What are good coop games for tweens on iOS for a road trip?
June 17, 2013 7:49 PM Subscribe
What games would tweens (11-13) like to play together on an iPad or coop with their own iPods during a road trip? Are there other non-electronic games you recommend for road tripping? We have Rubberneckers, which is fun up to a point, as is the alphabet game. There are only so many DVDs they will watch. They've both got iThingies, but I'd like for them to interact with each other and/or us rather than be nose-deep in their own screens, oblivious to the world. Family time and such.
Eating was one of the few things that got my brother and I to stop strangling each other on road trips. We always had the ingredients in the car to make little cracker sandwiches, and it was our job to make them for everyone to enjoy.
Crackers, a block of sharp cheddar cheese to slice, a summer sausage to slice, all stacked and served up on the finest paper towel the back of the van had to offer.
Ate up a good half hour or so. Made everyone happy.
posted by phunniemee at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2013 [3 favorites]
Crackers, a block of sharp cheddar cheese to slice, a summer sausage to slice, all stacked and served up on the finest paper towel the back of the van had to offer.
Ate up a good half hour or so. Made everyone happy.
posted by phunniemee at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2013 [3 favorites]
They may be a bit young for this, as it relies on pop culture knowledge, but there's the celebrity name game. Basically, you establish a circular order where each person names a celebrity, then the next person has to name a (not-previously-named) celebrity whose first name begins with the same letter as the previously-named person's last name. So if Barack Obama is named first, Oprah Winfrey would be a valid follow-up play. When someone is unable to name a celebrity, they are 'out' and play continues with the remaining players. Last person standing wins.
We always used the 'Lois Lane' rule, where if you named someone with the same letter in both their first and last names, the direction of play gets reversed, but you could leave that variation off if it's too complicated.
posted by axiom at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
We always used the 'Lois Lane' rule, where if you named someone with the same letter in both their first and last names, the direction of play gets reversed, but you could leave that variation off if it's too complicated.
posted by axiom at 8:08 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Spaceteam will pretty much guarantee that they're interacting with each other, although it might be quite loud interaction.
posted by Paragon at 8:10 PM on June 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Paragon at 8:10 PM on June 17, 2013 [4 favorites]
Do they like Scrabble, Bananagrams, etc. ? If so they will probably enjoy playing Words with Friends together on their iPads.
posted by third rail at 8:15 PM on June 17, 2013
posted by third rail at 8:15 PM on June 17, 2013
Oh my, Spaceteam! I got introduced to it at a family gathering by some college age cousins, and it was a ridiculous amount of fun. The cousins playing it ranged from 18 to 45, but it's absolutely fine for tweens. Strongly seconded. And yes, it will be loud.
Ticket To Ride has a multiplayer/pass the iPad mode, and they should be around old enough for it.
posted by booksherpa at 8:15 PM on June 17, 2013
Ticket To Ride has a multiplayer/pass the iPad mode, and they should be around old enough for it.
posted by booksherpa at 8:15 PM on June 17, 2013
Jotto is my favorite word game ever, perfect for two players and long trips, and not enough people know about it. The gist: each player picks a secret word of 5 letters and keeps it in mind ("MOUSE"). The other submits guesses one at a time and is told how many of the letters match up ("HOSES?" "Uhh... three"). Take turns guessing until someone gets it.
posted by a birds at 9:03 PM on June 17, 2013
posted by a birds at 9:03 PM on June 17, 2013
Forbidden Island - and they'll be on the same team!
posted by ansate at 9:43 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by ansate at 9:43 PM on June 17, 2013 [1 favorite]
Our family fave is pub cricket which I suspect won't work in California. An alternative is for each person to predict something that will be seen from the car. Items that have been seen already are not allowed. As soon as a prediction comes true that person gets a point and chooses again. Kept our mob amused.
posted by BenPens at 6:42 AM on June 18, 2013
posted by BenPens at 6:42 AM on June 18, 2013
Machinarium is all puzzle-solving, basically, and two people could try to figure it out together.
posted by kestrel251 at 6:56 AM on June 18, 2013
posted by kestrel251 at 6:56 AM on June 18, 2013
Do they like word games? This is one I learned from a friend, who called it Jado. I've never seen it written up anywhere. It only requires pen and paper (one per player), though I'm sure you could substitute ipads.
Each person chooses a secret, 5-letter word. Each writes it at the top of their paper, and folds the top over so no one can see it. I also draw a vertical line down the middle of my paper, to divide it into two columns. In one column, I keep track of my guesses for your word, and in the other, I keep track of your guesses for my word. At the bottom of the page, I write out the alphabet, so I can keep track of letters once I know they're definitely in or out of the word I'm trying to guess. Let's imagine I choose "PAPER."
