PBS KIDS Games Ratings and Reviews

Wonderful, but last update...

My son and I play these games together regularly. He loves them, they give us lots of new things to interact over, and they have seeded some new interests for him. Thanks to Cookie Creator, for example, my boy got very interested in all of the measurements and following instructions in recipes and even makes some predictions about the kinds of cookies we’re making based on how much of the ingredients we use.
The good games are really good, engaging, and help to develop key skills, and most of the games are good.

Everything was fine until the last update. We were playing one of the games yesterday, and he wanted to switch to another, but all but four of the games we had downloaded had disappeared, including the one we had just been playing. (We generally play offline, even when a network is available, to keep things limited to the age-appropriate games I have selected for download.) Later, when I got back online to download the games again, it clearly has reset the storage limit, and I can’t for the life of me find the “grown-ups” settings menu to set it back.
After about ten minutes, it also changed my home PBS station, which I had previously set in settings—perhaps because I am on the road?

Developer Response ,

Hi Dalianguy, Thank you for reporting this issue! We are currently working on fixing this problem with our dev team. We appreciate your viewership and hope we can resolve this for you soon. - The PBS KIDS Team

PBS

I have just discovered this app from the PBS kids and I love it! I remember watching Sesame Street as a child. When I had children of my own I was weary of what they may be exposed to when they were going to be outside of our home. Equally I was concerned about television and what was going to be off limits for them also what I was comfortable with them watching especially when I might not be able to watch it with them in case they have questions etc.. Now here I am a Grandma in a world where there is nowhere that a person isn’t subject to social media and/the internet no matter how young or old. I am thankful for having PBS. They are always there helping to give a hand in the social education of all of us. I like that they do not push any specific views or opinions. They simply try to bring awareness of the world around you. I think they would be an excellent tool for everybody no matter their background to help in the development of a child to become responsible peaceful happy adults one day! Three generation and counting they have been an influence in my family’s raising children into becoming the best adult we could hope for! Praises to PBS!!

Complicated for little ones to navigate

My son and I adore this app. I love that it is free, and I love the variety it has and the fact that it’s an app that can grow with him. I love that it is safe, and there are no ads or links that can take him anywhere I don’t want him to be. It’s so wonderful that it’s free, and I’m so grateful for that!! I haven’t found /any/ other app like it.
But I have one tiny suggestion that will make it significantly better for us.
There are so many games on this app, and a lot of them are meant for older kids. My phone is always connected to WiFi, and so when he plays by himself, he tends to download games that he just can’t understand, and then he gets stuck in them and frustrated. And so I was wondering if you could add a toggle switch on the grownups page, to toggle between “Show all games” and “show only downloaded games” on the home page. That way it will be easier for him to choose his own games and only play the ones he knows how to play, but when he gets a little older and gains more skills, I can see them all and choose new ones for him.
5 stars, if someday there is that option.
4 stars for now, because it’s just too hard for him to use.

Disappointed with continually having to re-download games

It seems that the frustrations I have with this app are the same ones that parents were reviewing about a year ago - losing downloaded games at random and having to re-download. I have set the space allowance high on purpose to supposedly not have this happen, and yet whenever I have updated the app we lose games, which is super frustrating for my five year old and me as well, especially as we live in a remote place and don’t have the best internet access all the time. On top of this issue, the interface is such that when scrolling through the games my child often accidentally clicks them which begins the downloading process, which can not be stopped! We currently have over thirty games attempting to load which have been going nowhere for weeks. If I was able to at least pause some of the open downloads we might have some success but I have not found any way of doing this. My daughter and I loved this app at the start but it has become so frustrating she barely chooses to play on it now. If these issues were fixed, this app would be very highly rate in my opinion, but with the current issues, it’s only mediocre. If I’m missing something that fixes these problems, please let me know.

Wonderful app, with one suggestion.

I LOVE this app and so does my son. However, one feature I would request is the ability to reset a particular game. Clearing the local game storage from within the app does not fix all bugs.

For instance, this most recent update included Rosie's Rules games. Awesome! My son is so excited for this show that he dances to the promotion trailers. So when the games came out, it's all he wants to play, specifically the slime game. But the game can dead end you by allowing you to run out of both money and ingredients, leaving my kid crying because he can't play the game any more. Exiting the game or app, force quitting, nothing fixes it. I wind up having to completely uninstall and reinstall the PBS Kids games app, it gets tiresome.

So please guys! Maybe allow the game to reset entirely when you exit out of the game or the app. My only ever hiccup I've experienced, otherwise I recommend this to every single parent I know.

