I have been a teacher for over 25 years. I have seen my fair share of review games come and go. At one point, Quizlet was the talk of the town. That was soon blown away by Kahoot. Then Gimkit came to take the crown of review game queen. That one stayed on top until Blooket appeared a few years ago.
Blooket is head and shoulders above every other review game I have used in my classroom. And in true capitalistic form, it is causing the other review game platforms to have to create new versions so that they can stand out. I love the fact that they are all pushing each other to create more engaging and effective review games for students.
What makes Blooket so great? From a teacher's standpoint, it is very easy to create games for students. A teacher can choose to import from Quizlet ( a very popular flashcard study site that has a ton of pre-made sets), import from a spreadsheet, or create from scratch. Once you create a set of questions, they can be used in at least 17 different game modes. That variety makes sure that the games are always interesting.
Even better is the fact that while most of the game modes are meant to be played by a full class, there are several individual games students can play on there own. These include factory, cafe and tower defense games that mimic some games that are designed purely for fun. The only difference is that every few seconds a kid needs to answer a question correctly in order to earn better towers, feed customers and hire workers. It is incredibly engaging and fun.
Not only do students love playing the games (while they accidentally memorize important facts) there are features that keep the kids coming back for more. Every time the students log in to play, they can earn coins that can be used to but packs of Blooks in the store. Just like any fun packs, there are different rarities. Kids strive to find the most rare and elite Blooks to use as their avatars. Kids love earning the coins to but the packets. They even get a visual of opening the pack. It is kind of like opening packs on Splinterlands.
Although I keep saying "kids", my students are all teenagers. And they all LOVE these games. Even seniors in high school enjoy the competition. Most of the games allow you to steal gold or other valuables from your opponents. Even better many of the games don't let you go "bankrupt". Because of features like "swapping" gold, even a person in last can catapult to first after answering one question right. To prove how balanced the game is, I write the questions but I still play along with the kids. Even though I never miss a single question I can only beat the class about 5% of the time. The kids love stealing my gold and swapping with me. And so do I!
Perhaps the best part of this game is that even the free level is still awesome! Although the free version doesn't give you access to every game, it gives you access to enough games that it is still really fun.
Even if you are not a teacher, I highly recommend checking out Blooket.com. I made some trivia games for my family to play at holiday parties and they love it. I have also made some trivia games about my kids on their birthdays and that goes over big as well.