a plus. Also, as a side note, I would like to say how pleased I was to see some parents actually interested in helping their childs mind grow through games, I believe this is always the best approach to use. The days of school being bromidic, mindlessly repetitive, and supressive to a childs spirit are numbered!
517 on 1st try XD
Not good at this game
wouter - that boohbah site is pretty wacky...
As for kidoriented tags: already mentioned Eyezmaze and Orisinal; besides that, I think there's a ton of good stuff.. maybe just go through the existing kidsafe-tagged entries and see which ones qualify?
And another attempt at ring catch: got 748!
A kid tag would be very welcome here. My 6yo is getting interested in more challenging games and currently loves to play Snowy (https://jayisgames.com/archives/2005/01/snowy.php).
I'll have to check back here for more toddler links! I also have a 2.5yo who wants to use the computer, but the best we've found are key-mashing "games" which bore her pretty quickly.
some of these games are great for the younger people
there seriously needs to be a delicious listing for jayisgames games
when i said that i meant the http://del.ico.us (or delicious.com)
website
Why does Daniel Cook have a bong in his bedroom?
Anybody can manage 0 score... it is not so easy!!!
I manged 3 total.. and it still said, "You did great ;)"
I found a great game for kids with tons of stuff to explore. The parts that teach letters have both english and french sections, which actually taught me something (I was suprised, never thought such a "kiddie" toy could possibly teach something to me!) Some of the optical illusions were quite fun to play with as well, and who doesn't enjoy splashing paint around the room and coloring in butterflies? (plus learning to mix colors of course =P) I'm sure everyone will enjoy something here =) http://www.poissonrouge.com/
This game was a magnificent ego booster. I realize that the little thing says "Wow" all the time as a kind of tic, but I believe it meant it when I said I was doing great. He didn't have to say that, and it meant a lot. :)
Jihiro, That poisson rouge site is really cool, thanks for the link. I have a 3 yr old and i do find it hard to find fun sites that both of us like.
Another suggestion for the kidoriented tag is blue rabbits climate adventure, its easy to control and there's almost no text to read. My little girl had great fun telling me what all the characters were saying :)
I got 793! :D Am I awesome or what.
My best is 694 and I'm stopping there until I'm super bored. Despite the game's simplicity and target-age group, it's quite amuzing. Unfortunately, the game is largely based on luck. I've had games with only about 5 balls falling on the fourth level, and I also had one where three fell almost simultaneously on the first level (and as soon as those three were gone, two more came at the same time!) Either way, it's a great time waster to come back to every now and then to see if you can beat your previous high score.
this game is from a children's show. the title is "Wow! wow! Wubzy" and it is on Noggin.
I'm glad that the review got some positive feedback -- I had thought that it (and the idea of toddler-games in general) would be of limited interest of this site.
Thanks to all who had additional sites and suggestions. I just wantd to respond to one in particular:
Orisinal, I love. My son likes watching ME play some of the games there, but he doesn't really play them himself. I think that, for someone so young, most of the games there are too difficult. They break the first rule of tiny-tot games -- it's too easy to "die". Take, for instance, The Runaway Train. Xander (I'm tired of calling him "my son") loves trains. He loves the sound effects in this game. He loves to watch ME play it. But he is completely incapable of playing it himself. He dies within seconds.
Sometimes, Xander surprises me with his ability to learn an unorthodox control scheme (I guess there is no orthodox for kids that young), but I can't imagine him really enjoying Pocket Full of Stars, which was an Orisinal game mentioned by another user. Hold down the mouse to make a bar go up, then release the mouse to make your character jump, and then when the character lands, she makes her image jump, which you can then move sideways with the mouse. I think it's a beautiful game, but I can't really picture a 3-year-old getting the hang of it.
But, as I said, you never can tell. Xander really enjoys Invader 360 (https://jayisgames.com/archives/2006/05/invader360.php), which doesn't really have a very intuitive control scheme. (Mind you, he's not actually *good* at it -- his high score is about 1200 points. But he had figured out how it works.)
If you go to donpixel.com and click "infantile" you get a lot of games for tiny kids. Like stuff where you just move things around in a room. The kid of a friend of mine had a pretty good time playing a couple of those at my house awhile ago.
A really fun game to play is porico's (I think I spelled it right) puppy adventure. It's very easy to win, but to get all the bones recquires great skills as the screen does not move backwards (gasp!). once it's of screen, its gone.
my high score is 391 (out of 400) :)
My 6 yr. old girl has been playing Sand Sand Sand for a number of months now. Recently she clicked one of the images on the right of the site Sand Sand Sand is on, and found a new game. So she plays around with all of them now like the egg one and so on... Dofi's blog games should definately be "kidoriented" or whatever the tag is now
862 woop
My 5 year old daughter has been getting very high scores on the wubzy ring catch. Last week she got 995.
Yesterday she got 1000-the game cannot even show it-it shows it as 0 total. It was 611+389 on level 4. Wonder if the 1000 is some kind of a record.The best I could get was 775.
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