Stack the States®

Review by eFreeware

Families looking for something educational that a child will actually ask to play again are the natural audience for Stack the States. It is a paid geography game built around the fifty US states, and the pitch is simple: answer questions about them, then physically stack the states you win until your pile reaches a checkered line. The developer's own summary calls it learning about the fifty states made fun, and that framing tells you most of what you need to know about who this is for.

The second audience is adults who have let their knowledge of state capitals and abbreviations go soft. There is no shame in that, and a game that asks you to place Kansas correctly on a map is a gentler way to fix it than a worksheet. Because the app carries an Everyone rating and costs $2.99 with no ads and no in-app purchases, the decision is a one-time one, which matters if you are handing a tablet to a child and would rather not field requests to buy things.

The app has more than 100,000 installs and a 4.7 average across 2,237 ratings, figures that suggest the formula has held up over time. It first appeared in September 2013 and was still being updated in October 2025, so this is not a project that was abandoned after launch. What follows is what the developer describes the app doing, and where I think it fits.

Answering questions, then stacking states

The core loop is a quiz with a physical payoff. You work through questions about the states, and the developer lists the ground covered as capitals, shapes, abbreviations, bordering states, location on the map, nicknames and flags, with more beyond that list. There are hundreds of questions in total, so a single run through the app is not going to exhaust the material.

Correct answers earn you a state, and that state becomes a piece you can touch, move and drop anywhere on the screen. The states are animated, and the developer says all the games run on a realistic physics engine, so the pieces settle and topple rather than snapping into place. Your job is to build a pile tall enough to reach the checkered line and clear the level.

What appeals to me about this arrangement is that the reward for knowing a fact is a toy. You are not moving to the next question because a progress bar says so; you are moving to the next question so you have something new to drop on the pile. That is a small design decision, but it is the difference between a quiz and a game, and it explains why the format has lasted.

The state you receive after a level is random, which means your collection fills in unpredictably rather than in the order you might choose. For a completionist that is mildly frustrating in a good way, since you cannot simply target the last few states you need. It also keeps early sessions varied, because you are never quite sure what you will be adding next.

A map that fills in as you play

Each state you earn is added to a map of the United States that you build yourself, and the goal is to gather all fifty. The map doubles as a progress tracker, so you can see at a glance which regions of the country are still blank. That visual record is a more satisfying measure of progress than a percentage, particularly for a child who is working through the states over weeks rather than in one sitting.

Alongside the map there are fifty state flash cards and an interactive map, which serve as reference material rather than part of the quiz. High resolution pictures of famous US landmarks are included too, so the app has some visual range beyond state outlines. I would expect the flash cards to be the part a parent uses with a younger child before handing over the device, or the part an adult checks after getting a nickname question wrong.

There is also a lighter layer of personalization. You can pick any of the fifty states as your avatar, and their friendly look fits the tone of the whole app. Up to six player profiles can be created, so a household does not have to share a single collection or a single set of scores. That is a quietly useful inclusion for anyone with more than one child, or for a classroom tablet that gets passed around.

Four bonus games waiting behind the states

The app is not only the stacking mode. Four bonus games are earned as you collect states, and they come with the app rather than costing extra. The first is Map It, where you tap the location of a selected state on the map and try to complete the whole country. It is the most directly geographic of the four and the closest to a straight test of what you have learned.

Pile Up flips the pressure around: states keep arriving and you tap them quickly to clear them before the pile grows too tall. Puzzler is the opposite mood, a jigsaw-style activity where you slide state shapes around and fit them together at your own pace. Capital Drop asks you to match states with their capitals while keeping a state from falling, which is the fastest and most stressful of the set.

Having four modes with different tempos is a sensible way to keep the app in rotation. A child who is tired of answering questions can spend a session on Puzzler, and an adult who wants a quick challenge can go to Capital Drop. Calling the package five games in one is fair, though the bonus games arrive gradually rather than all at once.

What it costs and what it asks of you

This is a paid app at $2.99. There are no third-party ads, no in-app purchases, no integration with social networks and no third-party analytics or data collection tools. The one thing the disclosure does note is that the app includes links to other titles by the same developer, Dan Russell-Pinson, so a child tapping around could land on a store page for something else.

The practical requirement is simply a device to run it on and the willingness to pay once. There is no subscription to keep track of. For a household that has been burned by free educational apps that interrupt every screen with ads, that flat arrangement is the main reason to consider this one.

The other requirement is patience with repetition. The app covers a fixed set of fifty states, and while there are hundreds of questions, the subject matter does not expand. A child who races through the collection may find the questions familiar on a second pass. That is the nature of a geography drill, and it is worth going in with realistic expectations about how long the novelty lasts.

Getting the most out of a session

Because up to six profiles are supported, I would set one up per player from the start rather than letting everyone share a single map. Separate profiles mean separate collections, so a younger child is not competing against an older sibling's nearly complete map, and each person's progress reflects their own play. It takes a minute and it avoids a predictable argument.

The flash cards and interactive map are the natural companion to the quiz rather than a separate activity. Running through a handful of cards before a stacking session gives you a better chance of recognizing a state when it appears, and checking the map afterward turns a wrong answer into a small lesson rather than just a lost turn. For a child, that pairing is likely to do more than simply replaying the stacking mode.

It is also worth letting the bonus games do some of the work. Puzzler is the low-pressure option when concentration is thin, while Capital Drop and Pile Up suit a short burst of energy. Mixing modes keeps the states in front of you without turning every session into a test, which is the point of a game like this.

A steady pick for US geography practice

Stack the States is a well-defined app with a clear job: teach the fifty states through questions, then reward correct answers with a physics toy. It does that with hundreds of questions, a personalized map, flash cards, six profiles and four extra games, all for a single $2.99 payment and no ads or in-app purchases.

I would point families with elementary-age children toward it first, particularly those who want an educational app without a storefront inside it. Adults who want a light refresher on capitals, abbreviations and state shapes will also get their money's worth, and the six profiles make it easy to share. Anyone hoping for a geography app that grows with them beyond the fifty states should know that the content is fixed, because that is what the app is built around.

At this price, with no ongoing costs and no advertising, the risk is low and the upside is a child who can place Wyoming on a map. That is a trade most households will be happy to make.

What's new in version 3.2

Misc. bug fixes.