Best Free Games For Kids to Learn and Improve Brain Power

Bloom Kingdom is a free to play puzzle game by Bearwolf Studios, where you control 2 heroes (1 male and 1 female) on a hexagon grid field. You use these customizable heroes to collect Blooms and cause massive chain reactions. The More Blooms that cascade, the bigger the rewards. To help you on your journey, you have unique pets with special powers, and in-level power-ups as Flowers. Along the way you will run into enemies who will try to destroy the Blooms and hinder your progress. It’s quick and intuitive to learn, but at the same time difficult to master.



Bloom Kingdom has many features:
- 60+ Levels (plus secret levels) & 2 Kingdoms (more in the works)
- 18 Heroes & 13 Pets with different abilities to choose from
- 7 Blooms & 5 Powerups to help you finish the levels
- 3 Enemies to stop you from finishing the levels
- and countless hours of fun!



The game is currently in Halloween mode which will be limited time only. Here is the Teaser trailer:

Here is the Halloween gameplay video from the official YouTube channel of Bloom Kingdom:





..and here is the first 10 minutes gameplay video from me without any commentary:





Do you like puzzles and games? Try to solve Einstein's Riddle or consider playing these cute puzzle games from Japan, Angry Birds Alternatives, Flappy Bird Alternatives, or Guitar Hero Alternatives to keep your mind sharp and active all the time! Studies show that the human brain starts slowing down at around age 30. But you can boost your brainpower by adding simple habits to your daily routine. When you exercise your mental activity, your brain produces new neurons, sharpening your mind and strengthening your memory. Brain exercise games to get mentally fit is also associated with better mental functioning in old age.

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Old School Gamers Rejoice: Linkrealms is here!

Linkrealms is an old-school sandbox MMORPG with a hefty feature list that will please fans of classics such as Ultima Online or new players who are looking forward to Albion Online. With classless gameplay and an impressive land ownership where you can build a humble house or the most impressive manor, Linkrealms is a rich game that will appeal to those who favor depth over graphics.

Check out the game's trailer:

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Flappy Bird Alternative Games Online

Flappy Bird was created and developed by Dong Nguyen in the span of two days and originally released on 24th of May 2013, it gained remarkable success early this year. However, it was soon taken down by its creator for being too addictive and that he "cannot take this anymore." Don't worry though, just like Angry Birds, there are many free alternatives available online at gamevillage.com!

The closest that comes to the original is perhaps these HTML5 and Flash variations of it. The objective is the same: to direct a flying bird, which moves continuously to the right, between each oncoming set of pipes without colliding with them, which otherwise ends the game.

Flappy Bird HTML5

Flappy Bird Flash

You can also play Flappy Bird with many other players online with this Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) version of the game. You can create your own party to play with your friends, and it also allows you to choose from 3 different visual themes, on FlapMMO.

FlapMMO

While there are countless other clones, remakes and parodies of this game, the gameplay is more or less the same so they are not listed here. There are a couple of spinoffs that got my attention which are worth mentioning though. The first one brings a new twist to the already notoriously difficult game by making it like a typing tutor. Not only you need to watch out for the obstacles but also type the words correctly.

Flappy Bird Typing Tutor

Finally, there is this brand new online game at cleopatra-slot.co.uk. Unlike most spin-offs, however, Flappy Space Program is more than just a reskinned clone of the game. All it shares with the original is a similar name, a simplistic concept, and frustratingly difficult, yet rewarding gameplay experience. The goal of the game is simple: repeatedly tap (or click your mouse) to launch a mechanical space bird into orbit. Once the bird is successfully orbiting the planet, you'll be given another bird ship which you have to launch. There's no winning, only launching more bird ships into orbit with the hope of achieving a new high score.

Flappy Space Program

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Games Against Humanity: How we Quit Work for Play

Jobs are boring - unless you're playing! What is play, really? The fact that there are many theories by prominent researchers like Jean Piaget, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are clear proof that the phenomenon is difficult to understand. Johan Huizinga defines play as "a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary' life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the player intensely and utterly." Play is most commonly associated with children and their juvenile-level activities, but play can also be a useful adult activity, and occurs among other higher-functioning animals as well. Kids tend to play with whatever they can find, pick up any household item and "fly" it through the air as to pretend that it is an airplane. However, when play is structured and goal-oriented, it becomes a game - with rules, challenges, and more importantly - a social interaction. When did we start pursuing voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities for enjoyment?

