World Riddles: Animals is a 2D style children’s logic game with the theme of-you guessed it- animals.  In this adorable, safari styled game, the player is traveling around the globe, trying to gather pieces to a broken medallion.  To receive these missing pieces, children are to travel to each of the seven continents, taking part in ten types of puzzles.  Most of the puzzles in the game are mind stimulating logic games, where children are to follow directions on a graph to determine how many globes are in each column and row.  Once they have found all the globes, they are then to destroy the other blocks to finish the puzzle.  If the player accidentally chooses or breaks the wrong block, it will reveal itself to the player, but count that square as one of three or four errors allowed per level.  Hints are also provided every ten seconds to help children. A timer is available but only for the child’s own curiosity, keeping this game stress free.  With over 120 levels and four dozen mini games, parents can expect children to be entertained for hours.

Graphics: 5

If there was one aspect of World Riddles: Animals that was unimpressive, it was the graphics.  Most of the game consists of bland nature backgrounds that rarely change.  It is obvious that the developer recycled most of graphics since the majority of the levels look similar.  The only time you see change from these basic, nature backgrounds, is when its time for one of the animal mini games.  Being a puzzle game that has a target audience of children, the developer should have found a way to incorporate animals more into the background, making the game look more colorful and interesting. 

Sound: 8

The music for World Riddles: Animals was very upbeat and positive for children.  Having played numerous children’s games, I can say that most of these games either have no music or music so horrid those parents immediately go for the mute button.  World Riddles, Animals however far exceeded my.  Don’t be surprised if you catch yourself humming this simple music.  My only complaint was that I expected an incorporation of animal sounds somewhere in the game. 

Game Play: 10

This game is meant to be very simplistic in nature since its target audience is elementary aged children.  For this reason, World Riddles, Animals has very basic controls that consist of two options, a hand that is meant to reveal potential globes or a hammer, which is meant to destroy unneeded squares.  To switch between these two options, the user just has to click the right mouse button before hitting the designated square.  The only time the controls change is when a middle game is starting and in most cases, this is just dragging a picture across the level.

Options: 9

World Riddles: Animals has very few, but well chosen options.  Most of what is available in the options sections are simple options such as two volume controls, very basic graphic settings, and the option to play the game in full screen mode.  Off to the side next to the play button, is a feature you see rarely in children’s game, a bonus section that consists of unlockable hard modes.  For children, this gives them something to strive for after they have unlocked all the skills that are necessary in each level, giving the game replay value. 

Fun: 8

Before playing this game, the user needs to come to the understanding that this game was designed for children.  Understanding this, I found the game to be entertaining with progressively harder logic puzzles as the game progressed.  Most of these the mini games keep the game from being monotonous, giving the player easy, useful puzzles or riddles to solve.  Knowing this, however, I can also easily see children under the age of eight quickly becoming frustrated with the game, since the difficulty does increase faster than younger children may be capable of handling. 

Overall: 8

As someone that has played a multitude of children’s educational games, I must say that I found World Riddles: Animals charming, educational, and a wonderful introductory puzzle game for children.  This puzzle game teaches children how to follow directions and how to solve basic logic puzzles that, with time, can easily lead to children transitioning to more difficult puzzles.  I do believe that this game had the potential to be a memorable puzzle game that children will gladly play for hours.