Burn the City Kids App

An “Angry Birds”-type game with some novel elements and mechanics that make it more enjoyable for young and old

Grade: A | Age rating: 2+ | Price: .99 (free demo-version also available)

Most people at this point in time should be familiar with the basic mechanics of these types of games. You have some object on the left that is used to topple/destroy objects on the right.
Rather than birds being shot at pigs, you have a monster/dinosaur shooting fireballs to destroy city buildings. With a very cute design approach and excellent build quality, this is on par with Angry Birds.
What makes Burn the City better however are some key differences in game mechanics that do an incredible job of making the genre more kid friendly.

First, rather than having an inverted firing method (pull slingshot back to shoot bird forward), the dinosaur’s fireball goes in whatever direction you drag. This is something that can actually be quite confusing to younger children and though it is minor, it makes a world of difference.

Secondly, rather than keeping with the limited ‘ammo’ approach and essentially challenging players not to ‘fail’ the level, there is (so far) no limit to how many fireballs can be shot out from the dinosaur and while you do receive medals for obtaining higher scores, the level is ‘complete’ once all buildings are destroyed regardless of time/fireballs shot and the emphasis on medals is quite minimal. This is also good in that children aren’t given the impression that they ‘only’ got 1 star out of 3 possible, etc.

In addition, there are a number of new elements that interact with the fireball (nuclear reactor that explodes, flying plane to shoot down, etc) that provide fresh content for those that had no problems with Angry Birds and are just looking for something ‘similar but different’.

All in all, whether you liked Angry Birds and want a similar game, or thought Angry Birds was too difficult, this is an excellent game to get.