Educational Games for Young Players
The following is a short list of some examples of educational video games, all with ESRB ratings of E10+ or below. They're designed with young school-aged children and families in mind.
Brain Age
Based on the work of Ryuta Kawashima, a Japanese neuroscientist, the Brain Age series (known as Brain Training outside the Americas) are sets of mini-games designed to improve cognitive function through a variety of puzzles and exercises intended to improve one's mental skills by stimulating different areas of the brain. Some of the targeted skills include math, reading comprehension, memory, and critical thinking. The series is published by Nintendo.
Carmen Sandiego
The Carmen Sandiego series is designed to teach players about world geography by having them track down the titular villain, Carmen Sandiego, and her band of thieves. Players learn about historical events, landmarks, and global cultures as they hone critical thinking and research skills to interpret clues, solve puzzles, and analyze data - skills and knowledge that are all transferable to an academic setting. Originally published by Broderbund, it is now owned and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The first game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, was first released in 1985, so this series has been a classroom staple for decades.
Kerbal Space Program
Kerbal Space Program, its expansions, and its sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, are spaceflight simulators with creative elements. The games introduce and utilize basic physics concepts such as gravity, inertia, and aerodynamics, tasking players with designing and launching spacecraft. Success requires players to develop a basic understanding of physics and orbital maneuvers. The games have drawn positive attention from figures in the real-world spaceflight industry, such as NASA and SpaceX. Developed by Squad and Intercept Games, both games are published by Private Division.
Minecraft
A modern classic first released in 2011, Minecraft is a sandbox game where players explore a procedurally generated 3D world of near infinite scope. The game's emphasis is on crafting, building, and discovery, with players using in-game materials and tools to build their own structures and machines. The game's survival mode also introduces elements from the survival genre, most notably resource management. The game encourages creativity, critical thinking to solve problems, collaboration in multiplayer mode, and helps develop spatial reasoning skills and an understanding of basic architectural principles. A special version of the game, Minecraft: Education Edition, teaches basic coding and computer science skills and introduces lessons on a number of subjects including math, history, science, and language arts. Minecraft is developed and published by Mojang Studios.
The Oregon Trail
The very first The Oregon Trail was a text-based strategy game developed in 1971 by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) and designed for middle school students to help teach about the real-life Oregon Trail of the 19th century. It is one of the most well known video game series, and has a long history in school classrooms. Future releases have included visual elements in line with other modern video games. Players take on the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers across the titular Oregon Trail as they learn about this part of American history, and have to develop strategic skills such as resource management, travel planning, and adaptability in order to survive to the end. Various games in the series have been published by Brøderbund, The Learning Company, and Gameloft. A number of spin-off titles of similar educational value have also been released, including The Amazon Trail, The Yukon Trail, and Africa Trail.