You Make Me Sick!

The witty title of this game -- You Make Me Sick! -- will no doubt get the attention of your students. The good news is that this game will also sustain your students' interest because it's a simulation game where they get to create and then spread germs -- kind of like being an evil scientist. By putting players in control of “creating” bacteria and viruses that they then spread into the simulated environments where computer-generated characters, or hosts, wander around touching things, kid see firsthand how the spread of disease occurs. When the hosts come into contact with the player’s germs, they get sick. The challenge of play increases as the hosts use antibiotics and better hygiene to combat illnesses.

As in the popular game Spore, kids love to name and create new life -- in this case, pathogens. Players choose the basic characteristics of the pathogens (and those choices increase in the paid version); they spread germs around the room or environment by choosing objects to infect, and then the computer-created hosts wander in. Players have some tools to guide the hosts to the infected objects. Once a host is infected, the game shifts to an inside look at the host's stomach, where a battle ensues. A game is won or lost depending on the strength and number of the pathogens that the host character comes into contact with, and how well the gut of the human host can fight.