Poki: Review of a Free Online Gaming Platform for All Ages

Looking for some mindless gaming designed to provide you with just the right amount of entertainment you need during your usual ride to school or commute to work? Well, Poki might be the answer for you.

Poki is a platform for online gaming with a catalogue of around 1000 browser games and a super user-friendly interface suitable for every age. So, today, we’re going to find out more about Poki!

A little bit of history of browser games

Browser games have been around for quite a while. A few decades, in fact. One of the first examples of this kind of interactive experience, Earth 2025, made its appearance in 1995, at a time in which the Internet was picking up steam and becoming more and more mainstream. Soon enough, various websites hosting browser games started popping up left and right, exponentially growing in number year after year. A new kind of gaming was born, one that didn’t require an expensive console and videogames.

How do browser games work, exactly? These games can be played through a web browser (such as Google Chrome), and they’re generally written in JavaScript, HTML, PHP or Adobe Flash. All you’ll need is an Internet connection, and you won’t even have to download or install anything.

What Poki is

Back to Poki. The platform hosts more than 1000 online games, no registration is required, and the content is available on both computer and mobile. The games come from various sources, such as the Play Store and App Store (Subway Surfers, Temple Run and Slither.io are among the most iconic apps, for instance).

There are some ads on the website, but they didn’t feel too intrusive to me, personally. Some games might ask you to watch an ad for a few seconds to get a booster of some sort, but it’s generally optional.

The games are also divided by category, so you can filter out the titles you don’t care about.

No filter option available for inappropriate games

Speaking of filters, the fact that there’s no filter available that can block out potentially inappropriate games might be an issue for parents of very young children. Violent games featuring shooting and fighting are mixed together with more innocent ones. On my Poki homepage, for example, the pretty bloody shooter Combat Reloaded and the peaceful cookie-decorating Cookie Master are placed side by side. If you’re a parent of a small child, you’ll probably want to guide your little one through the game selection process, and supervise his/her activities while on the site.

Poki KIDS for young children

While the absence of a filter option is disappointing, little children can still play on Poki KIDS, a separate Poki platform that is a safe environment for the most tender age. Poki KIDS appears among the various game categories listed on the website’s homepage: just scroll down a little, and you’ll find the yellow-colored “Poki KIDS” category in no time.

In conclusion…

Poki offers a good variety of free online games that can be enjoyed by users of all ages. The games are pretty fun and appealing, the quality is in line with your average browser games. Nothing too exceptional, but you’re going to have a good time if you’re only looking for a decent pastime. Some content is definitely inappropriate for very young children, so parents’ and guardians’ supervision is advised. If I had to give it a rating, that would be probably 12+.

With that said, enjoy your games!