By Ian Knott
With schools on hiatus during the current lockdown, it’s almost inevitable that gaming consoles are going to get more use than they normally might.
But that doesn’t mean kids need to switch off their brain and zone-out in a frenzy of mindless zombie killing or high-speed racing.
There are many games available that provide educational content while being enough fun so that your kids don’t realise they’re learning while having a blast.
Whether it’s on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch or mobile device, here’s a list of my top five fun, but educational games.
Unless you’ve been living off-grid in Backwater, Nowhereville for the last decade, then Minecraft needs no introduction. In fact there would be very few kids under the age of 15 who haven’t played Minecraft at some point, if not regularly. It’s even used as a teaching tool in many schools.
This sandbox crafting game promotes critical thinking, planning, teamwork, creativity, and even some rudimentary electrical circuitry for the more adventurous.
There are a couple of ways to play the game: Survival – where you start with virtually nothing and have to hunt and mine resources to survive the scary mobs that come out at night, and Creative mode – where you are invulnerable and have every resource in the game at your disposal.
Minecraft is available on almost every gaming platform.
In layman’s terms, Terraria is Minecraft, but presented as a 2D side-scroller. It’s more objective-based than Minecraft, with bosses of increasing difficulty to defeat as you become more powerful. You’ll need to mine for resources to build structures for keeping items and non-playable characters in, as well as craft weapons and potions to aide you on your quest.
Each game of Terraria is randomly generated, so your game will play out very differently to your friend’s – however you can join each other’s worlds and play together.
Terraria is available on most gaming platforms.
When it launched in 2016, No Man’s Sky, while massive and beautiful, was a repetitive shambles of a game that didn’t even scratch the surface of what it promised to deliver. But over the last two years, No Man’s Sky has been given updates that have improved the game significantly.
The game promotes imagination and curiosity as you explore a virtually endless galaxy of planets, each with their own flora, fauna, landscapes, atmosphere and pitfalls. Mine and harvest essential minerals to use for fuel or sell back at space stations for upgrades to your ship.
No Man’s Sky is available on PS4
The whole LittleBigPlanet series is pure perfection for platforming fans with creative minds. The LBP3 game itself has a plethora of amazing levels with puzzles easy enough for younger gamers to figure out and get a real sense of achievement from. But where that fun ends, the real fun begins with one of the best level creation tools in the business.
For kids that might be showing an interest in game development, the LBP3 level creator is simple to use and will get their brains thinking outside of the box. You’ll be amazed at what kids can come up with.
LittleBigPlanet 3 is available on PS3 and PS4
Ok, this game is a little older, but if you still have an Xbox 360 or PS3 around it’s worth dusting them off for. Portal 2 is a first person shooter, but it’s not a shoot-em-up so to speak. Think of it more of an escape room scenario. No killing, just a portal gun that shoots holes for you to enter and exit as you attempt to escape from a testing facility.
Portal 2 promotes lateral thinking and spatial awareness – and with Stephen Merchant voicing an annoying robot – it’s also side-splittingly hilarious to boot.
Portal 2 is available on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC
Worthy mentions: Super Mario Maker 2, Scribblenauts, VR science and exploration games, Wordscapes