Games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history; some even predate literacy skill development in the earliest civilizations. For instance, board games like backgammon can be traced back to 3000 BC in Persia. Ancient Egyptians used to play a board game similar to backgammon called "Senet" and was pictured in frescoes found in burial sites. What makes these games interesting is that it brings people together and promotes social interaction during gameplay. Modern findings in neuroscience suggest that gameplay promotes flexibility of mind, including adaptive practices such as discovering multiple ways to achieve a desired result, or creative ways to improve or reorganize a given situation.

Fast-forward to modern age, you can see that the fundamental of social gaming is the same today as what it was 5,000 years ago. Role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons, in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting, became very popular in the 70s. The game arrived to bring people together and encourage them to use their imaginations to greater levels. Together, the players collaborate on a story involving their characters; create, develop, and explore the setting. In other words, players experience an adventure outside the bounds of everyday life with their friends. With the onset of the Information Age, computers carried gameplay into virtual spaces and video games were born. Some of the earliest known video games were two-player games, including sports games like Tennis For Two (1958) and Pong (1972), shooter games like Spacewar! (1962), and racing games like Astro Race (1973). As processing power and connectivity increased, new genres were developed to form massively multi-player games based around real time networking.

Games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, terminals before modems, and cardboards before screens. The expansion of online gaming has reflected the overall expansion of computer networks from small local networks to the internet and the growth of internet access itself. Its rise enabled video game player to come together and compete over servers, but the participation in the late 90s was largely limited only to the very enthusiastic. Facebook would bring it to the masses not long after launching in 2004. The huge growth of Facebook attracted great interest in the platform, from users and developers alike. Zynga was one of the early developers to seize upon the opportunity for social media gaming, with the 2009 launch of Farmville.

New forms of social gaming are emerging every month, and it is all thanks to the continual development of new technological devices, like mobile phones, joining in on the action. The gaming industry is beginning to embrace the value of social gaming, as seen by many sites incorporating social media functions into their online games, especially for games that appeal to demographic groups that otherwise play very few video games (like the elderly who play on mobile bingo sites from their smartphones, for example www.bingoonmobile.co.uk). Thus, the online gaming market expanded exponentially over the past decade, making online games a form of social activity beyond offline limits, and it seems like the future of social media gaming is shooting for infinity.

Image credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Sponsored post.

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Free MMO RTS on your browser!

For those who are not familiar, MMO stands for Massively Multiplayer Online game and RTS is Real Time Stategy. Combining these two in a single game has been quite a challenge because of the dynamics involved, but now there is a game to change it all: Ministry of War (Türkçe) - ok, and South Park.  

Instantly when you load the game site, you are greeted with excellent visuals that set an epic ancient battle atmosphere. Once you login, you select one of 4 races: Romans, Chinese, Persians, and Egyptians. Each race has unique units, bonuses and race feature. Once you choose your hero and city name, there is a brief story trailer which you can skip. You start with building your city with the help of a step by step tutorial under the name of ‘quests’. At first, you feel like it is similar to Travian or Ikariam but you soon realise that as you can set your buildings anywhere you please like a RTS game.


After creating the elemental buildings, you are now ready to equip your hero, add troops to your party and ready for battle. When you select your army and send them to battle, you can actually see your troops moving across the map towards the enemy. Once reached the destination, you can select whether you would like to control the battle manually or choose automatic. If you choose manual, you enter the battle field where you can control your hero and units in true RTS style, which is quite impressive for a browser game. When you win battles, you gain points which you could later distribute among XP, MP, Power and Intelligence as with similar hero systems.


The game also requires you to collect resources to build your army before you take on the World. You build farms, forests, mines, etc. on the outskirt of your city. At this point you have learnt all the basics to get you going and the game starts you on your first 1 on 1 battle with another player. The system matches you with another online player of the same level and you begin battle as before (once again you can choose to take control with manual battle mode or let the computer do the work with automatic mode). After this battle, the quick tutorial is pretty much over and you can freely begin to explore the interface to find out more. When you dig deeper into the game by clicking on the quests icon, you find out that you can improve on your empire with research and as you do, your empire advances through the ages like in Sid Meier's Civilization and Age of Empire games.


The game features 3 views of command: city, outskirts and world map. The city is where you have your main buildings, outskirts for resources and world map is where you can see other players on the server. You also find out that on this map you can expand your city and occupy new land. There is also a map icon on the interface which shows you the full map of the entire server and it’s vastness just took my breath away. It really gives the player the urge to build and conquer it all!


