By Tracy (and Shelby & Sarah) Edmunds
October 5, 2004
As much as we love our children, there are those times when we just need them to leave us the heck alone. Computers are lifesavers in these desperate times, but with educational games going for thirty bucks a pop, you could go broke keeping the kids busy. What’s a frazzled parent to do? Welcome to the world of free online games. The bad news is that there’s a lot of crap out there. The good news is that if you have a better-than-dialup connection, Flash Player, and Shockwave, we found a few should keep the young ones out of your hair long enough to catch your breath.
CARTOON NETWORK
Ok, so instead of working like a real grown up, I end up spending a couple hours farting around with cartoon games. I especially liked the BOOMERANG section – lots of old LOONEY TOONS and HANNA-BARBARA stuff for geezers like me. If anyone figures out the answer to the WILE E. COYOTE puzzle, let me know – my visual-spatial skills are sorely lacking. For review purposes, we’ll stick to the comic-related shows that the kids like; TEEN TITANS, GO! and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED.
TEEN TITANS, GO!
Shelby says: I watched a video of Puffiamiyumi doing the TEEN TITANS theme – it was funny. They were being like the Titans, like when Robin jumps down, they jump down. Guitar Wolf is cool because he plays guitar behind his head. Raven does a card trick, but it’s pretty cheesy. There is something that says, “Build a 3-D model of the Titans Tower” but it just came out blank from the printer. Oh, poo
.
The part I like is a game called Battle Blitz and it’s so good I want to play it every day. You get to be a Teen Titan or a villain and you have to work your way up to fight. If you’re the villains you’re trying to defeat the Titans. If you’re the Titans you’re trying to defeat the villains. You push buttons in a certain pattern to make your person fight. And z and x are punch and kick.
Mom: Sounds pretty violent.
Shelby: No, it’s cool! You push all the buttons like you’re typing really fast. You go up to ‘em and punch, kick, punch, kick, z, x, z, x. Kids will like it because it takes a long time and it challenges you.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED
Shelby: “Dangerous Pursuit” is you have to go rescue the other teammates in the Justice League. It was a little hard but not very much. Mom did the turning and I did the shooting and rescuing. “Curse of the Underworld” is very boring because my computer won’t let me use all the controls they say you can use. Whenever you push “shift” five times in a row, some warning pops up, and the “shift” key is your attack! “Wrath of Mongul” was really bad ‘cause you didn’t get to do much.
BONEVILLE
JEFF SMITH’s BONE is one of Shelby’s favorite comics. I’m halfway through the humongous book, and I have to say it is very charming. So, we checked out the website and found a few Java and Flash games.
Shelby: They are just games that are old-fashioned, like checkers, concentration, and tic-tac-toe. I like the old-fashioned games ‘cause it takes a while and they’re not too hard. The only bad one is this really weird game called Rat Creature Sweep and I have no idea how to play it.
LITTLE LIT
Not a whole lot here – two games up so far and another that says, “Coming Soon.”
Shelby: There’s this game where you have to click the words and it tells you the things that you’re supposed to look for on the picture. There’s another game where you have to match two animals that are exactly the same. They’re very boring. All you do is just sit there and look for ‘em. I think little kids might like it though.
BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES games
(scroll down to Game Gallery) Low-tech games and jigsaw puzzles.
Shelby: That was fun, too. There is a jigsaw puzzle and a matching game if you know who the villains real names are.
GOTHAM GIRLS
Great Flash movies featuring Batgirl, Catwoman, Harley and Ivy, and some new girls in Gotham.
Shelby: There are ten episodes and you have to watch them all to figure out the case. They are like TV shows and you have to watch them because they are so good!
DC KIDS
This site has one Batman-based game, Harley’s Game, and a few more Gotham Girls flash movies.
Sarah: Harley’s Game was fun because you have to punch the bad guys. It’s Joker, Penguin, and Two Face. It’s short and they move around so you have to try to hit ‘em while they’re walking. It’s really easy because if you press the spacebar really fast you could catch them all.
WARNER BROTHERS
RIBBIT ARENA
Good games for older kids who like a little bit of a challenge. The easiest is a traditional concentration card game called “The Joker’s Gone Batty.” “The Cat and the Bat” is more of a video game style challenge, as is “Teen Titans Cyborg Stronghold.” But be warned – the Penny Arcade section includes such gems as “Make the Flea Poot,” Belch-O-Blaster,” and “The Masked Toilet.”
Sarah: The Joker game is really hard cause the whole screen fills up with cards, but it’s really weird because they all change, like Starfire and Batman and Robin. They looked like Joker and then when you match them they get regular. “Teen Titans Pizza Toss” is fun and very weird because you don’t even see the pizzas fly but it’s easy because you just click on the stuff you want to shoot but never click on the Teen Titans or else you’ll lose a point!
Shelby: “The Cat and the Bat” is very hard because you have to jump and there’s this moving thing you have to get on. I died a bunch of times. “Teen Titans Cyborg Stronghold” was hard because you have to hold the clicker down and when you want to shoot you have to let go of it. “Pizza Toss” was way too easy for big kids, but little kids might like it.
LOONEY TOONS
Games in four categories: Sports, Puzzles, Action, and Adventure. Some games show up in more than one category, but there’s enough here for a nice long session of clickin’. Some of these are even remotely educational, such as “Marvin’s Earth Eraser” in which you have to match 3 dimensional shapes. I was particularly pleased to see my old favorite Witch Hazel show up in “Witch’s Brew,” a great game with lots of reading practice.
Shelby: I liked “Marvin’s Lucky 13 Solitaire” because it’s math and you add up to 13. “Witch’s Brew” was hard because you didn’t really know how much to put into the cauldron. The action games were all too hard. “Marvin’s Earth Eraser” was hard but fun because sometimes you had to match the shapes inside and outside.
Sarah: I liked “Marvin’s Earth Eraser” because you had to match shapes and it was hard and you had to go to the moving ones and that is the hardest level.
SCOOBY DOO
If your kid is a Scooby fan, this is the place. Plenty of games, some based on the comic/TV show and some from the movies.
Sarah: “Fighting for Fashion” is really easy because all you do is press X and Z and up and down and left and right arrrows. You have to beat up the bad guys to get clothes. I liked it ‘cause it was concentrating and there are three levels. It’s better because the other ones are too hard.
Shelby: I like “Velma Vision” because you have to remember what the villain looked like.
LOONEY KIDS
For the younger squirts – printable coloring, dot-to-dot, and maze pages. The interactive story, “Lion and the Mice” is actually good practice for kids learning to read.
YOUR TURN: Okay, everybody, listen up. Since the email flooding my inbox has been rather slow of late (really, really slow), here’s the deal. Do you read this column? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you give a damn or should I just go back to my real job? I’m considering the following topics – discuss amongst yourselves and vote by e-mail:
Kid-Friendly Webcomics (Recommendations needed!)
Comic-Based TV Shows for Kids
The Newest All Ages Comics from DC and MARVEL.
Comics That Look Like They Are For Kids But Really Are NOT
Tracy Should Stop Pretending To Be a Writer and Go Help the PTA
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