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We Lost First: What Five of Our Games Taught Us on the First Try

Every guide on this site starts with a real first try, and quite a few of those first tries went badly. That turned out to be useful. Each defeat pointed straight at the one habit that makes the game click. Here are five of them, with the fix we found, or in one case the fix we are still working on.

By Zaib · 20 October 2026

There is a rule we follow when we write a guide: play the game the way a new player would, before reading any tips. That means we make the same mistakes a child would make on their first go. We hold the fire button down too long, we park in the open, we forget to spend our coins.

It also means our guides can say honestly what goes wrong, and how to fix it. Losing in a game is a normal part of learning it, and every game below lets you try again straight away. If your child gets frustrated after a first defeat, this list might help. Each "lesson" is one small change that made a big difference for us.

Bolt Brigade: stop shooting and duck

What happened. Bolt Brigade is a cartoon cover shooter where you crouch behind toy blocks while wind-up robots march around a play yard. On our very first try we held a finger on the screen, let the blaster fire and never let go. Mission 1-1 ended in under a minute with a "Knocked Out!" card and 4% accuracy.

The lesson. The results card said it all: "Hide behind cover when bots glow red." Every robot shows a red ! just before it fires. Hold the blue COVER button when you see it, wait for the shot to bonk off the blocks, then pop back out.

What changed. Once we ducked on every warning, most missions ended at 100% health. Stars in Bolt Brigade depend on health, so this one habit is the difference between one star and three. Holding COVER also reloads your blaster, so ducking is never wasted time.

Tank Rumble: never stop moving

What happened. Tank Rumble is set on a play mat in a child's bedroom, with a chunky green toy tank against wind-up robots. On our first game we drove in short, straight bursts and stopped between each one. Every time we paused, the robots' shots caught up with us. "Tank Toppled!" on stage 1-1, with 7 robots popped.

The lesson. Your tank aims and fires by itself. That means all your attention can go on moving. On our second game we kept driving in smooth circles around the mat, and wave 1 went much better.

What changed. We cleared the stage and got to pick our first power card. We also learned that only 15% of your health comes back between stages, so when you are low, the Repair Kit power is often the smartest pick. Put your first coins into the Armour upgrade in the Garage.

Fortress Frontline: spend your coins

What happened. Fortress Frontline is a storybook tower defence game. Monsters walk down a forest road toward your castle, and you build towers on stone spots to stop them. On level 1, Hollow Brook, we built three Archer Posts and pressed START. By the last wave everything was reaching the gate. Defeat, with 0 of 20 lives left.

The lesson. Looking at the results, our mistakes were obvious. We finished with 132 coins unspent, more than enough to upgrade a tower. We never used the Meteor or Soldiers abilities, even though the game kept saying "Meteor ready!" And all three towers did the same job, with no splash damage and nothing to slow enemies down.

What changed. Our guide now has a simple plan: an Archer near the bend in the road, then a Cannon for groups and a Frost tower in front of it so slowed enemies sit in the blast. Upgrade before you build more, use Meteor on packs, and knock out Goblin Shamans first, because they heal the monsters around them.

Pirate Isles: follow the yellow arrow

What happened. Pirate Isles is a cheerful sailing game where you captain a little sloop around a picture-book sea. Our first mission was easy: sail to a glowing buoy. The next one asked us to collect three floating chests. We kept holding the same direction and sailed straight past Pebble Isle, while the chests were 114 metres behind us.

The lesson. A yellow arrow at the edge of the screen always points to your current mission, with the distance. And the ship keeps sailing while you hold a direction, so let go to slow down.

What changed. Our wrong turn wasn't all bad. We ended up next to Palm Harbor, docked there and found new contracts and a Shipyard. Exploring is part of the fun in Pirate Isles, as long as you know how to get back on course. The battles are gentle too: your cannons aim themselves, and beaten pirates wave a white flag and sail away.

Skyfire Squadron: watch the bullets, not the planes

What happened. Skyfire Squadron is our cartoon airplane shooter. Your plane fires automatically while you drag to steer through waves of enemy fighters. On the first two tries we swept the plane back and forth across the bottom of the screen without paying much attention to the enemy bullets. Both times the result was "Shot Down!", once with 38 of 59 enemies down.

The lesson. Since your guns hit whatever is in front of you, chasing enemy planes is not the main job. Staying out of the streams of red bullets is. Small sideways moves work better than big swoops, and the MEGA button clears every bullet on the screen when things get crowded.

Still in progress. This is the one game on the list we have not beaten yet: a third hand-played try ended the same way, with 42 of 59 enemies down. Our plan for the next try is to treat the bullets, not the planes, as the thing to watch. That matters for stars too: Skyfire Squadron gives one star for finishing a mission, one for shooting down 70% of enemies and one for keeping half your health, so dodging well is worth two of the three. And because you keep the coins you collect even when you are shot down, our failed runs still count toward the first upgrade. The third try alone earned 85 coins.

The pattern behind all five

Put the five lessons side by side and a pattern appears:

Read the results card. Several of our games put a tip on the defeat screen, and in our experience it was exactly the right one.
Let the game do what it does automatically. In Tank Rumble, Skyfire Squadron and Pirate Isles, aiming is done for you, so your job is to move well.
Use everything you have. Unspent coins, unused abilities and an idle COVER button are the most common reasons a first try fails.
Losing costs very little. You keep coins from failed runs in many of our games, and you can always retry straight away.

That last point matters for younger players. A first defeat is not the end of anything. It is usually the game's way of showing you the one trick you have not tried yet.

Try them yourself

All five games are free, play in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, and save your progress on your device. Each one has a full guide on our Guides page, covering controls, stars, upgrades and bosses, with screenshots from our own play. Go on, lose your first round. Then try again.

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