Riddle Road: Solitaire

While kids will see plugs to buy items, this app also offers several ways to play without them, and the card gameplay is engaging. Some puzzles kids will encounter in Riddle Road: Solitaire aren't really challenging enough to be very interesting. Those items tend to be sporadically doled out, though, so it ultimately shouldn't be too much of an issue. The solitaire card games are the main activity -- and can be addictive. Even though the game may seem easy at first, getting rid of as many cards as you can in each turn by selecting them in numerical order can be trickier than it sounds, particularly as the game progresses. The app introduces new elements to help and hinder you over time, such as a fan booster item to clear almost all the cards off the screen -- and an increased number of cards to make your way through.

Kids will start to see ads soon into the game, and some are sly. A wheel they're asked to click on, for instance, to win a prize is free for the first turn; but when it resets, the note that spinning it costs real-world money could be easily missed. Despite the subtle and not-so-subtle sales pitches, the app generally doesn't force your hand by increasing the difficulty level so quickly you completely deplete your earnings. That's possible to do eventually -- but kids will probably be able to play for awhile first. Each solitaire round costs money, but the game gives kids quite a few free ones as a bonus. Even if you have to spend some coins on extra cards because you ran out, other ways to get coins are built into the game. You can find them hidden in objects in scenes, and a purse periodically fills up with them every hour or so, giving you money to try again. Because the tasks after each game are fairly piecemeal, the storyline doesn't move very fast. But if kids get bored with the pace, they can just focus on the card element of Riddle Road: Solitaire -- and rack up stars to use later, whenever they want.