Another thing that instantly strikes you with the interface it the global chat where you witness players getting social, discussing game tactics, trade items and form alliances to take on enemies together. As with all browser games, you need an internet connection to play and you are left behind when you are away. The game also rewards the players for sticking around 10, 30, and 60 minutes on end.


With just an hour of play, as a hardcore gamer I’m intrigued to find out more. This is a good sign, as I’m usually not a big fan of browser based games. While this game pushes the limits of the browser, it doesn’t feel too heavy as likely to crash it. The only disadvantage I found was that when you are exploring the world map with other players there are brief bursts of loading time. While this isn't really much of an inconvenience if you have a fast connection, it is a reminder that regardless of how you look at it, this is just a browser game.


Overall, Ministry of War is a brilliant example and well built game showing the full potential of what could be done on browsers. It is unlike anything I’ve seen with Flash technology before. The only thing I found that is lacking with this game is perhaps a desktop client. After all, if you are going to spend weeks and months on end to gather, build, and battle to conquer all, the little seconds of loading time will add up and might be critical in your strategy. No core gamer would want to lose due to ‘lag’

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Angry Birds Alternative Games Online

With more than 50 million downloads across all platforms, the game has been named one of the most popular games out at the moment. Angry Birds has been exalted for its wonderful union of addictive gameplay, humorous style and cheap price. Its popularity has brought about offers to develop versions of Angry Birds for PCs and consoles, a market for goods combining its heroes and even long-term plans for a movie or TV series.

The goal is simple: Angry Birds must survive. Get revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the individual powers of the Angry Birds to destroy the pig’s castles. It has a challenging physics-based castle destruction and alot of replay value. Every level needs skill, logic, and brute force in order to vanquish the enemy.

The PC version for this game includes 195 levels -- that's hours of gameplay! Players can expect non-cost updates and extra levels in the game. Moreover there are individual enhancements available for the mobile version and free of charge. You can download this game (direct link 1 - direct link 2) or via the Intel App Up software. The Intel AppUp center allows you to skim through a range of applications for download to your netbook or other PC device.


Here are some of the latest alternative flash based physics games similar to the Angry Birds concept. It's not the same thing -- but hey, you can play them online. Let us know in the comments if you know more!

Bloons 2 – NinjaKiwi Games

Burst the desired amount of balloons for each level among 8 different worlds from the hit Bloons series.

Demolition Dude – Armor Games

Sling shot Demolition Dude into buildings but make sure not to get collateral damage. Hold down the first Mouse button and pull towards the direction you want sling shot Demolition Dude then let go.


Dummy Never Fails – Tanoku

Aim with the mouse and click to shoot the dummy. The distance from the canon determines the force. You have to impact the dummy against the goal object. The pain-o-meter shows how much pain the dummy is under and it should be as less as possible. Can you win all 52 levels?



Empire Island – Armor Games

Your island is under attack so build up your defences and control towers so as to destroy the approaching enemies.



Gravitee Wars – Kongregate

Launch missiles around planets to destroy the enemy before they destroy you! The arrow shows whos turn it is. Click and drag the unit to start aiming. The blue line shows where your shot will go. Release to fire. The gravity of the planets will attract your missiles. The bigger the planet, the more gravity it will have. The closer the missile is to a planet the more attracted to the planet it will be. Your missiles will take chunks out of the planets as the hit them. As planets get destroyed their gravity is reduced. Also you can use the keyboard controls. There is also a weapon shop for more weapons as you unlock them and section where you can upgrade your team members.

Paper Canon – Silver Games

The game of Paper Cannon is physics-based and you must shoot cannon balls that explode after a few seconds so as to destroy the one-eyed pink critters. Take control of the angle and power for the cannon with the mouse.


Vertigo: Gravity Llama – Oliver ‘Jindo ‘S-L

Travel through a collection of strange worlds, flipping gravity along the way in order to reach the star in each level. Use the spacebar for an anti-gravitational pull and use the keyboard arrow keys to direct your golden llama.


(13+) Destroy the Village – Spilgames

It takes a village to bring about a child, but it takes rockets to destroy a village. In order to play use the arrow keys to direct your rocket and destroy the village inhabitants as quick as possible, while also using few rockets.



(13+) Ricochet Kills 2 – Coolbuddy

Shoot with your gun and ricochet bullets off other obstacles to eliminate all the people in each level.




