Fantasy Solitaire: Card Match

The game challenges kids to pick the most effective card combination -- which, while not impossibly difficult, requires enough thought for playing to consistently be compelling. Combining math, logic, and other critical thinking elements, Fantasy Solitaire: Card Match features well-known fairy tale characters such as Cinderella and Robin Hood, who kids unlock as they play. A witch broke the characters' stories into fragments, and to repair them, they're searching for individual storybook pages, which kids earn. Strategy factors into the cards selected because kids aim for the best possible point combination to take down their opponent. Characters correspond to a card suit and will provide different points for cards. Kids get 7 points for each diamond suit one they play, for example, when Beauty of Beauty and the Beast fame is in their roster. Pulling the cards from your deck toward the villain serves as an attack, and the visual effect is about as dynamic as you'll find for a card game.

Some aspects of the format work better than others. The task list, for example, would be a great way to prioritize what to do, but the descriptions -- things like "I made a wish" -- are so vague it ends up ultimately not being very helpful. Kids will also see some pushes to buy special packages and other items, including some ads for other games with a sneaky presentation that makes clicking on them by accident easy. The game involves a time component, so kids could potentially get locked out after playing for awhile. Generally, though, it doesn't seem to have been designed to trap people in a corner or leave them confused about how to continue. Kids can have the deck deal new cards if none of the current selections are helpful, and if their hand is out of playing options, they can swap one of their cards for a new one. Moves like that offer them a chance to work around temporary roadblocks -- making Fantasy Solitaire: Card Match both fun to play and a potential learning experience.