Andkon and on and on and on..... (andkon.com)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	andkon.com
Date:	07/07/09 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Over 1000 free games to access, appeals to wide age range,

Disadvantages: Noisy games, some advertising on the site

I first discovered www.andkon.com when my six year old son came home from Kids' Club, raving about a games site on the computer called 'ancon'. A quick google led us to the site which is a free games site, with over 1000 free flash games to access. (That's flash, rather than 'flashy!') According to the site, at least 10 new games are added each Friday so the site is constantly growing.

I'm not a big lover of games personally but this is a site that my son and his dad enjoy immensely! You don't need to register on the site or download any software or anything and the sheer range of free games available keeps my oldest occupied for hours on a rainy day. He finds the site incredibly easy to navigate and, whilst it's by no means a site that's exclusively for kids his age, he manages to play most of the games on there without any adult assistance. This is a real blessing for me as I have no interest in computer games and find it incredibly frustrating being dragged away from stuff I'm doing, to help my son try to work out some complicated game! What tends to happen is that he moves on to different games on the site if he does find one too difficult, as there are so many on there to choose from.

There are no age recommendations or guidelines on any of the games but they seem to have universal appeal as my son and husband are both equally addicted. I've noticed some slight bad language on a couple of the games. ('Shit' was used in the dialogue on one of them at least.) Some of the games are quite violent but it is generally the exaggerated 'cartoon-style' violence where a character is blown to smithereens rather than the graphic mindless violence of some computer games. The games available range from basic 'shoot 'em up' type games to quite complex strategic games, requiring a lot of skill and judgement. My husband's particular favourite involves a cannon which has to be angled a certain way and activated with the right level of force to hit specific targets. He has taken to playing this game when the kids are in bed, so it obviously appeals to quite a broad age range and keeps him out of trouble too!

My son's favourite for a while was a restaurant game in which he had to run a restaurant - taking orders, serving food, cleaning tables etc - within a certain timescale and reach a certain amount of profit each time. I could see that particular game becoming quite addictive and I was even tempted to have a go myself! It would certainly appeal to adults as well as children.

I can't think of many drawbacks to using this site. It's certainly useful for those inevitable rainy days during the long summer holidays! The soundtrack to some of the games can get a bit irritating at times so I normally end up telling him to turn the volume off while he's playing on the site. There are a few unobtrusive adverts and adsense links on the site, which is presumably how the site is funded. My son has pressed on some of these links occasionally (whether accidentally or deliberately, I'm not too sure) but hasn't ended up anywhere to worry about!

In all, I'd recommend this to any kids or adults who enjoy playing computer games. There are so many different games to access for free that it would be well worth having a look at www.andkon.com

Summary: You won't hear a peep out of your kids once they discover this site!