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Get Children Listening

Of the different senses, it's easy to overlook the importance of hearing. We encourage children to read, watch and observe. But just as important is to develop more than just cursory listening.

Despite their name, i video games use sounds just as much as visuals to create their worlds. As well as this, audio is often a crucial aspect of interactions and clues for puzzle solving.

Because of this, video games (like walking in nature) are a powerful way to learn to notice and use the sounds around us. Playing a game with headphones helps the player focus on the sound. Doing this intentionally can help younger players discover a new world of sound in the games they play.

There are games like Limbo, Hellblade, Overboard and Super Mario Odyssey that use sound to set the mood and aesthetic of the play. This is more than just background music as it reacts and integrates with the sounds the player is making while they play.

Then there are games like Uncharted, Alba, Fortnite and Sea of Thieves that use audio to indicate things happening in the game. Not only what is happening, like the sound of someone boarding your ship, but where that is happening in relation to your character with spatial audio.

There are games where you create the audio with your actions. Touching petals in Flower adds notes to the classical music. In Mini Metro you add to the ambient sounds as you place stations and new tube lines.

Finally, there are games where sound is your main way of navigating the world. Games like The Vale and Frequency Missing can be played with just sound. This not only offers an accessible experience to those without sight but a chance to engage with a virtual world using just our hearing.

This list includes 47 games from the last 21 years, with 1,823 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play with audio.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 18
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to R 18+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Physically Active, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Race, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy and Traversal
Total Likes: 1,823

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Release Date: 09/09/2021, updated in 2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

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Release Date: 11/12/2020

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

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Sea of Thieves

Release Date: 20/03/2018, updated in 2023

Out Now: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Sea of Thieves is an online game where you are a pirate searching for treasure and adventure. Cast into a large open sea you work with other online players to crew your ship and find treasure. The game has a main story but really focuses on creating...

Super Mario Odyssey

Release Date: 27/10/2017

Out Now: Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

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Osu!

Release Date: 16/09/2007, updated in 2021

Out Now: Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Osu! is a rhythm action game where you tap the screen in time to the music similar to the Elite Beat Agents games. This starts as a simple challenge but develops in speed and complexity. At higher levels, the games is an esport with people competing to...

The Last Of Us Part II

Release Date: 19/06/2020

Out Now: PS4

Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Day and Night

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Flower

Release Date: 12/02/2009

Out Now: PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4 and iOS

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, Open World and Weather

Flower is a traversal collecting game where you control the breeze blowing across fields of grass and blow petals into other flowers to make them bloom. Flower is simple and single-purpose in evoking the feeling of the wind. What starts as an awkward...

Mini Metro

Release Date: 06/01/2015

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Mini Metro is a sequencing strategy game where you create an ordered, efficient underground train system. It sounds like hard work, but the simple Tube-map visuals, calm music, and streamlined interactions make this relaxing, like sudoku. Dip your toe...

Mini Motorways

Release Date: 04/03/2019

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

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Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Release Date: 19/11/2016, updated in 2017

Out Now: PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is an action-adventure game set several years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. You play Nathan Drake, a happily married former treasure hunter coaxed out of retirement by his brother. This leads into another...

Overboard

Release Date: 02/06/2021

Out Now: Android, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Text

Overboard is a murder mystery narrative game played in reverse. You murder your husband at the start of the game and then try and get away with it. It's played on a ship where the characters are affected by your choices and changes their actions...

PEGI 7 Video Game Age Rating for Fe in UK and Europe

Fe

Release Date: 16/02/2018

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

Fe is a platform-traversal game where ou play a fox in a magical fairy tale forest. The world extends in front of you in stylised form, with trees, mountains and streams glistening with sparkles of life. You run, jump, climb and dip your paws in every...

The Unfinished Swan

Release Date: 16/10/2012

Out Now: PC, PS Vita, PS3, PS4 and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

The Unfinished Swan invites you to explore a world by splashing paint on it. The tactile experience leads you into a fairy tale about an unfinished painting that leads a child back to his parent. It stands out for the unusual revealing of a world you...

Chants of Sennaar

Release Date: 05/09/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Chants of Sennaar is a traversal and translation puzzle where you play a traveller called to reunite the Peoples of the Tower who are unable to communicate with each other. Play involves exploring the cell-shaded world to decipher the glyph-based...

The Last Of Us

Release Date: 14/06/2013

Out Now: PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Weather

The Last Of Us is an action-adventure where You play a father, Joel, whose daughter was killed during the early stages of a deadly fungal outbreak. It’s now 20 years later, and he has clearly suffered from the loss. When Joel is given charge of a...

