Adventure Games for Kids

1. 

   1. Space Defense: Guard Heroes

   Hold a position in orbit against waves of incoming ships, spending what you earn on better defences between rounds. More planning than fast reflexes.

2. 

   2. Frog Leap 3D

   Hop a frog from one lily pad to the next, judging the distance before every jump. Short levels and a single control make it easy to pick up.

3. 

   3. Helicopter Rescue Games 3d

   Fly a rescue chopper out to people stranded on rooftops and hillsides, then set down carefully on the landing pad. Gentle flying, no combat involved.

4. 

   4. Sea Kings

   Sail a ship across open water, exploring islands and trading between ports as your fleet grows. Suits a child who likes a longer, slower session.

5. 

   5. Space Rover

   Drive a six-wheeled rover across a rocky alien surface, keeping it upright over craters and ridges. Part driving game, part obstacle course.

6. 

   6. Wizzard Adventure

   A fantasy platformer where a young wizard runs, jumps and casts spells through a run of levels, collecting what he needs along the way.

Adventure is a broad category, and in practice that means platformers with levels to clear, exploration games with a world to map out, flying and driving missions with a job to finish, and light strategy where you defend a position.

What they share is a goal that takes more than thirty seconds to reach, so they suit children who like a bit of story and are willing to retry a tricky section. Everything plays in the browser with no download and no sign-up, on phones, tablets, laptops and Chromebooks. Our guide to games for 7 year olds is a good next step if you want a narrower shortlist than a whole category.

How adventure games differ from arcade games

An arcade game ends in seconds and restarts instantly. An adventure game gives your child a level, a map or a mission that takes several minutes, and progress carries forward. That difference matters more than the graphics do.

It cuts both ways. Adventure games ask a child to keep going at a section that is not working yet. Some children enjoy exactly that; others find it frustrating, and it is worth knowing which yours is before you hand the tablet over. They also make it much harder to stop halfway, so they are a poor fit for the ten minutes before you need to leave the house.

Finding a natural stopping point

Because progress in these games sits inside a level, the fair way to end a session is by level rather than by clock. Saying that the current level is the last one avoids the argument that comes from switching a machine off mid-mission.

It also helps to know that progress here is kept on the device rather than in an online account. If your child has been building something up on the family tablet, playing on a different device starts fresh.