When it comes to games for kids, there are a lot of mixed opinions out there about what's appropriate for what age, when and how often they should be playing, which features of a game might be harmful, and more. At the end of the day, everyone just has to use their own best judgement when choosing what to offer the kid in their life.

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Thankfully, you're not entirely alone. We're here to help you out! This article has collected some of the very best kids games - including their ESRB ratings - that are available on mobile platforms like phones and tablets. We wish you the best of luck in finding𝓀 something wonderful.

Updated by Gabrielle Huston on September 12, 2023: There's no shortage of mobile games to be enjoyed, but it can be hard to sort out the ones that are just money-grubbing from the ones that actually care about entertaining you. We've added a few more recommendations to this list for you to consider!

Video Games For Kids Age 2-4+

Mario Kart Tour

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart Tour provides a fun and easy way to play some your favorite 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart tracks on your phone or tablet! In addition, there are tracks inspired by real-world locations, including New York, Paris, Vanco🥃uver, Tokyo, and more!

Mario Kart games have straightforward controls, making the transition to a mobile screen completely natural. Depending on your preference, you can play it in either landscape or portrait mode. Plus, since Nintendo will soon allow us to use JoyCons on mobile, you could even play♊ with those!

It's great for kids because play sessions don't need to be too long - just the length of the track!

Forest Island

Forest Island is an idle game where the player helps to rejuvenate the various environments. Healing nature and inviting animals t🔥o live in it earns energy, which is used in turn to bring back more nature.

Younger kids might need some help getting started, and to avoid microtransactions, but it's a great choice nonetheless. Forest Island invites you to bathe in the wonderful sounds and sights that the gameplay offers, but doesn't nag you to play more often than you want to.

Pokemon: Magikarp Jump

Pokemon: Magikarp Jump is a game about catching Magikarp, a fish Pokemon, and building up a collection. There are tons of special variations of Magikarp to collect - including the Shiny golden Magikarp - so you'll quickly become attached to your batch.

The real test, though, is how well you can train them. The Magikarp train so that they can compete in jumping competitions. Whoever jumps the highest will win! Compete against other people's Magikarps and become the best Magikarp trainer you can be!

Neko Atsume

Neko Atsume is an adorable and wholesome game where you collect cats in your backyard by setting out the very best foods and toys for them to interact with. As time goes on, you'll get a collection of cats with distinct personalities and preferences! They come with names, but you're free to give them new ones.

If you're worried about your child spending too much time playing mobile games, there's also a benefit to downloading Neko Atsume: there's only so much you can do at one time. The idea is to come back repeatedly and check on your garden to see what cats have come around, not to sit there tapping away forever.

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Video Games For Kids Age 5-7+

I Love Hue

I Love Hue is a well-known and calming game that relies on your instinct for colors🍬. No need to fear, though: artists and non-artists alike will find it enjoyable and satisfying.

The premise is very simple: you are given a grid of colored blocks and asked to arrange them in a smooth gradient. As you get more practice, you'll be given more challenging shapes and gradients to fill. One thing we appreciate about the game is that the ads are limited, so you don't feel hesitant to just open the app like you do with other classic mobile games.

Minecraft

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Minecraft is a beloved sandbox adventure game that seems to be available on every platform known to humankind, and that includes mobile. While it can feel a little crowded due to the necessity of fitting a lot of buttons and infor🧔mation on a small screen, it still fills you with that intoxicating excitement that Minecraft seems to have mastered.

Basically everything that you love about regular Minecraft can also be found here; it receives all♌ the same big updates as the regular game. A major advantage for kids is that it can be saved🔥 and turned off at any time, making it easy to get in and out of for long play sessions or short ones.

Cats & Soup

In Cats & Soup, you manage a little community full of customizable cats! You'll love it for its adorable art style, hidden surprises, and lack of obtrusive ads (unless you choose to get a boost).

These felines are very productive, and they're always working away to make more soup (among other things). Gameplay is really breezy, simple, and doesn't beg you to stick around for longer than you're comfortable with. There's lots to like here!

PAC-MAN

The company behind Pac-Man has wasted no time finding ways to spice up and revitalize this classic game. The PAC-MAN mobile app does just that, adding a story mode and new pow𒆙erups t𝓡o the original formula.

There's a reason that Pac-Man was so popular; despite its deceptively simple design, it totally absorbs you and feels like an edge-of-your-seat experience while you're playing. However, each round is still relatively short, making it perfect for the mobile experience.

