If you own a smartphone or a tablet and have kids, more than likely, they’ll want to play something on it. This happened to me so often that eventually, we just let them have our older devices to use. Since my kids are still young, the only apps I allow for them to play are educational apps and one of the best ones has been Artgig’s Mystery Math Town and the follow up, Mystery Math Museum. Their newest title Mystery Word Town follows a similar formula  as their math games, but now teaches letter recognition, spelling, and word pronunciation and letter sounds.

Mystery Word Town is an educational app presented as a game. The underlining story is that the Huevos Rancheros Gang have stolen some gold and they are hiding out amongst the good citizens of Word Town. It is up to your kids to find all the missing gold and capture each of the outlaws. You do so by exploring all the buildings in town. Each building consists of a series of rooms containing random letters you collect. In order to move to the next room, you have to use those letters to complete a word that is given to you. Get it right and you an move on. If you get it wrong, you aren’t penalized and can try again. Basically kids are just searching for the missing gold and can move on to the next building once they found some.

It’s a pretty simple concept but one that makes your kids part of the experience. They are actually interacting with the game to the point where it feels a lot more fun and a lot less like a boring educational app.

I really like the whole ‘Wild West’ theme in Mystery Word Town. It’s a period of time that doesn’t really get explored much with kids these days and it’s a nice change of pace. Graphically, it’s very similar to the other Mystery Town games so if your kids have played those, the game will be quite familiar to them.

Not only is Mystery Word Town visually appealing, but there a lot going on with the audio. There’s plenty of ambient background music to keep things interesting and I really like how the game gives audio hints to help kids fill in the missing letter.

Mystery Word Town doesn’t disappoint. It’s a fun game that teaches children how to recognize a lot of everyday words. In fact, if you check out the word lists associated with each skill level, you’ll see that there are a lot of words included. What else is great is that as they get better, you can turn off the audio cues and let kids just spell out their own words. I just really like that Mystery Word Town is more like a game and less like a boring learning app which should keep kids more interested in learning.

As a bonus to parents, there are zero ads in this game and zero popups.

iTunes Link: Mystery Word Town
Version: 1.0
Developer: Artgig Studios
Price: $2.99
Compatible Devices: (Universal App) Requires iOS 5.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.

Description

Use your spelling skills to find the gold and capture the outlaws in Mystery Word Town.
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Build spelling confidence with a mystery…News Bulletin: The Huevos Rancheros Gang stole the gold and they are hiding out amongst the good citizens of Word Town.

Your Mission: Help the sheriff, a friendly and curious little ghost, recover the missing gold and catch the outlaws.

Find the letters you need to solve the word puzzles…

– Spelling practice integrated with a rich, immersive game experience
– Unlimited user accounts – create your own avatar and save your game progress
– 3 skill levels and 2 game modes provide a highly customizable and flexible learning experience for a range of ages
– Optional audio hints speak the words from the selected word list
– Visual hints provide scaffolding for difficult words
– Quirky characters and backstory are revealed as you recover the missing gold and capture the outlaws
– Promotes strategic and critical thinking

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CUSTOMIZE SKILLS FOR SPECIFIC WORDS AND ABILITY:

Designed to support classroom learning, Mystery Word Town provides a unique and engaging way to practice spelling for kids ages 6-12 and up.

Each player can customize various skills and play modes to suit their age, interest and ability:

– Select from 3 custom word lists, created in collaboration with teachers and based on Fry high frequency words and sight words
2 game modes:
– Listen Then Spell – listen to the word audio, then spell the word
– Spell Your Own – spell any word you want to solve the puzzle, validated against an extensive dictionary

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UNLIMITED USER ACCOUNTS:

Add as many custom profiles as you like. Individual game settings and progress are saved in each player profile. Create different profiles, each tailored for specific practice and abilities.

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MADE BY EDUCATIONAL GAME DESIGNERS

The game designers at Artgig Apps come from a background of educational software development and we put lots of TLC into every detail of each app we create to ensure a fun and engaging learning experience. We include kids, parents and teachers in our app development and testing to make sure our apps are exceptional tools that kids want to use again and again.

We welcome your comments, suggestions and feedback.

Thanks for playing Mystery Word Town!

[Source: iTunes]