Dimenxian
Algebra game's practice-focused play showing its age
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Dimenxian
Pros: Coordinate plane and graphing practice is integrated well.
Cons: The relatively high price tag doesn't jive with the aging style and presentation.
Bottom Line: While there's some good practice of essential concepts for algebra and geometry, it's a tough sell since it's pricey for teachers and not up to par with more recent conceptual, exploratory, and adaptive games.
Since Dimenxian doesn't actually instruct students on coordinate planes, it would work best as practice and reinforcement after lessons about graphing on the x-axis and y-axis. It will help students solidify their knowledge of how the coordinate system works by forcing them to locate specific locations, fit points to a line, and other algebraic tasks. Follow it up with a journey into Minecraft, which actually uses a x,y,z coordinate system. Students can venture around the world, find places of interest and their coordinates, and then create treasure maps/hunts for other students.
Dimenxian is a first-person shooter set on an island besieged by a deadly virus. Students battle the virus in four missions that build students' basic algebra skills. The missions' primary focus is the coordinate plane. Students must use coordinates, the x-axis and y-axis, and graphing to locate and retrieve important items on the island. Bad guys, the Sentinels, add some suspense by occasionally trying to thwart students' progress, and must be stunned until they leave. Once a mission is completed, students get feedback on how they did. It's a bare-bones, game-based wrapper for what amounts to some light practice using coordinate planes.
Dimenxian does a good job of immersing students in the coordinate system, having them locate specific points and use the system in other ways during play. However, it's a short experience. It also shows its age in visual quality, presentation, and a lack of interesting things to do in-game. It's likely to have some initial novelty -- especially for students who don't play games often -- but it might wear out its welcome quickly. All of this combined with the relatively hefty price tag makes it hard to recommend for a classroom.
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