Pop Your Way To Mathematician Status With Poppin' Frenzy
Poppin' Frenzy ($0.99) by Supportware is an educational game that helps improve math skills. The point is to pop balloons from low to high as fast as possible in order to achieve the highest score. It is available on many mobile devices and has a cross platform scoring system, so you are competing against a large game playing audience.
The game’s intent is to encourage its users to practice their math skills. It starts out fairly easy. The goal of the first round is simply to pop the balloon with the lowest number on it first and then subsequently pop the balloon with the next number until you clear the board. Using negative and positive numbers, the balloons spin around, causing the player to have to think about what they are doing. The faster the board is cleared, the more points you score. Each level gets increasingly harder.
Round two requires some of those math skills. Each balloon has an addition or subtraction equation that you must solve in order to determine the lowest number. Same as before, the faster you clear the board, the higher your score. Each subsequent round adds a slightly more difficult level of math.
The game’s levels include Numbers, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication, and Fractions. Unfortunately, that is it. There are no additional levels. The game goes by so fast that you barely feel like you’ve started. By challenging your child to solve the equations as fast as possible, they will be more likely to play over and over again in order to make it to the scoreboard.
This game does not support multitasking. So, you can’t save your progress. If you close the app for any reason, you lose your game. While it is good for the purpose of practicing math, it is frustrating if you are interrupted in the middle of a game. Fortunately, it only takes a few minutes to play an entire game.
Overall, the game is fun, educational and a great learning app. With the increasing difficulty of each level, kids will love (or hate) trying to get the best score while strengthening their mathematical skills. It may not take very long to get through the game, but at only $0.99 it might just be the game your young mathematician needs to become a top scorer.
Want to win your own copy? Leave a comment and you may win a free copy of Poppin' Frenzy. Contest Ends on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.
