Two Fun Online Games for Tweens

My kids and I found a couple of online games that are unusual and fun, although in very different ways. The first is called BP Gas Mania.

It’s part of the Miniclip.com collection of games (Club Penguin is the most well known and most popular of its games).

The BP in the Gas Mania site, unfortunately, stands for British Petroleum. I am one of the last people who would want to promote any kind of oil company, but if you can get past that connection, the game is really fun. You may have heard the little jingle, “Make Your Day a Little Better” and, indeed, that song plays in a loop while your child plays the game. The song gets incredibly annoying after a while, but in small doses it’s cheery and pleasant.

The gist of the game is that you control a little gas station attendant and give the customers what they want. Little cars drive up and you have to sort the customers according to the type of gas they want, accept their payment for the gas and then give them whatever else they might request (like, coffee or sandwiches). There’s something about it that kids love. It’s different, fun and can get a bit challenging.

Do you know what the second game is?

UPDATE: (10.27.08):

UPDATE:

The second game is no longer operational on (or through) Oprah’s website.
So, as of today, I’m recommending a second site that my kids have found and enjoy more than either of the previously noted two sites.

Referred to simply as Scratch, this site lets kids design their own games by engaging in basic computer programming. The kids use simple logic blocks that look like puzzle pieces.

Let them explore and you’ll soon be amazed at their creations.

We talk about Scratch in our podcast on Parents and Kids Talk Radio and describe it here in the blog for the podcast.

Many of your tweens and preteens will tell you that it’s not really a game, but every kid I know who has spent some time on Scratch has enjoyed the site.  It’s definitely worth a visit!

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Original entry:
The second game might serve as my way of redeeming myself for actually promoting a game about a gas station (ugh! did I really just do that? What can I say, kids love that game!). Called The Millenium Challenge, the second game is brought to you by…Oprah! In our house, we joke that the world is moving to a place where soon people will be walking around like zombies chanting, “All hail Oprah!” (Sponge Bob fans will recognize the quote from the Sponge Bob movie where Plankton’s zombies chanted “All Hail Plankton!” to him) but I have to admit that I love what she’s doing. And this game is another cool thing she’s responsible for putting out there in the world.

Pleasant music in the background invites you in to play. You start by selecting a character which serves as your game piece. To move around the gameboard, you spin a wheel in the upper left part of the screen.

As you move around the game board, you play mini games and answer trivia questions, all the while learning information about Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

It’s not a highly developed game and probably not one your kids will play as obsessively as say, Club Penguin or Super Mario Galaxy, but the educational component and unique nature make it worth at least one visit.