Coding platform for kids. What's your opinion?

I have two kids ages 11 and 8 who love Scratch. The main reason they love Scratch is because they love making games, mostly platformers. If I am honest, the games on Code Guppy just aren't very fun. The games that my kids create are almost as good as Super Mario Bros. and other classic 2D games. They also love creating their own game assets (both vector art and pixel art) using the built-in art tool. And they like being able to see other cool games and looking "under the hood" to see how they are built, and taking those ideas and code-blocks into their own games. With that in mind, here is some feedback on Code Guppy:

Pros:

• I like the use of JavaScript. The biggest downside of Scratch is that the language is really poor, and teaches bad programming habits. My kids' programs are all horrific spaghetti code, and it's often very difficult to implement clean code.
• Most of the tutorials seem pretty well explained and thought out

Cons:

• Even though I like JavaScript, it doesn't look easy for my kids to just start building a game. Scratch to a large degree is a basic game-engine with sprites, collision detection, movement, sound etc... that's what really appeals to my kids.
• Code Guppy games are not fun... the most exciting game is probably the planes vs. object, but that isn't very exciting either. Most of the game mechanics are not great.
• No "sandbox" mode where kids just create whatever they want
• Can't remix like in Scratch
• I don't think my kids will have the patience to work through a bunch of tutorials. They want to just dive in and just start making stuff.

I can see how Code Guppy may be a good fit for classrooms and structured environments and lessons. But for my kids, Scratch is almost perfect ... I just wish the language was better.

My main piece of advice is to make the activities more fun – that'll go a long way.

Hope this helps and good luck!