Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
Helix Jump provides the player with a bouncing ball and a tall series of platforms. The player is expected to navigate the ball from the top platform all the way to the bottom. Along the way are obstacles that must be avoided. To do this, the player swipes the screen right and left to move the platforms. If they time it correctly, the ball will bounce over obstacles and land in a gap on the platform. The ball falls to the next platform and the player repeats the actions until the ball reaches the bottom.
Obstacles the player may face include walls of different heights and platforms that move on their own. Helix Jump also has green arrows that, when “hit” by the ball, supercharge the ball and help the player break through several platforms at once.
This game has both in-game ads and in-game purchases. The ESRB rated it E for Everyone and LW4K stands by this rating.
Helix Jump helps kids practice and improve the following skills:
Getting started and then maintaining attention and effort to tasks.
Maintaining your focus when playing Helix Jump is very important. If the player doesn't ignore internal and external distractions, he or she will either time their jumps poorly or fail to notice one of the obstacles. In either case, the level will be over and the player will have to start again from the top.
Understanding our own actions, thoughts and feelings.
This game requires the player to be aware of their surroundings. They need to know what obstacles the bouncing ball could hit. Some of these obstacles may be on the back side of the current platform. The player needs to be prepared for those, even if they can't see them. They also need to be aware of the obstacles of the platform below them, so they don't accidentally hit an obstacle as soon as they fall through a gap.
It is also important for the player to be keeping track of their emotions. If they aren't paying attention to how they feel--being self-aware--they will become jumpy and jittery and find it difficult to get the timing of the game right.
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