Last updated on November 29th, 2025 at 01:05 pm
Mission US: Up from the Dust – Adventure Game Review
Mission US: Up from the Dust is a Adventure/Education/Roleplaying game from Thirteen/WNET, first launched in 13th April 2017.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 41+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Mission US: Up from the Dust Stand Out
Step into the shoes of Ginny and Frank Dunn, 13-year-old twins in 1930s Texas. Prospects for survival on your family wheat farm are grim. How will you weather the impending devastation of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl? As Frank, you can ride the rails around the country in search of work and adventure. As Ginny, you can help others find aid and work through New Deal programs, and travel west to assist famed photographer Dorothea Lange. Alternating between Frank and Ginny’s viewpoints, you will meet people from many different walks of life, experiencing and overcoming the daunting challenges many Americans faced in these hard times.
“Up from the Dust” is the fifth in the award-winning MISSION US series of adventure role-playing games designed to engage tweens and teens in U.S. history.
GAME FEATURES:
• Play alternates between two main characters
• Innovative choice-driven story with over 20 possible endings and badge system
• Includes interactive prologue, 5 playable parts, and epilogue – approx. 2-2.5 hours of gameplay, segmented for flexible implementation
• Diverse cast of characters features a range of perspectives on the Depression
• Farm minigame simulates boom and bust cycle and impact of drought and Depression on local farmers
• New Deal minigame focuses on government programs that helped ordinary Americans
• Primary source documents and historic photographs are integrated into game design
• Collection of free classroom support resources available at mission-us.org includes document-based questions, primary sources, class activities, vocabulary builders, standards alignments, writing prompts and visual aids.
ABOUT MISSION US:
• AWARDS include: Games for Change Award for Most Significant Impact, Japan Prize, multiple Parents’ Choice Gold, Common Sense Media ON for Learning, and International Serious Play awards, and Webby and Daytime Emmy nominations.
• CRITICAL ACCLAIM: USA Today: “a powerful game that all kids should experience”; Educational Freeware: “one of the most captivating educational games online”; Kotaku: “a slice of livable history that every American should play”; 5 out of 5 stars from Common Sense Media
• GROWING FAN BASE: More than 1.7 million registered users across the US and around the world to date.
• PROVEN IMPACT: Major study by Education Development Center (EDC) found students who studied the Great Depression and Dust Bowl using “Up from the Dust “ significantly outperformed those who studied the topics using typical materials (textbook and lecture) – showing a 14.9% knowledge gain versus less than 1% for the other group.
• TRUSTED TEAM: Produced by THIRTEEN WNET NY Public Media (NY’s flagship PBS station) in partnership with educational game development company Electric Funstuff and the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, City University of New York.
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Mission US: Up from the Dust is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 13th April 2017
Recent improvements include:
This app has been updated by Apple to display the Apple Watch app icon.
Download & Availability
Mission US: Up from the Dust is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Mission US: Up from the Dust on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 / iPad Mini 3 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 4 / iPad Mini 4 (Cellular) or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
We love your games, the only thing that we would like is it you made the flash games that are no longer available into games on either your site of here. Other than that your games are amazing and. Very educational.
It is the most amazing game we have ever played! Up from the dust is JUSt AMAZING and how you chose how they act! It is kinda lick the game Choices! But better! And no lovey-dovey stuff! This is just a must have.
Ive played ever single episode of the Mission:US series so far. We are not a grade school student, but just a person who both loves learning about history as well as interactive story telling. And we have to say, this is the most polished game produced in the series to date. It covers a setting often forgotten in the greater context of more flamboyant events in history: life in a dust bowl farming family during the depression. And it does so in a way that really allows a person to relate to the events at hand, particularly during a rather tragic event in the game that we wont spoil for anyone else. We loved playing it, learning from it, and gaining a new appreciation for history. Everyone should pay this game, especially since its free anyway.
We love Mission us it is a great way to learn and have so much fun we play it at school we have only played 2 but the Crowns for Colonies is our favorite we haven't done this one yet but this is the only one we could get on our iPad.
This is a really fun game. It would be much better if the story was greatly expanded and you could ride the rails forever, instead of going home after 30 days.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0
- Size: 768.15 MB
- iOS: 6.0 or later
- Languages: CS, NL, EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, SV, ZH, TR
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
- Developer: Thirteen/WNET
Last updated: 13th April 2017 | Genre: Adventure, Education | Developer: Thirteen/WNET