There are many “adventure” and “escape the room” online video games that, at first glance, might not appear to have much educational value. However, if you look a little closer, a number of them can be a gold mine for engaging language-development activities. Many “gamers” on the web create what are called “walkthroughs” for these games — written step by step instructions on how to “beat” them. Teachers can divide students into pairs, give them copies of walkthrough, and you’re unlikely to find another English reading and speaking where you will find more engagement. Though class “winners” might be the first five pairs to get through the entire game, you’ll find that students, particularly boys, will love getting ahead of others and then stop to help their classmates so they can show off their video game-playing prowess.

I wrote an article a few years ago about using these games with students, and I’ve posted about quite a few of them over the years, and thought it would be useful to bring them together into one list. I’ve only included ones here that I believe have a decent chance of not being blocked by school content filters.

Here are The Best “Fun” Online Video Games For English Language Development:

Phantasy Quest leaves you stranded on a deserted island (here’s the Walkthrough)

Sound Factory lets you play a musical factory worker and can save and post your final composition (here’s the Walkthrough)

Polleke’s Blue Room is an online video game with a Walkthrough

Ketinetto 2 is another one with a Walkthrough.

The Ballard of Ketinetto 7 (Here’s the walkthrough)

Heart Of Tota (Here’s the  “walkthrough” )

Monster Basement (Here’s its Walkthrough)  This one is fairly scary, though my students love it.

Griswold The Goblin includes audio supported text and a lot of fun. Here’s the Walkthrough.

The Ballad of Ketinetto ( Here’s the Walkthrough)

The same creators of the last game also have an excellent seventeen part series of games called Esklavos, several which have come out in the past year.   You can find the Walkthroughs to the series here.  That same Walkthrough page also has links to all the games, but because I think it’s more likely that the site featuring the walkthroughs will be blocked by school content filters, I’m going to list direct links to all the games here (except for the first one, which is in Spanish only):

“Dr. Stanley’s House 2″  (Here is its “Walkthrough,”)

Inspector Kloo 4  You can find its walkthrough  here.

Inspector Kloo 5  You can find its walkthrough here.

The Ballad of Ketinetto 8  Here is its “walkthrough.”

Mild Escape is an “escape the room” game with a walkthrough.

I have tons of additional games and walkthroughs on my website.

Computer games give a boost to English reports on a new research study.

Feedback is always welcome.

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You might also want to explore the 800 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.