The best free games for kids: 20 great titles for girls and boys

Welcome to our list of the best free games for children both on tablet and PC. These games have been carefully selected to ensure that they are appropriate for boys and girls.

We've all heard horror stories about children playing in the news. Back in the '80s, we were told that Pac-Man would usher in society as we know it, with children wandering labyrinthine streets, starving for cyberspace.

Now, 30 years later, we do not know anything as if that had ever happened In fact, research has shown that games can be a productive leisure activity, in moderation, of course. For example, the best games for children will foster problem-solving and creativity skills. The best free games for children, then, are an active leisure activity, as opposed to the passivity of watching television.

Still, it is very important to make sure that your children only play the best games for children. We went ahead and created a list, highlighting 20 of the best free games for children, both boys and girls, aged between 5 and 11 years. All are complete experiences as they are, they do not present violence and tend to combine immediacy and depth. However, the most important thing is that they are extremely fun: for children of all ages.

10 best games for children with Android and iPad tablets

Today, children are more likely to experience computer science and games first. a tablet that a home computer. To that end, our selection of tablets is skewed a little younger.

According to Google, everything that is included here has a rating of 3+, so it should be safe even for very young children. Apple is more conservative: it classifies the 4+ games, apart from Super Stickman Golf 3 and Spaceteam, which have 9+. The games are also simple to control, easy to enter and fun to play.

A note on IAP and ads : free games need to earn money in some way. There are several games listed here that do offer in-app purchases (IAP) for the game currency, and some feature ads instead. In the first case, you can disable IAP at the system level on your device before handing it over to a child. With the latter, you must first play yourself to make sure the ads are good.

1. Sago Mini Friends

This set of minigames of good character encourages dexterity, puzzle solving and creativity. Start with the selection of a colorful character, which then explores a neighborhood of cartoon houses.

Play a door and you will be invited to play inside an animated and entertaining playdate. This can involve nailing nails in an aviary, dressing up or even enjoying a tasty snack.

Everything is bright and cheerful, and the game promotes empathy, with a friend who is gloomy if the booty is not shared evenly.

Get Sago Mini Friends for Android and iOS . A version of Windows PC is also available. This game does not have IAP / advertising.

2. Lego Creator Islands

Honestly, we are confident that most parents would be happier to see children playing with real Lego instead of virtual bricks in a tablet. But when the real is not an option, this official game is a good substitute.

It is based on the titular islands, in which you collect bricks, to "buy" Lego sets that are built with a few touches. Over time, you will accumulate houses and vehicles, and beautiful giant creatures that roam around. As a further advantage, there is no possibility of treading painfully a plastic brick.

Get Lego Creator Islands for Android and iOS . This game does not have IAP / advertising.

3. Play Kitchen 2

If your child regularly uses a tablet, it is likely that he has already installed some Toca Boca games. They are a clever mix of education and play, and Toca Kitchen 2 is no exception.

As the name implies, Toca Kitchen 2 has to do with the kitchen. This game will invite you to create meals, as your imagination allows. Invent your own recipes and imitate your creations in a colorful cast of characters, whether you've built a hamburger carefully or just tossed a watermelon in the microwave and covered it in sauce.

Get Play Kitchen 2 for Android . This game does not have IAP / advertising. There is a paid version for iOS .

4. Llama Spit Spit

Llama Spit Spit is a game of curious shots, with a flying flame that shoots the enemies of cartoons with a mixture of slime and high-powered weaponry.

The controls are incredibly simple, which means that even the youngest players can get on board. Power-ups and collectible flames (with their own background images) keep things interesting in the long term.

The only drawback is the Shooty Skies (Android / iOS), which is the best (and most surreal) game – although the lack of ads and IAP means that the flames get cleared for this particular list.

Get Flame Spit for Android and iOS . This game does not have IAP / advertising.

5. Disney Crossy Road

The original Crossy Road came back to work deftly in Frogger, with block characters jumping through interminable endless landscapes, trying to avoid a dunk in a river or being crushed by a train. But the master blow was a lot of unlockable characters.

Disney Crossy Road is very similar, but uses Disney characters that often radically modify the visual characteristics and mechanics of the game. More than 100 figures are found, and although IAP lurks, playing and collecting coins in the worlds of the game is all you need to hook them all.

