Times Tables Warp: The Multiplication Facts Game
Kids fly through space adventure, might miss math learning potential
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Times Tables Warp: The Multiplication Facts Game
Pros: Exciting action and cool gameplay make great use of tilting and moving the device.
Cons: It's easy to breeze by opportunities for learning, since feedback can be unclear and expression can be hard to read.
Bottom Line: An exciting game, but look elsewhere for a more flexible, detailed way to boost multiplcation facts.
Without multiple user profiles, progress tracking, or a teacher dashboard, this app would work best as a stand-alone skills reinforcement or a simple test-review resource. Make this app a free activity choice in your classroom for students who have some time to drill math facts. Ask your students to design their own multiplication games: How would their space-bound adventure work? How would it get harder as students progressed?
Times Tables Warp is an arcade-style multiplication-review and -test app with manga-style graphics and snappy audio. Kids fly one of three characters on "spaceboards" (like snowboards) into the correct products along a flat-plane course (it looks like something out of Tron) where they have to quickly decide where to navigate by discerning expressions and products ahead. To be successful in this fast-paced environment, kids will have to master controls very similarly as they would for two-handed game consoles. Kids can develop fluency in whole-number multiplication from zeroes to twelves. Feedback comes gently with down electronic tones for wrong answers and ethereal waves but difficult-to-see praise and confirmations for correct ones.
While Times Tables Warp may engage kids who like console and arcade games, the learning potential could be brought into focus a bit better. Specifically, it's really hard to gauge your progress in the moment and overall: Contrast is poor for expressions (baby blue on white) and only slightly better for products (orange on white), so it's hard to choose correct answers wisely since the options can be so hard to see. Plus, feedback for right and wrong answers isn't detailed or long enough to let players reflect on their choices and correct accordingly, and gameplay doesn't really adjust based on your performance. Overall, this might be a fun way for enthusiastic gamers to hone their math facts, but look elsewhere for a deeper, more methodical way to drill those skills.
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