In this post, I’ll review a math learning game for kids called Math Ninja AR. Math Ninja AR is part of a very popular Math Ninja series which is a big hit in Japan. This version that I played is in English. According to the developer, the Math Ninja series has proven to work with kids who don’t like learning. So with this math learning app, the developer hopes to motivate kids to learn and practice math.
I’ve been playing with the game and loves it. I am an adult, but I definitely a see the huge potential using the Augmented Reality medium to gain the interest of a child in and make him or her want to use the app. We all know that kids love games. Most of the most popular methods of teaching kids are by utilizing games to motivate kids to learn and make the learning process more fun and engaging for them.
What’s Makes this Math Learning Method Work?
I’ve played with the app and just loved it. So how Math Ninja AR was able to make it fun for kids to enjoy learning math?
This is my take on this of course. The game uses various methods to make the math learning practice fun for kids by using the following features:
- Fun and lively music.
- Cute and adorable characters.
- Using augmented reality to capture his attention and create a magical interactive world for the kid to observe and explore.
- Uses card collection as a rewarding method for their kid’s achievements in the game. Kids love collecting cards (it’s very addicting in my opinion).
- The game features vivid visuals that are enjoyable to look at.
- The searching for the answer gameplay mechanics is fun and engaging. The kid will enjoy doing that activity much better than just being asked to say an answer.
All those things help make Math Ninja a very compelling math learning app for kids to learn and practice math with or without their parents.
Math Ninja AR also features 3 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal and Hard.
Math Ninja AR Experience & Fun Factor
Math Ninja AR is a really impressive educational AR game. When you start the game, the game will ask you to choose the place the Ninja Town place on a flat area. A second later you are good to go.
The game spawns a really beautiful Japanese-inspired “Ninja town” filled with colorful buildings, cute little cartoon-style characters and really nice clouds and animations of falling leaves above the town. There is only one level, I wish there was a larger selection of maps to play the game.
Players can relocate the level if it’s not exactly in the right place. The reallocation of the map isn’t convenient, you can’t just drag it around. The app just removed the previous 3D map and asks you to place it again. I’ve seen games that all you need to do is just drag the map and that’s it, this is a much more user-friendly solution. I did like that the game used a bar for resizing the game level, rather than asking the kid to use swipe gestures. Kids will just play with the bar and understand what it does. You have the word “Size” and a big “+” and “-” signs.
How to play Math Ninja AR?
The game is really easy to pick up for kids. You have the math question rotating above the village right in the middle. The question is shown as a triangle with the math question repeating itself three times in each facet of the triangle. This was designed intentionally so when a kids move around the map, he can clearly see the question from all directions—smart idea!
After the kids see the question, he needs to solve the equation and start looking for the answer in the village. Each character in the game will have a number over his head. It’s up to the player to look for the character holding the right answer and tap it. If he taps the wrong answer, a buzzer will sound with an X icon notifying the player that he has chosen the wrong answer. There is no timer or negative feedback in this game. The game was built as a pure educational game and there is no competitive aspect to it so no stress is involved.
If the player gets it right, the math question changes.Every time a new question appears, the numbers will be randomly selected and will appear for characters in random parts of the map, so no cheating or shortcuts.
After the players get all 10 answers right, he is rewarded with a card. You can get the same card again. I played like two rounds in the living room and got the same card. In the third round, I got another card.
The idea is to make the player want to collect all the cards in the game. you have 40 different cards to collect. There is also the “Collection” area, which is like a card album area where the kid can see all the cards he or she has collected.
Conclusion
Math Ninja AR is a super effective math learning method for kids. This is a great way to encourage your kids to practice math. The questions change all the time so your kid will be able to try out a different type of math questions every time.
The card collection thing is a really cool feature that can motivate your kid to go back to the game and try to collect cards that he doesn’t have yet. Of course, this doesn’t come easy, he needs to work hard by solving some tough math questions to achieve new cards to feel up his collection.
If you have a kid that is doing its first steps in learning math, I highly recommend getting this game.