Get Disney Crossy Road for Android [19659014] and iOS . This game presents advertising and has non-essential IAPs to buy new characters.

6. Frisbee Forever 2

One would think that throwing a plastic disc would be a video game. Fortunately, Frisbee Forever 2 is more like a set of roller coasters, with you guiding your disk through doors, collecting stars along the way.

There is a hint of Nintendo in this arcade game, with its colorful graphics, intelligent level design and a basic control system suitable for everyone. And, although there are fundamentals of freemium, you will be rewarded with the game currency for every second you play, even if an attempt at a level ends in failure.

Get Frisbee Forever 2 for Android [19659014] and iOS . This game features advertising and has non-essential IAPs to unlock zones and discs faster.

7. Fruit Ninja

In the vertiginous world of Fruit Ninja, your finger becomes a virtual sword, cutting pieces of fruit thrown to the screen in two, and trying to avoid cutting into bombs that end in the game.

It is the perfect game for a tablet, since you can make big touches satisfactorily on the screen. But what makes it special is the fact that it offers a local multiplayer mode, so two children can jealously confront their fruit-cutting skills.

Get Fruit Ninja for Android and [19659014] iOS . This game presents advertising and has non-essential IAPs for buying currency in the game.

8. Mekorama

With its small isometric world you can turn with your finger and the mechanics of turning the landscape, Mekorama reminds me of Monument Valley. But this game has no optical illusions Escher type; Instead, focus on direct search while helping a traveling robot to achieve its goals.

It's a tactile experience, charming and charming, and on a tablet it's suitable for games between parents and children, working together on puzzles. Once you have finished with the 50 integrated levels, you can download more from the Internet or create yours.

Get Mekorama for Android and iOS . This game features optional IAP to tilt the developer.

9. Super Stickman Golf 3

For many children, golf will not excite. But the Super Stickman universe does not participate in normal golf. Instead, you're going through balls in parallel courses larger than life: huge castles; bases seeded with laser; Floating Islands.

Although it is a fun solitaire game, which makes the most of the bigger screens (through you can see more of each course and therefore aim more accurately), it also has excellent multiplayer modes. You can play games step by step with your friends, or try your luck in frantic and unrestrained skirmishes of "race to the hole".

Get Super Stickman Golf 3 for Android and [19659014] iOS . This game features advertising and IAP to unlock a premium upgrade (more courses and slot machines for turn-based multiplayer) and in-game currency.

10. Spaceteam

If you have several children with their own devices, Spaceteam is a deliciously crazy way for everyone to shout at each other in a vaguely productive way that will help them work as a team, at least in theory. Specifically, a "space team" on a ship trying to escape from an explosive star, with control panels designed by a sadist.

Once your children's devices are connected, the instructions appear on your screen, but the controls may be on someone else. Therefore, there will be people who scream nonsense like "someone turns on the pendant muffler", while realizing if your screen has a slider & # 39; spectrobolt & # 39 ;. Like Star Trek.

Get Spaceteam for Android and iOS . This game has a unique optional IAP that unlocks new features and themes

PCs are naturally more complicated than tablets. While very young children can discover how a touch screen works, finding out mice, panels and keyboards can take more time.

But if your child is old enough to take advantage of the best laptops for kids, our selection of the best free PC games for kids will be biased a bit more. However, this does not mean that there will be no games for your five-year-old son. Keep in mind that several of these titles are browser-based, although none require add-ons. For these games, we recommend using the Google Chrome browser.

1. Cube Slam

Pong was one of the first homemade video games. Cube Slam is Pong in your browser, only in 3D, and you can play against a bear (or a friend) but the multiplayer option is flaky.

You face your hairy opponent, moving the bat to the left or to the right to deflect the & # 39; ball & # 39; cuboidea, with the aim of breaking the shields of the bear. Win enough times and the game introduces power-ups, invisible balls and extra blocks on the table that make the ball bounce unpredictably.

Play Cube Slam online

2. Quick, Draw

For children who enjoy scribbling, Quick, Draw should be fascinating. The idea is to sketch, against the clock, something recognizable enough for the Google Neural Network to identify it.

In each case, it tells you what to draw. But this game is not about drawing photorealistic objects. Instead, you should quickly discover the key visual cues that describe something. Which is probably a good thing, unless you can doodle a realistic rhino in 20 seconds.