2048

2048 is a classic game that you're probably already familiar with. It just requires simple math (and, really, with the color-coded blocks, you don't necessarily need even that)!

The idea is to combine blocks of the same number to create one new block which is double the original value. The player "wins" if they can create a block worth 2048! Of course, for casual players, it's more about breaking your own previous high score, since 2048 is pretty hard to reach.

With simple graphics and an uncomplicated premise, 2048 is a great choice for younger players.

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Video Games For Kids Age 8-9+

Pokemon Cafe Remix

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Cafe Remix asks you to run a little cafe where you bake special Pokemon-themed recipes for your customers! This may bring back memories of games like Diner Dash, but it's not nearly as intense as that. Basically, there are little puzzle minigames that serve to "cook" each recipe.

On top of the cooking, you can have Pokemon on staff to help you! You can dress them in special chef's outfits and attempt little challenges with them to help them grow. As you expand the cafe, new Pokemon will begin to visit.

NYT Games

New York Times (NYT) Games app includes a lot of minigames that a slightly older child will find fun and challenging! It has the crossword, of course, but there's also a mini crossword, the Spelling Bee, Sudoku, Vertex, and, its most recent acquisition, Wordle.

It's worth noting that the functionality of the NYT Games app is slightly limited unless you're paying for it. However, we find that there's still plenty to keep you busy for a half hour or more without shelling out any ca🍌sh.

Slitherlink

Think of Slitherlink as a game in the realm of Sudoku, crosswords, word searches, etc. Like those, once you understand the rules, you can play them almost endles꧋sly.

Slitherlink is a mind game that challenges you to form loops on a board, but it defines how ꦅmany borders of a certain segment you can cover. The rules will take a minute to fully understand, but, in our experience, you can pick it up after just a few🅰 of the easiest boards. Then, you can customize the board type and difficulty to your own preferences.

Stardew Valley

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Stardew Valley is a cozy indie farming simulator game beloved by many. It can be played on most gaming consoles, as well as on mobile! You'll spend your time in-game revitalizing the old farm that your grandfather left you when he died.

The locals of Stardew Valley and the nearby Pelican Town are happy and welcoming (mostly), so you can get to know each of them and even fall in love! The relationships you build with the characters ꦛcan be just as enjoyable as farming, mining, and fightꦆing monsters.

4=10

Educational games aren't easy to recommend to your kids, but just check the reviews, and you'll see that this game is enjoyed by plenty of full-blown adults! That's partially due to one key benefit: there's no upfront cost and no ads. Of course, it's not realistic to ask many game developers to put their games up this way, but we can be grateful when they do.

As for the game's premise, it's really simple: you're given four numbers between zero and nine and you need to make them equal ten. To accomplish it, you'll get four symbols: +, -, x, and ÷. You can use any combination of them, and put the numbers in any order you want.

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Video Games For Kids Age 10-12+

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing games are undeniably incredible and have developed a massive following over the years, but it's hard to deny that they take an awful big time commitment. Most Animal Crossing games require a lot of waiting for things to happen.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp takes that regular experience and condenses it! While there is still some waiting required, it's proportionally a lot less, and there's plenty to do while you're waiting. This game includes all our favourite things about Animal Crossing, including decorating various personalized areas, shopping with the local animals, g𓂃etting to know animals who live with you, and more!

In fact, this game is so good that, when Animal Crossing: New Horizons got its big 2.0 update, s▨ome of the features were recognizable from Pocket Camp!

SimCity BuildIt

As you may have guessed from the title, SimCity BuildIt is a city management game. You'll build up your own city from scratch, keeping in mind things like your road patterns and local jobs!

It's really rewarding to watch your development come into a life of its own, and your city feels very personal to you. There's even multiplayer aspects to the game, like the fact that you can send disasters (for example, UFOs) to other people's cities.

Pokemon Go

Our final Pokemon mobile game recommendation is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon Go! This game took the world by storm in 2016 and quickly became a media sensation as more people than ever before took to the streets to play an alternate reality (AR) game. The news coverage has died down by now, but the game is still going strong. The full experience requires some data, so younger children without their own phone or data plan will need to play it while they're with you.

The basic premise is that the Pokemon you know and love from the video games appear in the real world as you walk around outside! You catch them in Pokeballs and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:bu🎶ild up a collection of strong battlers. With that strong team, you can 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fill your Pokedex, challenge Gyms (in-game hubs for the various teams), 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fight in Raids (multiplayer fights with super-strong Pokemon that appear in Gyms on occasion), fight other players or your friends online, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:defeat the insidious Team Go Rocket!

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