It’s actually not too bad

I mean some of the games I actually do like but some of them I mean like some of the characters in some of the games like boss you around I don’t like that it’s like baby hazel, but it’s not there’s different games like there’s different apps in baby Hazel so like like it it’s not too bad I mean when I was littler I liked it more but I just give it 3 stars because now I’m seven years old and I don’t know why it just gives me that feeling like it’s going to go in my nightmares like usually I feel like I’m gonna have a nightmare, even though I don’t so yeah it doesn’t do bad like now I am terrified of him because he always smiles and he always feel sad and I feel good about that. Just like Sophie from cherry Pop productions gaming like hates baby Hazel and I hate Daniel Tiger now this is like it isn’t too bad like but I mean it could be a bit better like Daniel Tiger gets replaced from for like like a different version of Toca life world because it is educational and like you can like imagine stuff in Toca life world it’s it’s yeah that’s good and it’s for kids like it’s honestly pretty good not too bad like sometimes it gets a bit glitchy though but yeah it’s fine

Please read developers very important!

Hi! I’m 9 and I just want to tell you I love this game! It’s very educational and I love how you made it educational! It’s so fun, and I love wild Kratts, Rosie’s slime store, and secretly 🤫 Daniel Tiger. I love all these games! But however their are some problems… … … … … … … … … an that is no problems! Lol tricked ya! And it’s very educational and they teach you animals, feelings, even math kind of but it’s fun! An anyways, I just love PBS kids. And I’m sorry about the last review I made. I said to make the game more fun. But now I play it all the time! It’s so cute and it’s so cute! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰!!!!!!!! So the ages basically should not be 4+… it should be 4-100! It’s a great game and I hope you keep working on this game and making it more better! Thanks, for reading! BYE and have a great day and just remember PBS kids is awesome! And parents, I totally recommend this game! It’s awesome and I’ve been wanting to play this game for the rest of my life! 😅😅😅😅😅😅😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰🤫🤫🤫❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️✌️😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

I like this but

I like this but when I’m trying to download my games, you know like you have to download it, but it kicked me out when I was trying to download my other game and I don’t know what happened but can you please fix this? End it even have bugs. This is supposed to have bugs because it’s not working. It closes me out when I’m trying to play my other game. It is kicked me out I open it back up but it kicks me out but I opened it back up and bring me a bring me back but guess what it literally what I’m trying to download. My other game is literally closing me out and I don’t know what happened but can you please fix this and please because I don’t know what happened but. autos other people maybe like not having issues, but am I the only one having it because I’m not on the only girl over here that doesn’t have it and yes I’m a girl by the way, but I don’t know what happened anywhere can you please fix this thank you! And make sure to double check because I don’t know what happened but y’all need to fix this!

No sound on iPad app

A while ago the app worked great. Now I can hear a ding when a game downloads, but NO sound within the app. Works ok on iPhone but NOT the iPad. Update: Received the following from the developer and it works! “Hello, and thank you for your review! We are aware of a change on iOS devices that affects sound in our games, and we are working towards a resolution as fast as we can. We have found that toggling 'Silent Mode' or 'Mute' may temporarily resolve some users' issues. Some iOS devices have a small switch on the side or top edge, which can toggle this mode. Toggle the switch to unmute audio. If your device does not have a physical switch that controls this mode, you can find this toggle in Control Center. For older iPads, swipe up from the bottom of the home screen. For newer iPads, swipe down from the top-right corner. Once the Control Center appears, find and tap the bell icon to unmute audio.”

Developer Response ,

Hello, and thank you for your review! We are aware of a change on iOS devices that affects sound in our games, and we are working towards a resolution as fast as we can. We have found that toggling 'Silent Mode' or 'Mute' may temporarily resolve some users' issues. Some iOS devices have a small switch on the side or top edge, which can toggle this mode. Toggle the switch to unmute audio. If your device does not have a physical switch that controls this mode, you can find this toggle in Control Center. For older iPads, swipe up from the bottom of the home screen. For newer iPads, swipe down from the top-right corner. Once the Control Center appears, find and tap the bell icon to unmute audio. Please let us know if this allows audio to resume in the PBS KIDS Games app, as we continue to work towards a permanent solution to the issue. Thank you, PBS KIDS

Recommend!

Love this app for my 3 year old. He can do many of the games himself, I sit with him when he tries a new one out to help him understand how to play, and there is a few apps he is still to young for and needs my help. Love the variety and the educational aspect of it! Definitely recommend this app compared to other single game apps. If your kid’s tablet has the space, increase the app’s settings to 5 GB for offline storage for travel. Definitely worth the download.

Update: my son is now 4.5 and still comes back to the app all the time. The games are engaging and educational. It feels like there are always new games available because of the amount and variety of games there are.

I really wish developers would increase the amount of storage the app can use for offline storage.