Timez Attack is an educational game that helps children learn and memorise their multiplication tables. It's a cartoony third-person 3D adventure game that calls on students to guide its green bug/dinosaur of a hero or heroine through a dangerous fantasy world. Along the way they'll need to quickly solve multiplication puzzles of increasing difficulty in order to keep going. Everything from unlocking doors to boss fights is powered by mastering multiplication.

Not your ordinary educational game

Most educational games are pretty bare-bones affairs just math exercises without any real gameplay to sweeten the pill. Timez Attack by contrast is a pretty lavish production certainly by educational-game standards. The characters are charmingly cartoony and the environment is detailed and well-designed. It isn't up to most AAA titles of course -- and it's showing its age a little -- but it's still an appealing environment for younger players. The gameplay is simple and the different math challenges are given enough mechanical variety that they don't get repetitive. The soundtrack is cheerful but unmemorable.

Top of its class

If you're looking for an educational game to help your students or children brush up on their times tables Timez Attack is a good choice. It's engaging enough not to get boring but contains a strong core of genuinely helpful math content to improve student performance.