Description
Strike! Throw bowling balls to scatter the pins. Clear the entire map before you run out of bowling balls. An educational puzzle game about directions and counting.
At the easiest difficulty, only the “orthogonal directions” (left, right, up, down) are available. Pins are removed if you make them fly off the map. This leads to very simple puzzles that young kids can easily learn and use to practice these directions.
At harder difficulties,
- Diagonals are added too.
- The number of lanes (and moves to solve the puzzle) grows.
- You can remove pins in more ways (than just making them go off the map).
Each turn, you merely tap one lane. A bowling ball will roll over it and hit the first space that has any pins, scattering them to neighbor spaces.
At its core, this is a game about learning the names of different directions, and predicting where a pin will go when you hit it. The only rule of the game is simple and realistic: pins scatter away from the ball. A pin on the left side will scatter to the space on the left. Always. No exceptions.
On higher difficulties, however, the game also starts to practice counting (numbers 1–8, because 8 pins is the most a space can have). Every bowling ball has a unique and important number.
For example, the hardest difficulty introduces the “strike!” rule. If you hit a space with ball number 7, and it has exactly 7 pins, then it’s a perfect hit and all the pins go away! This sneakily makes players do some quick counting all the time, while reinforcing you were right by making all the pins go away without scattering.
Pinstrike! is a bit of a special puzzle game. It’s a really unique theme and core mechanic that we’ve never seen elsewhere. It hovers between Level 1 and Level 2 in skill; the Easiest puzzles are suitable for 3-year-olds, but the Hardest puzzles can challenge adults too!
If your child has no clue about directions and counting yet, then we recommend trying a simpler puzzle game first, such as Direction Digger. If they have some knowledge already, then this game might be the perfect next step.
1 rolls the ball over lane 1. This can be used when you don’t have a mouse or as extra training for number recognition.Details
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Product Contents
- The puzzle game for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Browsers.
Fine Details
| Detail | Value |
| Age | 4 |
| Interactive Media | true |
| Language | en |
| Level | 1, 2 |
| Player Count | 1 |
| Subject | skills |
| Textless | true |
Subject: Skills
The curriculum is split into six main subjects that align with your typical school subjects.
This resource is part of the Skills subject. Below is a summary:
This subject teaches practical and physical skills. It starts with core skills like pencil control or doing the dishes, then moves into preparing for specific jobs and tasks later on.
Faction: Puzzlepages
This resource is part of the Puzzlepages Faction.
But that's just one way to teach and explore its topic(s)!
You can always move to a different Faction to find a more effective way to teach the same topic.
Played a quiz? Try a game! Played a game? Try an escape room! And so on.
For example,
Charm: Puzzle Game
This product is part of the Puzzle Game charm.
Visit its main page to learn more about what that means. Below is a summary:
These are digital games that offer fun little challenges for Apprentices to solve, letting them explore and practice a topic all on their own. Most games do not require reading, counting, or computer skills (unless they specifically teach those things), and always offer endless puzzles at five different difficulty levels.
Check out How To Install Our Games for help.
Spell: My First Directions
This resource is part of the My First Directions topic (or "spell").
We live in a physical world where everything has a certain place. It’s pretty useful to learn the right words to tell people where things are or where they should go. This topic helps with that!
This resource also covers other topics. To keep things simple, the curriculum always considers the first topic listed to be the most important.
Use the buttons below to navigate to the previous or next topic in the curriculum.