Shape Sorter

Shape Sorter is a calm shapes-and-patterns game set in a toy box world. Every shape has a friendly face: a red circle, a blue square, a yellow triangle, a star, a heart and, further on, ovals, diamonds, hexagons, pentagons, octagons and trapeziums. A round is ten quick exercises. Drag a shape to the matching hole in the big shape sorter box, tap the one that is different among four, pick the missing piece of a pattern like circle, square, circle, ?, or drag pieces onto a dotted outline to build a house, a rocket, a cat, a boat and eight more pictures.

Pick 4+, 6+ or 8+ on the title screen and the game remembers it. At 4+ there are five simple shapes and patterns of two, and every first exercise is shown by an animated hand, so no reading is needed. At 6+ the holes turn, patterns grow to three and children count the sides and corners of a shape by tapping a digit. At 8+ the holes spin slowly, 3D shapes like a cube, sphere, cone and cylinder are matched to real things such as dice, oranges, party hats and drums, mirror pictures are finished on a grid, and a seven-piece tangram is solved by tapping pieces to turn them. Colour is never the only clue: every colour also has its own outline style.

There is nothing to lose. A wrong answer wobbles and plays a soft try-again sound, and after a second miss the right answer lights up. There are no timers, no lives and no game over, just a gentle music box, stars and a learned meter for each age tier. Every finished round adds a shape creature to the sticker book, and a daily round gives a special golden sticker, so a short daily visit is a relaxed little brain workout. Progress is saved on your own device.