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Release Date: 08/08/2017, updated in 2018

Out Now: PC, PS4 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 15+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

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Limbo

Release Date: 05/06/2013, updated in 2015

Out Now: Android, PS Vita, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Limbo is a narrative traversal game where you control a small boy as he runs, jumps and climbs through a dark, silhouetted forest that clanks and hums with foreboding. As the age rating suggests, he is killed in all manner of gruesome ways. But this is...

Wandersong

Release Date: 27/09/2018, updated in 2019

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

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140

PEGI 3 Video Game Age Rating for 140 in UK and Europe

140

Release Date: 16/10/2013, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Wii U and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

140 is a sliding, rolling and jumping game where you control a changing geometric shape to traverse a minimalist world. It's challenging for the timed jumps and reactions but keeps distractions to a minimum with its abstract colorful graphics.

Blind Drive

Release Date: 10/03/2021

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

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Bit Trip

Bit Trip (Series)

Release Date: 28/04/2009, updated in 2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360 and iOS

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

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Release Date: 25/07/2017, updated in 2018

Out Now: Android, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

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Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Open World

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Release Date: 22/10/2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Day and Night

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Inside

Release Date: 29/06/2016, updated in 2018

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

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Frequency Missing

Release Date: 07/11/2018

Out Now: Android and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On

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Kine

Release Date: 19/10/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

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Secret Shuffle

Release Date: 08/12/2022

Out Now: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

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Dance Central 3

Dance Central 3 (Series)

Release Date: 04/11/2010

Out Now: Oculus, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Dance Central is a dancing rhythm game you play by moving your body in front of the Xbox Kinect camera. The focus on full body movement celebrates accurate, well-timed and energetic moves. As opposed to Just Dance's rough choreography, Dance Central...

Monomals

Release Date: 01/11/2019, updated in 2023

Out Now: Apple TV, Mac and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

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Rez Infinite

Rez Infinite (Series)

Release Date: 11/01/2002, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Oculus, PC, PS2, PS4 and Xbox 360

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person

Rez Infinite is a shooting game where you fire musical energy rather than bullets. As you guide a figure through the darkness of space you bring down enemies in time with the music. Rez is novel for its use of music and vibration feedback to create a...

Here Kitty!

Release Date: 04/05/2020

Out Now: iOS

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Here Kitty! is a real-world hide and seek game you play by hiding your phone. It's from the same team behind Heads Up. When the child calls out or gets near the phone makes cat noises to give them clues to find it. When it's...

Pitch Black: A Detective's Demise

Release Date: 26/10/2020

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Open World

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A Blind Legend

Release Date: 07/04/2016

Out Now: Android, PC and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On and Text

A Blind Legend is an adventure game that is played without graphics using headphones. You play Edward Blake, a blind knight who is guided by his daughter Louise. You use the audio-based interactions to find your way, avoid traps and confront dangerous...

Eloh

Release Date: 11/10/2018

Out Now: Android and iOS

Components: 2D Side-On

Eloh is a puzzle game with an unusual dual focus. You may start playing to solve the puzzles, but it soon draws you in to appreciate and take time over the rhythms you create in doing so. It creates a low pressure puzzle with a meditative feel.

Obakeidoro

Release Date: 29/08/2019

Out Now: Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Obakeidoro is a hide and seek adventure game. You play with up to four people, three are humans hiding from the other player who uses a monster to chase them down. The humans have 3 minutes to work together to get away.

Swordy Quest

Release Date: 10/12/2020

Out Now: iOS

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Swordy Quest is a role-play game where you craft, gather and hunt your way through a fantasy world that gradually unlocks over time. What's unusual is the simple interface that creates an accessible way for anyone to experience the surprisingly deep...

The Vale: Shadow of the Crown

Release Date: 19/08/2021

Out Now: PC and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Day and Night, Hand-Made and Open World

The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is an audio-based role-play adventure where you play Alex, a blind princess. After your brother takes his place as king, you are made warden of a small castle on the outskirts of the kingdom. Without sight from birth and...

Heartbeat: Regret

Release Date: 23/08/2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Heartbeat: Regret is a horror rhythm-typing game. It's a tough game where you are hunted in a mansion by a dark monster. Unusually, you need to press buttons in time with the audible heart beat to move around and then type directions to take specific...

Moshi Kids: Stories and Games

Release Date: 06/12/2017

Out Now: Android and iOS

Skill Rating: 2+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Moshi Kids: Stories and Games is a collection of play, stories, and other activities for preschool children. You can solve simple puzzles, play hide and seek, listen to narrated stories and lullabies, and relax with meditative music. It helps foster...

Svoboda 1945: Liberation

Release Date: 03/08/2021, updated in 2022

Out Now: Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: Filmed

Svoboda 1945: Liberation is a narrative game that uses footage of real actors to tell an interweaving story about the aftermath of the Second World War. As you talk to the villagers, explore locations untouched for years and complete puzzles, you...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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