Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
Marginalia Hero has taken Renaissance art and turned it into a hero’s journey. The player is represented by a hero-in-training. The hero battles various animals and bosses with a variety of weapons and shields, starting with a stick. To defeat the opponent, the player must time a tap on the screen so that the hero hits the target (and then hits the enemy).
All of the enemies in the game are based on real-life artwork. The player can buy new weapons and shields. They also have several goals per level to achieve, as well as overall goals. There is a bestiary to show all the animals the player has faced off against.
Marginalia Hero has in-game ads and purchases. The ESRB rated it E10+ for mild or infrequent cartoon or fantasy violence and LW4K stands by this rating.
Marginalia Hero helps kids practice and improve the following skills:
Getting started and then maintaining attention and effort to tasks.
In this game, the player needs to stay focused on the target (quite literally) if they are going to be successful against the animal they are facing. The target can move, fade away, or show up in the opposite direction the player is expecting. All this means that if the player isn’t ignoring internal and external distractions, he or she will miss a target and have to start the level all over again.
Being efficient and aware of our use of time and effort.
Keeping pace is also very important in this game. The player is given a circle with an arrow spinning in it (similar to the second hand of a clock). When this arrow crosses over the target, the player taps the screen. If they kept pace and timed the hit correctly, their hero will attack the animal. The better the pacing, the more coins the player gets as a reward.
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