Recommended for ages 7 and up
Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction is rated by PEGI at a 12, as it contains unrealistic violence between human/animal-like characters. Which means that Ben 10 punches a few bad guys, who fall over and fade away when they 'die', with no blood, leaving behind some DNA (the game's currency) - so nothing inherently bad there, or any worse than you'll see on the TV program, so if you're fine with them watching the TV show, you should be fine with this. 12 seems more than a little bit harsh.
Besides the whole story of good vs evil, it's the puzzles that are the most positive thing about Ben 10. Getting your child's brain ticking is never a bad thing, and although they aren't Layton level brain benders, there's still a fair amount of thinking to be done here.And if nothing else, they'll learn that morphing into aliens would be a cool thing to be able to do.
Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction is an entirely single-player game, with no multiplayer mode whatsoever. Younger children may need pointing in the right direction with the puzzles, or may need a hand with the platforming, but besides those, it's entirely for the lone player. We thought it would have been good with a co-op mode, with one person playing as Ben and the other as his cousin Gwen (who can't morph into aliens, but does have magic powers) - but maybe in next year's game!