Play fast, draw online

3. The world's largest Pac-Man

Pac-Man is one of the most recognized game icons of all, and the original game is simple enough so that even the youngest children can deal with it. However, his unique labyrinth quickly becomes boring, hence our recommendation to play the world's largest Pac-Man.

This online effort has hundreds of thousands of labyrinths, in which you adventure by sneaking out of exits. Apart from that, the convincing mix of cheat points from the original game and avoid a quartet of spectral pursuers remains intact.

Play the world's largest Pac-Man online

4. Forget-Me-Not

This independent hit takes the base of Pac-Man and many other arcade games, and then stars them in endless modern neon craziness.

Once again, the basic concepts are simple enough for any child to understand: march on labyrinths, grab a key, and take the exit. But the chaotic nature of the game (the inhabitants of the labyrinth seem to try to blow each other to face the player) ensures that it is relentless fun.

Download Forget-Me-Not for PC, Mac, OpenPandora and MorphOS [19659092]

5. Little Alchemy 2

It would be an exaggeration to call Little Alchemy an educational game, but the intelligence of textbooks can help you decipher the logic at the heart of this puzzle game.

You start with a handful of block constructions, which when combined create new things. Sometimes, the discoveries are obvious: add water to more water and get a puddle. But some are more capricious and fun, like when metal and a pigeon become an airplane.

It is an ideal forage when your children want to play, but you would prefer them to relax and think a little.

Play Little Alchemy 2 online . The game is also available for Android and iOS .

6. Contre Jour

This charming physics puzzle began its life on the mobile, but its nature of landscape deformation works well in the browser.

The goal is to take the protagonist Petit to the brilliant start. This involves dragging malleable hills to influence Petit's movements, or using catapults and hanging tentacles to throw it.

Petit's charmingly grumpy attitude, combined with great-looking images and intelligent-level design, make it a safe family puzzle to have kids scratch their heads and discover all the solutions.

Play Contre Jour online . The game is also available in paid form on several mobile platforms

7. Escape Goat

The clue is in the title here: a hopping bovid wants to get to the exit. But doing it requires intellectual capacity, many skilful leaps and the occasional help of a friendly mouse.

Mainly, you try to reach and collide switches that move rocks and create tunnels in one-screen challenges astutely designed. But often it is required to plan to collect the keys, and not be crushed when the walls begin to move.

Interestingly, when you send the mouse to a mission, you can teleport to its position. Why the goat can not teleport directly to the exit, we have no idea. Goats were never the brightest creatures.

Play Escape Goat online . The game is also available in paid form on Steam .

8. Spelunky

This side-scrolling dungeon crawler is a distinctive Indiana Jones sensation, and this is probably why it became a great independent hit on handheld computers, but it started on the PC. These days, there are several ways to play first incarnations of the game for free.

Although this version is a bit rougher than modern variations, it remains convincing. You explore caves, jump, pick up bling and hit monsters. Each game is unique: the caves are generated randomly, and a single mistake can take your mission to an abrupt end, impaled or killed by snakes. So step lightly and look before jumping.

Play Spelunky online get Spelunky 1.1 for Windows or download Spelunky 1.3 for Windows and Mac

9. VVVVVV: Make and Play Edition

One for children who are a bit older and with sudden movements, this version of the gravity flip platform VVVVVV is a free special edition. Like the paid launch, it presents a small guy who is spinning and can jump from the ceiling to the ground by touching the jump button.

Your goal is to escape from a labyrinth comprising dozens of individual screens filled with spikes and enemies in motion. This free edition includes maps created by fans and the means to build yours.

Download VVVVVV: Make and Play Edition for Windows, Mac, and Linux

10. Super Crate Box

This one is also in the category of nervous thumbs, and finds a pixelated little puppy jumping on, trying to grab boxes. Meanwhile, you must throw creatures that spill on the screen, lest you throw yourself into the flames below and rage out of the top.

The game is fast, entertaining, and has many weapons and scenarios to unlock. . And although it is a shooting game, we can not imagine that many parents worry too much about their children taking a cartoon bazooka to a conga of green monsters.

Get Super Crate Box for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam [19659151] Best Free Games 2018: the best free games to download on PC

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