My favorite games to play are the ones that challenge you without you feeling completely overwhelmed. Games where you feel like you are learning with each move but in a watching an afterschool special way not a writing sentences way. The app Game For Two has four games that let you learn and have fun at the same time. All 4 games are twist of board games, but are on iPAD. They all have different challenges, are great brain games.
The app itself is pretty straight forward. You pick your language (three languages available, including English). Then you choose between “two player” or “versus robot” mode. You have a choice of four games: Caro “A variation of Gomoku”, Tiling “Make lines get tiles”, Co-Ganh “A Vietnamese traditional chess”, and Coloring “Fun coloring game”. Each can be played at easy, medium, or hard difficulty levels.
In case the descriptions above are of no help to you (because they sure didn’t help me), let me break it down a bit more. Caro, to me, is like a Connect Four but you have to connect five. I didn’t win one game against the robot the entire time. You can tell when the robot is being strategic. However, I still couldn’t make the adjustments I needed to win. Co-Gahn is my least favorite and my 9-year-old’s absolute favorite. There is a grid of lines within a box. The box is outlined on one half by red dots and by blue on the other. The object is to move your pieces within the grid and end up in between two opponent’s pieces to make them disappear. Whoever makes all their opponent’s pieces disappear first wins.
My favorite games are Tiling and Coloring. Both games played and won at the medium level. Tiling is my absolute favorite. It is like playing Tetris except against someone and slowly, thoughtfully, and with more strategy. You can make lines vertically as well as horizontally. I could play this game all day every day. Coloring had me a bit stumped at first. It has these “null” blocks that you can make by coloring the outside of a still white polygon with the four different colors, making a polygon that can’t be colored anymore since two polygons can’t have an edge that share a color. That wasn’t entirely clear to me in the instructions but I rocked it once I figured it out.
NerdyBaker Comments:
What I liked best about Game for Two was playing it with my daughter. She is always up for games that challenge her and games that she can beat me at. This app gave her the opportunity for both. We both found games that played to our individual strengths. Each of these games requires strategy and critical thinking. You are always thinking two steps ahead. This app is well worth checking out for what it has now but more games are promised to come.
Game for Two is available for iPhone and iPAD. It is $1.99 on App Store.
If you would like to check it out or purchase it, please use the App Store link provided below. The cost is the same to you, but iGameMom gets a small percentage. Thanks for your support! Note: The link works for all countries.
For more fun brain games, visit Best Learning Tools for Kids – Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Skills.
Hi. Version 1.8.0 is out.
+ Localisation for French, Italian (thanks to Laurene Albrand, Mattia Cardazzi)
+ Faster thinking time for Chess (easy & medium mode)
+ Fix Checkers crash bug in some devices
A new update for Game42 is out.
+ New game: Tic tac toe
+ New feature: ability to turn on/off rules in each game
+ New feature: Night mode
+ Some bug fixes & improvements
Version 1.6.0 just live with a fresh new game: CHESS (yes, THE world’s well-known Chess game).
Version 1.5.0 is out with a new mini game: Dots and Boxes.
Have fun! 🙂
iOS version 1.3.2 is out today.
This update brings lots of bug fixes and improvements, including:
+ Support zoom for Caro game’s grid
+ Tuning difficulty for some games
+ Setting screens: allow turning on/off sound/music, timer
+ Allow sharing achievement via Facebook, Twitter
+ VS Robot mode: allow changing turn (human or robot plays first) and difficulty while playing the game
+ VS Robot mode: added statistics (number of wins/loses)
Thanks for sharing the new features.
Oh, and we’ve also released an Android version on Google Play. Hope you’ll like it too. Cheers.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.guava7.game42
Thanks for sharing the news!
I forgot to update news about version 1.3.1 which was released on May 14, 2013.
+ You can now listen to your own music while playing the game
+ No more bothering push notification!
+ Fixed crash bug after receiving a call on iPhone or from Viber, etc.
+ Game Center now works correctly
And version 1.3.2 is on the way too 🙂
Just want to let know you that version 1.3.0 is out today with some improvements, bugfixes, and it’s now UNIVERSAL (running on iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad). Cheers! 🙂
Thanks for the updates. I will make sure update the app.
Hi everyone,
I’m Phong from Guava7, the maker of this game.
Thank you very much for the nice review and your interest in the game. I”d like to let you know that version 1.2.0 is now LIVE on the AppStore. Please update and enjoy! 😉
Change log:
+ Crash bug on iOS older than 6.0 is now FIXED!
+ A new fun game: Othello (aka Reversi)
+ Game Center achievements
+ Co Ganh: added “jump over” rule
+ More background music
+ Several UI tweaks
Thanks for sharing Phong. Can’t wait to check out the new game!
Thanks for the awesome job you do to help parents make the wisest decisions.
You are welcome!
That looks like an awesome app to play with my older children, or them against each other!
The board game that I’d like for the I pad is the Minotaurus game by lego, it’s a great game the kids love to play, doesn’t take hours like Monopoly, but can still be played with two to four players.
We don’t have the game, but looks like a fan game.
Love to have Zingo!
Oh, we used to play Zingo a lot. It would a good one to be on iPAD.
Wow – these look like so much fun. A great way to engage my daughter in problem solving without her realising she is utilising her brain. I am happy to have any of the apps, but the polygon one looks intriguing, as well as the tiling. Thanks for a great giveaway. I hope I am one of the lucky ones. Amanda
Amanda, you have to answer the question “which board game you would like to have on iPAD?” to be eligible to win.