Know why a game is rated the way it is — not just what number it got.
Games Played Well scores video games for parents against the same six-dimension rubric every time. No marketing copy, no vague age sticker — a plain-language breakdown of what a game actually does well, and where it doesn't, so you can decide if it's right for your kid.
Available now on iPhone — get it on the App Store. Android is in closed testing on Google Play, with a public release coming soon.
An age rating tells you almost nothing about what's actually in the game.
"Everyone 10+" can mean cartoon violence, or it can mean loot boxes with real-money odds. It can mean a game that quietly teaches fractions, or one built around engineered frustration to sell you a shortcut. The rating board isn't lying to you — it's just answering a much narrower question than the one you're actually asking, which is: is this good for my kid, specifically?
Games Played Well doesn't replace the official rating — it adds the layer underneath it: a consistent, six-part breakdown of how a game actually behaves, reviewed the same way every time, so two games with the same age label can be told apart.
Mild Fantasy Violence, In-Game Purchases
Six dimensions, every game, every time
Each dimension is scored from 1 to 4 (never zero — even a weak game has to exist somewhere on the scale). The six scores add up to a total out of 24, which maps to a plain-language verdict below.
Learning Integration
Is anything genuinely educational built into actually playing the game — not a menu screen bolted on the side?
Engagement Without Manipulation
Does the game hold attention through good design, or through pressure tactics like FOMO timers, streak guilt, or engineered frustration?
Difficulty & Feedback Quality
Does difficulty ramp up fairly and give useful feedback, or is it just artificially padded or punishing?
Transfer Potential
Do the skills a kid builds in the game carry over to anything in real life?
Monetization & Data Practices
Are purchases, if any, transparent and non-coercive — or built to exploit a kid's impulse control?
Social/Emotional Fit
Is the tone, content, and social dynamic appropriate and healthy for the stated age range?
What the score actually means
The six dimension scores add up to a total out of 24. That total maps to a letter grade (A+ down to F — there's no D) and, more usefully, to a plain-language verdict:
| Total | Verdict |
|---|---|
| 20–24 | Excellent — strong across the board |
| 14–19 | Solid — good, with some real tradeoffs |
| 8–13 | Weak — meaningful concerns in more than one area |
| 6–7 | Red Flag — serious problems |
Independent of the score, every game is also tagged with a grade band — who it's actually built for:
A high score is never a blanket "yes."
A game can score Excellent on the rubric and still carry a content warning, or be tagged for an older age range than you expected. The number tells you how well the game is built and how it treats the player. The content and age assessment tell you something different: whether it's appropriate for a specific kid. We keep those two signals separate on purpose — a great score should never accidentally read as "safe for everyone."
A good score can never hide a real problem.
When a reviewer finds something in a game's actual content — violence, mature themes, gambling-style mechanics, even hardware safety issues — that a number alone wouldn't communicate, it becomes a content warning. Content warnings are a separate signal from the score, and they always win the layout fight.
- Warnings render above the score, in a red banner, on every game that has one.
- The banner can't be collapsed, minimized, or dismissed.
- A high total score is never allowed to bury or soften a warning.
- No content warning is ever hidden behind a purchase or an Information Pack.
The base app is free. Whole libraries are optional.
Games Played Well ships with a small example set of reviewed games at no cost. If you want a console's entire library scored, that's an optional one-time purchase — not a subscription, not a paywall on core features.
Sega Master System
Full North American library — 114 games
$1.99
Nintendo Virtual Boy
The complete library
$0.99
Nintendo Wii U
Physical North American releases
$0.99
Nintendo Entertainment System
Full library pack
$2.99
Roblox
Curated library pack
$2.99
Packs are a one-time purchase starting at $0.99, through Apple's or Google's own purchase sheet. Deactivating a pack just hides it — nothing you've bought is ever deleted, and Restore Purchases resyncs everything you own if you reinstall or switch devices.
No account. No analytics. Nothing tracked.
This isn't a footnote — it's how the app is built.
No account, ever
There's no login, no sign-up, no profile. You open the app and it works.
Everything on-device
Every game, score, and setting is stored locally on your phone. Nothing you do in the app is transmitted anywhere.
No analytics, no tracking
No usage tracking, no crash reporting, no advertising SDKs. We have no way to see how you use the app.
Purchases go through Apple/Google
Information Packs are bought through Apple's or Google's own store billing. This app never sees your payment details.
No backend at all
There's no server for your data to live on, because there's no server, period.
Get Games Played Well
Here's exactly where things stand on each platform:
Android is in closed testing ahead of a public Google Play release — no signup needed, just check back here.