As fun  and educational   as iPads can be, when it comes to parents playing learning games with their children (as opposed to kids playing by themselves and turning into zombies), there really isn’t an app for that. Until now. TigerFace Games has developed a number of learning apps that allow parents and children to either compete or collaborate. The TigerFace Games apps are just a few of the dozens of games that are part of the Fingerprint Network. We spoke with Nancy MacIntyre, Fingerprint’s CEO and co-founder. Having worked at Broderbund, LeapFrog, and Hasbro, Nancy knows a thing or two about games. “We’re trying to create experiences that parents and kids can do together,” she says.

We test-drove three Fingerprint apps, including two that are being released this week. We also previewed two more that are due out by the end of September. All are fun, engaging, entertaining, and challenging, and the graphics and animation are excellent. Cosmic Reactor

Two players compete head-to-head in seven math-based games. One is a memory-match game, where players turn over “plates” that have equations, trying to find matching pairs (for example, 5×2 and 20-10). In another, a randomly generated problem comes up (“pick the equation that gives 41”), and players have to find the right one from among a bunch of equation-sporting viruses that are floating around the screen. Customisation is easy, so kindergarteners can do simple addition and subtraction, while older kids can multiply and divide larger numbers. (Ages 5-11).
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