Arrrr, Matey!  Embark on a pirate-y arithmetic adventure in Math Land.  An evil pirate has stolen a gem that makes all these islands infested with purple gems and evil flowers.  You, as the good (?) pirate, must solve math problems and explore islands to collect special artifacts to stop him!  This game is great practice for grade schoolers who are working on addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems.  And even adults can enjoy this game as working out math problems in your head is a great brain exercise.  Math Land is available for Switch and mobile devices, but reviewed on Switch here.

So in order to explore an island, you’ll need enough spyglasses.  To get spyglasses, you must solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and greater than/less than equations.  Enter in your age and the game will adjust the difficulty accordingly.  When you have enough spyglasses, you can explore an island or two.

On these islands you’ll control a pirate dude as you walk around 3-D isometric islands.  You can interact with objects with one button (like kicking away boxes), and jump with the other button.  Collect coins and you might earn a special coin to put in your treasure book.  Sometimes you must also solve math problems to get a key to unlock a door as well.  Other times you may need to play a short mini-game to pass.  Get the treasure with the artifact to complete the level, and then start the process over again with another island.

The only problems I had with this game are that you can only pick to be a boy pirate.  Why not be able to select a girl pirate to play as?  Also, the isometric playfields can make judging jumping distances difficult sometimes, but luckily the game is pretty easy on the platforming and there are checkpoints aplenty.  Otherwise, this is still a great way for elementary school kids and even adults to brush up on their basic math skills.

Kid Factor:

If you get hit by a cannon ball, evil parrot, monster flower, or fall into the water, you’ll just say “ouch” and flash for a bit.  Run out of hearts and you’ll turn into a ghost and reappear back to normal at the last checkpoint, and that’s as violent as it gets.  Obviously, number recognition, basic math skills, and the ability to read are needed to play.  Perfect for kids who are learning their times tables and such.  Math Land is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews