If there’s one thing the iPad is good at it’s games, and this one from Sega, based on a 2009 arcade game, is a great example. Kids who are trapped on a car ride, or waiting at an airport, or anyplace where there is nothing to do and time is passing far too slowly will find a welcome reprieve helping the Brick People get their dinner. The premise is simple: stack Lego-style bricks like stairs so that the absurdly cute Brick People can hop up and reach their snacks. You don’t actually control the people, you just control the bricks by dragging them from the edges of the screen and stacking them like stairs so they’ll hop up them like adorable crazed bunnies.
In single-player mode you compete against the clock to direct your little Brick People to their snacks, or on some screens, reach numbered icons in the right order. There’s even a variation where your people have to eat a hot pepper followed by a drop of water or risk bursting into flames. In between missions, a Brick Monster pops up and sets up a specific pattern of bricks that you have to duplicate before the clock runs out. Gameplay is simple and straight-forward so that even younger players will be able to get the hang of it in no time.
There are three modes, Easy, Normal and Hard, and multiple missions within each of those modes so you’re drawn in to the challenge of seeing just how much you can manage. As fun as it is in single-player, in multiplayer it’s a full on battle. I pitted my two grade-school aged kids against each other and couldn’t tear them away. I may have momentarily feared for the safety of my iPad as they frantically dragged bricks across the screen trying to out do each other. I received a copy of this game for review purposes but for just $2.99 in the iTunes store you can have it, too. It will keep your kids happily entertained and you, too — if you can manage to get a turn.
