Christmas: The five best inexpensive games for children to play during the festive season

Karl McDonald picks the best ones that have no in-app purchases

Lego (Karl McDonald)

Save a little sanity during those long drives and get-togethers this Christmas: fire up your little one’s new tablet (or give them a lend of your iPhone) and let them play. From simple time-passers to educational titles for children, to fully-fledged interactive adventures, there are plenty of ways to stave off that crankiness for a little.

Big tablets and iPads might be more distracting, but any smartphone should be able to play any game listed here. Plus, Game On’s recommendations avoid in-app purchases too, so if you’re broke by 1 January, it’s not because someone went on an imaginary gold-buying spree.

Minecraft pocket edition

The pick of the lot is the block-busting block-builder, Minecraft Pocket Edition (£4.99), both because it involves some of those Stem skills so in-demand at the moment, and because it’s the most popular thing since processed sugar among the young. Minecraft isn’t exactly plot-heavy – monsters sometimes come to get you, slowly – but that just makes its replay value as infinite the imagination of the player.

Minecraft Story Mode (£3.99 per episode) sets a story-rich adventure in the world of the game and should suit even children not inclined towards building their own masterpieces. The hero, Jesse, can be male or female depending on preference. His/her gang of amateur builders bite off more they can chew at a Minecraft convention (meta, no?), finding themselves embroiled in an apocalyptic scenario involving a clumsy warlock and a robot demon.

Telltale Games’ storytelling style, previous applied to more adult titles such as Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, makes for a gaming experience that’s less a button-basher, more a choose-your-own-adventure played out in an animated film. Be warned though, each two-hour episode is £3.99 unless you buy a more expensive season pass up-front.

Lego

Lego (Karl McDonald)

Minecraft’s ancestor, Lego, offers games for a wide variety of ages and tastes, taking in everything from makeovers to Star Wars tie-ins (left). They cost nothing, so feel free to download as many as you are willing to wait for. None of them are especially similar to the Lego mum and dad might have grown up with, but those yellow-headed tradesmen of old have lives of their own now, and adventures to undertake.

Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator (£3.99) is a PC cult classic ported to phones and tablets, involving the eponymous goat wandering a city, butting things to make them explode and getting into unusual scrapes. It’s much more fun than it sounds and has a surprising amount of replay value given the interactive environment. It’s something like an old game of Tony Hawk Pro Skater in terms of gameplay, strangely, only with a goat leaping off a crane replacing the now-mundane thrill of ramp tricks. As it’s free-roaming, a session can be as long or short as it needs to be.

Colourful education

For younger children both Duck Duck Moose (around £1.20 a game) and Toca Boca (around £2.50 a game) offer a range of colourful, educational titles so iPad time doesn’t feel like time wasted. Neither company has in-app purchases, and neither runs ads, so little one can play in peace.

Fingers on the pulse

Mmm Fingers. (Karl McDonald)

Finally, in the wallet-friendly category, Mmm Fingers involves various cartoon monsters attempting to eat any digits on the screen. Don’t Tap The White Tile (free) is as simple as it sounds but has enraptured people of all ages, and many of Ketchapp’s simple, aesthetically beautiful games, including Sky and Jelly Jump, will do to pass an afternoon.