(13+) Gibbets – Notdoppler

Save the men hanging from the ropes because time is running out. To pull a bowstring press the mouse over the bow and holding the button move aside. Release the mouse button to shoot and try to aim on the rope the man in hanging on. To pass the level you have to save as many people as shown beside the person icon. The amount of arrows for each level is limited.

(13+) Gibbets 2 – Notdoppler

Save the innocent people on a noose by shooting their nooses with the bow and arrow. Try not to miss! This game is the same concept as Gibbets 1 however the features are more extensive.



(13+) Crush the Castle series - Armor Games

Crush the Castle games are perhaps some of the most addictive flash-based games since Angry Birds. It will be difficult to stop once you have started so make sure you have enough time to play.

The player controls a trebuchet and the aim is to knock down different castles for every level so as to kill all the dwellers. As you progress through these games you gain different ammunition for the trebuchet and use physics based technology to knock over the castles.

For these games you will need Flash Player 10.

1. Castle Clout - Return of the King

2. Crush the Castle - Armor Games

3. Crush the Castle 2 - Armor Games

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Are You Smarter Than 2-Year-Olds?

Oh sure, you may sit there nodding smugly but when you think about it - how well do we really know the world? Many probably know about the popular American TV show, "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader?" - but I think fifth graders are so overrated in an age of information and technology where even 2-year-olds can use the Internet. Without going any further click here to take this quick quiz and see how many countries you can you name in under 5 minutes, then come back to this post. On the other hand, keep reading if you are scared.

Alright, here is a world map that could refreshen your minds. Now are you ready to take the quiz?



With all due respect to the less worldly among us, though, kids are pretty darn smart when it comes to the world we share with several billion others. For instance, how would you stack up against a cute, 2-year-old, map reading wonder named Lilly? Check out this video in which the budding scholar shows off her vast geographic knowledge:



Pretty impressive, huh? She now knows over 80 countries. So whaddya think, can you do better than li'l Lilly? Keep in mind, she had no trouble pointing out island nations you might only know if you were Survivor fans. Perhaps you think she was "specially trained" for this or that she is exceptional and just a one off phenomenon. Wait till you see Krish, another 2-year-old geography whiz kid, who can name up to 90 to 100 countries when their flags are pointed out:



Astounding isn't it? There are many more videos of young brains out there, but I digress, time to share a few fast facts about our ever more multinational globe:

There are 195 official countries in the world.

45 nations are landlocked, ie having no seacoast.

44 nations in the world are officially monarchies.

The United Nations charter was ratified in 1945 by its 51 members.

English was an official language in 87 nations and territories by 1994.

Now that your brain cells are juiced, it's time to get jetpunked. According to Jetpunk, the average score is 53, which doesn't sound like a lot afterall. Remember, you've got 5 minutes to name as many countries as you can and you've got to spell them correctly. 300 seconds.. not a lot of time to name a lot of countries, but hey - there've been 14 editions of Survivor so you're 7 percent there already. You can do it!

So, how did you score up this time? Still not good enough? Then I guess it's time you watch this video:



Written by Steve Levenstein, sponsored by Jetpunk.

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Guitar Hero Clones: Play Online (Flash) or Download for Free

Guitar Hero. The legendary game series that sold over 14 million units, earning over US$1 billion, since it was first released on PlayStation 2 in 2005. The franchise has made a significant cultural impact, such that it became a cultural phenomenon, making regular appearances in parties and locales. Several bars in the United States are offering "Guitar Hero nights" as an alternative to karaoke. Even an entire South Park episode was dedicated to the game!

Such a popular game is bound to have some clones. Well, in fact we found 14 of them! Surely there must be more, and if you know please comment, but we found Frets On Fire to be the best. It's simply the most advanced; It has a built-in song editor that allows editing and creating songs, it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux - last but not least - it's open source. Please indulge:

UPDATE: Jam Legend







Shred Master [Play]






Tenacious D [Play]






Flash Hero [Play]







Super Crazy Gitar Maniac Deluxe [Play]







Super Crazy Gitar Maniac Deluxe 2 [Play]







Super Crazy Gitar Maniac Deluxe 3 [Play]






Coolio Beat [Play]






Coolio Beat 2 [Play]






Another Guitar Hero Clone [Info | Download]






Rock Star [Info | Download]






Unsigned [Info | Download]






Guitar Zero [Info (link currently down) | Download]






Frets On Fire [Info | Download]






BONUS: Accordion Hero [Play]

Are you ready to accept the Wii challenge? Play nintendo wii competitions for real money now!

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