Tag: puzzle game

Wee Puzzles by Wee Taps

Wee Puzzles by Wee Taps is a puzzle app. The app has over 50 puzzles in about 8 categories. At least for me it is the first time that I have played a puzzle game where not all the spaces and pieces are visible at the beginning of play. Every time you cover a piece another space is shown as well as another piece to fill in a space. At the completion of the particular puzzle a fun animation is played.

Overall a great app. Beautiful illustration, and abundant puzzles choices. For those that have not bought a puzzle app for their younger children this one will fit the group nicely. For the current price of $.99 US there are very few better choices.

I tested the app on the iPhone and a free copy of the app was provided for review by the publisher. I couldn’t find an Android version and it is available in the Apple App store for $0.99. Works offline and I couldn’t find an in-app store in the version I played with.

Dismonster by Dabadugames

Dismonster places your child behind the eyes of an investigator. The first person game has you walking around rooms and finding scary shadows. The shadows disappear (explode) when you cover the shadow with the item or items that produced the shadow (as in a jig-saw-puzzle). At first these shadows are made of one object, but quickly turn into scarier shadows that consist of more than one object.

The game play, graphics, music and sounds are great. It should be mentioned that part of the game play consist of rotating the objects to match part of the shadow outline. This might be to difficult for smaller kids.

Overall a great game. My only wish is that it had an easy mode where smaller children did not have to rotate the items.

Dadadugames is very kid friendly game. No ads, no in app store and follows the very strict MomsWithApps standard. The app will be available on November 18. I reviewed the pre-release version on my iPhone.

 

Labo Pebble Art by Labo Lado Inc.

So I lost my test device. I made the mistake of asking my youngest daughter to take a look at Labo Pebble Art and tell me what she thought about it. And that was it, the iPhone was gone. She would bring it back only to show me her lovely creations and to take screen captures.

The app is brilliant and kept my daughter entertained for hours. It allowed her to reproduce a bunch of her favorite stuffed animals and then play with them in a game. The initial activities consist of creating the selected animal or thing by using rocks (basically a puzzle where the outline is already visible). Once the puzzle has been completed the child can color it and/or use it in the activity designed for that item. Any design or pattern done while coloring will remain while playing the activity. Some of these activities include making music, helping with motor skills and matching games. There are a ton of little details that you only notice the more you play. Overall a great app.

As for as gripes I only have one and the rest of the game is so well executed that it doesn’t really matter. For a game this creative it seems that some of the music was an after thought. My daughter asked to turn it off after just a few minutes of play, and my wife said it sounded like awful elevator music.

The app is only available for in the Apple App Store for $2.99. I received a free version from the publisher.

Works Offline. No ads. No in-app store.

Fibble HD by Crytek

We have reviewed plenty in the past, but sometimes I question the educational value of some puzzle apps. I can understand the need to teach children reflexes and spacial problem solving, but how many of these apps do you need clogging up your phone or tablet. In Fibble HD by Crytek Gmbh you fling the main character (similar to the angry series) to complete stages that remind me of miniature golf.

The game has great illustrations and is beautifully animated. The music is interesting, unique and doesn’t get annoying as quickly as some others would. Unlike the 2D worlds of most puzzle games, this one has a beautifully rendered 3D world. Also the story is advanced by little movies in-between the levels.You can also tilt and roll your ipad to help the little one land in the hole.

Overall a very gentil and enjoyable game. A easy upgrade for some of the more popular puzzle games out there.

I played it on my full size iPad. It is available in the Apple App store and the Google Play store for .99 cents. It works fine offline and does have a in-app store. I received my copy for free.

Gartu in the Kindergarten by UPigames

Gartu in the Kindergarten is a 20 mini-activities education app designed for children 2-6 years old. I won’t be able to describe all the activities but some of them are reading, matching, and item does not belong. Apparently the app is a fresh translation of an online app designed by a private school in Spain.

There are many things to like about the app, especially the ability to switch the language for all the activities. Language included are english, spanish, german, italian and french. The fact that everything in the game switches over when you switch the language is great. Everything from the story to the singing switches over to the selected language. The images are professionally illustrated, and the music and sounds are also well done.

The next part of the review is mostly subjective. Please feel free to skip it and grab the free version available in the Apple App Store and make your own conclusions. For the ones that kept reading, the application doesn’t respond appropriately to touches by little kids. For example, Gartu sings at the start of every activity. It doesn’t matter where your child touches, he/she would be forced to listen to the entire song before proceeding. Another example is in an activity where your child has to pick up garbage and bring it to the garbage basket. Again while the app is giving the child accolades, it is impossible to click on any other piece of garbage. The entire app feels old, cluttered and not responsive enough (like an app version of a Barney’s episode).

Overall a decent game. The multiple languages almost single handily makes this app a good buy for $1.99 (full version), and the fact that you can try it out for free should make it an easy download for parents that are trying to teach their kids multiple languages.

The app has no in-app store, advertisements and works offline. I reviewed the full version (provided by the publisher).

Fiete By Wolfgang Schmitz

As always I am sometimes wowed by some of the apps that we receive at smartkidsapps.org to be reviewed. Fiete by Wolfgang Schmitz is one of those apps. This educational apps consists of a large main screen that is littered with mini games to click on and explore.

As a fellow developer, this app shames everything I have every produced or will produce. An incredibly beautiful app. The illustrations are gorgeous. The scenes are not cluttered, and have just enough elements to make them interesting. The educational app has enough mini games to keep younger children entertained for many hours (if not weeks). One of the most interesting games involves a matching game where instead of matching similar cards you will have to match items that produce an event. For example upon matching a balloon and a pin both card will show the balloon popped.

As far as cons. I believe this is the first time I don’t have any.

I tested it on a full size iPad, no other version exists that I am aware of, and the app was provided for free by the publisher. It is available on the Apple App Store for $2.99.

Magi Forest By Ola Games

Magi Forest is a puzzle game where you click on gems to drop animals into their nest. Upon dropping all the animals into their nest you can proceed to the next level.

The background and the characters are beautifully painted. The music is also very nice: not extremely annoying after extended play. There is also enough variations to keep the puzzles interesting (balloons, jellies and other game play variations).

The puzzles get progressively harder, and might get too hard too quickly for younger children. You are not allowed to proceed if any of the animals do not reach the nest (no partial credit). You can purchase the ability to skip a level: for .99 cents or by joining Alfa Circles and earning it (After signing up and logging into the site, I couldn’t figure out how to earn anything). If you don’t want random extra charges, I would recommend turning off in app purchases or telling your kids not to purchase a level.

Overall a pleasant, but not ground breaking puzzle game. If you don’t have enough of them on your tablet, wouldn’t mind another one, and you don’t mind the in-app purchase for skipping a level (or signing up and into a random site) this one can provide a hours of entertainment.

Available on the Apple App Store for 99 cents. I reviewed the iOS version on the iPad (provided by the publisher).