Children slide a Thinkroll through a vertical maze, eating cookies to clear a path, moving crates to fill gaps, melting ice with fire, popping balloons, timing jumps over holes and bouncing on jelly, learning by trial what each object does; a new character is unlocked at the end of each set of puzzles.
Why it may be useful
Each level in Thinkrolls is a small experiment: push a crate, melt some ice, watch what happens. A child practices planning a few steps ahead and revising a failed idea, the same reasoning used with blocks and ramps, made tidy and repeatable.
Keep in mind
The app has had no substantial update since 2023, so check that it still runs on your device, and hard-mode levels can frustrate a three-year-old without help.
Written 2026-09-15 · editorial assessment, not a measured effect · how we rate →
What the game is
Thinkrolls is a physics puzzle-platformer for phones and tablets, made by Avokiddo and first released in 2014. Its Thinkrolls are round, googly-eyed creatures, and the game holds 26 of them. The screen shows a cutaway of a brightly patterned underground maze, seen from the side, and the goal in every level is simply to get your Thinkroll to the bottom.
The mazes are full of objects that behave the way objects behave. Cookies can be eaten to clear a passage. Crates can be pushed into gaps to make a floor. Fire melts ice. Balloons pop. Jelly bounces. Heavy things sink and light things float. Nothing is explained in words, and nothing needs to be read.
There are 207 levels split across two modes: an easy one aimed at ages three to five and a harder one for five to eight. Finishing a set unlocks the next character. It is a paid app, $5.99 on the App Store at the time of writing, with no third-party ads, no in-app purchases and, per Avokiddo's own page, no tracking or data sharing. The app has not had a substantial update since late 2023.
What you actually do
A child drags the Thinkroll left or right and it rolls, falls and bumps into things. A level opens with an obstacle: a wall of ice, a hole too wide to cross, a crate sitting where you need to stand. The child tries something, watches what happens, and tries again. There is no timer, no score and no way to lose, so a wrong idea just plays out and can be undone by rolling back.
Difficulty grows by stacking. Early levels have one object and one idea. Later ones need two or three in the right order: push the crate under the ledge first, because once it is burned there is no second crate. Getting better looks like a pause before the first move, when a child who used to shove things now looks at the whole screen.
What it exercises
Predicts what an object will do before touching it
Plans two or three moves in the right order
Notices that heat, weight and buoyancy behave consistently
Tries an idea, sees it fail, and changes one thing
Why we rate it Low Worksheet score 43 / 100
FitHow much real knowledge or skill does the play itself make you use?42weight 45%
Forty-two. Predicting what an object will do before touching it is genuinely how a level is solved, and there is no quiz layer bolted on top. But the physics is cartoon physics in an invented maze, a general reasoning skill applied to a made-up situation rather than a real subject a child works with, which is why this sits in the middle of the scale rather than higher.
TransferWill what you practise here work outside the game?35weight 30%
Thirty-five. Three-year-olds already reason this way at the bath and the block tower, and the game gives that reasoning a tidy, repeatable form, which is a real general skill picked up in a stylized situation. Nothing here is named, so a child gains practice at predicting rather than knowledge to carry away, and research does not support this kind of transfer reaching very far.
PracticeDoes the game make you use that skill again and again, as it gets harder?55weight 25%
Fifty-five. Two hundred and seven levels across two difficulty modes return to the same handful of physical ideas many times, in new arrangements each time, and unlocking a character every set gives a small reason to keep going. It settles in the middle because the difficulty does not really escalate within a mode, and a child who finishes both has no reason to replay.
What the evidence says
Editorial onlyNobody outside our desk has checked this. It is our reading of how the game plays.
Editorial only. Avokiddo's own page and the App Store listing confirm the concrete facts used here: 207 levels, 26 characters, easy mode for three to five and hard for five to eight, no third-party ads, no in-app purchases and no tracking, and a COPPA and GDPR compliance claim. Those sources do not measure learning, and the developer's line about expert scientists is too vague to count as documented expert involvement. The third source on file, a review article on what makes children's apps educational, supports the general design principle of active, meaningful play rather than anything about this app in particular.
Editorial assessment - not a measured scientific effect.
Fit
42/100
Transfer
35/100
Practice
55/100
Why it makes the cut
It plays like a gentle platformer with silly characters and a clear get-to-the-bottom goal; the physics ideas are the obstacles, not a lesson attached afterwards.
Editorial only
This is our reading of the mechanics, based on Avokiddo's own page and the App Store listing; a general review of what makes children's apps educational supports the design principle, not this specific app, and no study of it exists.
Prices are US store listings in USD, last refreshed 2026-09-25; regional prices and sales differ.
Avokiddo's page states the app is COPPA compliant with no third-party ads, no in-app purchases and no tracking, and gives easy mode for ages 3-5 and hard mode for 5-8.
Thinkrolls 2, Kings & Queens and Space are separate paid sequels; the newer Thinkrolls: Fun Kids Games 2-8 app bundles them under a subscription.
Age guidance
Ages 3-8
Topics
Logic & strategy, STEM
Play styles
Single-player, Puzzle
Tags
No reading · Ad-free · One-time purchase · Puzzles · Short sessions
Every level is a tidy physical experiment a young child can run alone, which is a genuinely clean fit, though the physics is cartoonish and nothing here is named or explained.