Now, we take turns guessing. Each guess is a 5-letter word. It must be a real, English word. Let's say you guess "WORDS." I write WORDS down on my sheet. I count up how many letters it has in common with my secret word. The only letter it has in common with PAPER is R, so I tell you it has 1 letter in common. I write down a 1 next to WORDS. (On your paper, you also write down your guess, and the 1.)
Now it's my turn to guess. I guess "MOUSE." You tell me it has 0 letters in common with your word, so in the second column on my page, I write down MOUSE and 0. Now I can cross out M, O, U, S, and E from my alphabet, because I know none of them are in your word.
Double letters count individually. So if you guess APPLE, it has 4 letters in common with PAPER: A, E, P, P. (Each P counts as one.) But if you guess APING, it only has 2 letters in common with PAPER (A, P), because only one of the P's is matched.
And you keep going until someone correctly guesses the other person's word. Also, you have to guess the actual word, not an anagram. An anagram would have 5 letters in common, but you still haven't guessed the word yet. One guess per turn.
posted by pompelmo at 9:27 AM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Each person chooses a secret, 5-letter word. Each writes it at the top of their paper, and folds the top over so no one can see it. I also draw a vertical line down the middle of my paper, to divide it into two columns. In one column, I keep track of my guesses for your word, and in the other, I keep track of your guesses for my word. At the bottom of the page, I write out the alphabet, so I can keep track of letters once I know they're definitely in or out of the word I'm trying to guess. Let's imagine I choose "PAPER."
Now, we take turns guessing. Each guess is a 5-letter word. It must be a real, English word. Let's say you guess "WORDS." I write WORDS down on my sheet. I count up how many letters it has in common with my secret word. The only letter it has in common with PAPER is R, so I tell you it has 1 letter in common. I write down a 1 next to WORDS. (On your paper, you also write down your guess, and the 1.)
Now it's my turn to guess. I guess "MOUSE." You tell me it has 0 letters in common with your word, so in the second column on my page, I write down MOUSE and 0. Now I can cross out M, O, U, S, and E from my alphabet, because I know none of them are in your word.
Double letters count individually. So if you guess APPLE, it has 4 letters in common with PAPER: A, E, P, P. (Each P counts as one.) But if you guess APING, it only has 2 letters in common with PAPER (A, P), because only one of the P's is matched.
And you keep going until someone correctly guesses the other person's word. Also, you have to guess the actual word, not an anagram. An anagram would have 5 letters in common, but you still haven't guessed the word yet. One guess per turn.
posted by pompelmo at 9:27 AM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
You could also adapt Guess My Word! to be played by two people with pencil and paper. Each person thinks of a word, and takes turns guessing the other person's word. For each guess, you tell the other person if the word they guessed is alphabetically before or after the word you're thinking of.
With either this or Jado, you can also play with 3+ players. Each person guesses the word of the person on their right.
posted by pompelmo at 9:29 AM on June 18, 2013
With either this or Jado, you can also play with 3+ players. Each person guesses the word of the person on their right.
posted by pompelmo at 9:29 AM on June 18, 2013
I've been road-tripping with several adult family members recently, and we've had a lot of fun playing Say the Same Thing and a game called "breakfast combo" that I learned from that girl's comment in this thread, which has some other good ideas.
Something else we used to do as kids (and maybe this is really for younger kids), but my mom got a bag of Starbursts, and we would get to eat a Starburst at each "big city" we drove through. This, of course, led to a lot of debate about what cities were big cities, and I believe we looked up lots of populations in the road atlas in the course of such debates. If you had a road atlas, you could set some threshold for populations and have them look up each city you drove through to find out if it was Starburst (or whatever) time.
posted by joan cusack the second at 5:23 PM on June 18, 2013
Something else we used to do as kids (and maybe this is really for younger kids), but my mom got a bag of Starbursts, and we would get to eat a Starburst at each "big city" we drove through. This, of course, led to a lot of debate about what cities were big cities, and I believe we looked up lots of populations in the road atlas in the course of such debates. If you had a road atlas, you could set some threshold for populations and have them look up each city you drove through to find out if it was Starburst (or whatever) time.
posted by joan cusack the second at 5:23 PM on June 18, 2013
Keep in mind that the multiplayer apps will require internet access for players to see each other.
Not necessarily. Some games connect via Bluetooth or otherwise bypass the need for an Internet connection.
posted by alms at 5:31 PM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
Not necessarily. Some games connect via Bluetooth or otherwise bypass the need for an Internet connection.
posted by alms at 5:31 PM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]
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posted by infinitewindow at 7:55 PM on June 17, 2013