This app lets children take control of the “scary” monster and learn how to not be afraid of it. Each page progressively reveals and then removes each piece of the Big Green Monster by cleverly changing the background screen colors. Children can add the Monster’s eyes, hair, ears, and nose, and poke him to see what he does. There are four modes: Read Along with a Friend; Read Along with Ed; Sing Along; and Read Yourself. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Katamari comes to the touch screen for the first time, due to the new capabilities of the PlayStation Vita. The idea is the same — roll a sticky ball around a course, collecting items and growing more powerful, in order to unlock the next levels. You have your choice of using either the Vita touch screen controls or dual analog sticks in conjunction with the rear touch pad to squeeze, stretch and roll your Katamari ball. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This “app toy” (Toca Boca’s approach to app design) takes place in a house where five zany friends live, one on each floor. You help them with their chores, by washing the floor (move the mop with your finger), ironing (move over a shirt to get rid of the wrinkles), sorting the trash (by color), mowing the lawn, and so on. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This title has been rereleased several times over the years (this is the 16th Putt Putt title in our database). In 2008, it was sold at retail computers.
In case you missed it the first time around, this is a cartoonish scavenger hunt-style program that lets you drive Putt-Putt (a car) around the paths in three zoo regions (the jungle, the arctic and the grasslands) in search of six missing baby animals. As you explore, you find special items necessary to help the animals. For example, a rope found in an arctic snow bank must be taken into the jungle and lowered down a waterfall to rescue a trapped lion cub. Freeing a stranded hippo requires building a bridge of uniquely shaped icebergs and finding a shovel to clear away an avalanche. Unless the necessary special items are found, the animals remain lost and the zoo cannot open. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
A cross between a Pokémon game and Animal Crossing (with a bit of “Carnival Games” tossed in), PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond lets you play as one of four different Pokémon, including Pikachu, Oshawott, Snivy, and Tepig, as you make your way through PokéPark and try to save the missing Pokémon. Once you get to the Park (an exotic theme park) you can try your hand at different game attractions that can be played with up to four players using the Wii Remote. These include a shooting gallery, dancing, and flying through space in a race around the stars. As you explore, you can make friends with other Pokémon by playing games such as Chase or Hide and Seek. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Here’s another solid Duck Duck Moose app. The idea is to present younger children with a narrated question, such as “who is upside down?” They then try to find the correct answer, from eight possible choices. There’s a nice variety of questions and the names of different animals are used (e.g., alligator, cat, chicken, cow, dog, elephant, giraffe, hippo, lion, monkey, mouse, panda, penguin, pig, seal, skunk, walrus, and zebra, as well as an imaginary “squirgle”). Children are also introduced to emotions such as smiling, surprised, crying, angry, and sad; actions such winking, waving, yawning, eating, wagging his tail, and sleeping; positions of backwards and upside down; activities of listening or having a party; sounds such as meow and woof; and attire including wearing a hat, sunglasses, or bowtie. As children play, they can listen to jazz versions of nursery tales. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Designed specifically around the unique attributes of the Sony Vita handheld game system, Little Deviants is a collection of thirty games that provide a good test of your problem solving abilities and reaction time. In Hole Roll Control, you touch the back of the Vita (the back side has a sensitive, capacitive screen, like the iPad) to see the “bump” of your finger on a floating landscape. By moving the bump around, you push one of the deviants (they roll) toward a hole. Other games include House of Whacks, Depth Charge, and Botz Blast — the latter an augmented reality game that uses the outside-facing camera to let you target bad guys who are floating around the room. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Based on themes in the last three Harry Potter books and the final four films, this single game, for nearly every platform, takes you through Harry Potter’s adventures in such places as Privet Drive in Little Whinging to Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts, as well as new locations like Grimmauld Place. As you explore and collect LEGO parts, you prepare for the ultimate battle against Lord Voldemort. The game builds upon the gameplay, lessons and potion-making skills learned in LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 to equip you with the tools necessary to challenge new and old enemies (including He Who Must Not Be Named). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
With a look and feel that is nearly identical to the Kinect edition of the game, Kinectimals for iPad lets you pet, bathe and teach your large baby cats. The more you play, the more parts of the island of Lemuria that you unlock. There are five total, each with different challenges. For example, you can flick a ball to see how many times your cub can catch it, or swipe up to make your cub jump, in time to a jump rope. You can also transfer your pet to the Kinect, by holding your iPad in range of the Kinect camera. Once it recognizes your cubs pattern, your cub “jumps” into the Kinect game. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The app starts with 10 clearly marked icons, each leading to a set of five or so games. Each has a nature or animal theme. Activities include puzzles, matching, coloring, concentration, hide-and-seek, dot-to-dot, and spot the differences. It is easy to get out of any activity instantly, and there’s plenty to discover. Features include the ability to adjust the sounds. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
GameChanger is an electronic game board that plugs into your iPad, essentially extending it’s touch surface beyond the area of the screen, into a folding board. It is one of the first toy/app combinations. You start by downloading the app, and then connect your iPad to the board. Then you can touch the board, which consists of 48 pressure fields. When you move your playing piece, the screen shows a video and plays a sound so you know whose turn it is. In addition, the GameChanger asks questions and assigns tasks. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This one player problem solving adventure features Milli, Geo, and Bot from the Umizoomi Nickelodeon show. In order to rebuild a submarine, children move through 25 activities that consist of mazes and puzzles, some of which involve using your voice as an input. There are two modes: adventure (move through the games in the context of the story) and team training (choose one of the 25 mini-games individually). Curriculum is based on the Pre-K and Kindergarten math skills, which includes counting, sorting, matching, identifying, sequencing, adding, subtracting, dividing, measuring and comparing. Developed by Black Lantern for 2K Play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on the book by David Carter, Spot the Dot is a “needle in the haystack” or “I Spy” type of app, where the same item — a small colored dot, is hidden in nine pages, or screens. Each challenge is presented with the text “can you spot the (color) dot?” forming a predictable pattern. Created for Ruckus Media by Unicornlabs. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The fourth in the Professor Layton puzzle series, this game is set three years before the events in Professor Layton and the Curious Village. In the story, Professor Layton receives a letter from an old schoolmate telling him that a mysterious giant is destroying his town. This time, the professor investigates with his young, smart new assistant, Emmy. There’s a wide variety of brain teasers and riddles; more than the others in the series. In the first, for example, you find a hidden clue by taking the first letter from each line, in a paragraph. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This mashup from vintage 1980 cartoon super heroes combines actual footage from the Power Rangers TV show with a well designed fighting format for one or two players. In the DS version you use your stylus, and in the Wii version your Wii Remote as your sword to morph into a Red, Blue, Green, Yellow or Pink Ranger. Each has different properties, required to defeat each enemy. There’s a lot to explore — You can unlock secret passageways, access hidden levers, and follow mystical pathways to get hints on how to defeat the MegaMonster. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Want to see what the home-based math curriculum of the iPad age looks like? Designed by the highly regarded French app developer, GameLoft, Playful Minds is a $3 iPad-based math curriculum that provides a leveled, K-2 math curriculum, mixed with an assessment system along with a set of arcade-like games to reinforce the content. After you login (with an email address) you see a series of islands, each with an animal professor host, along with a game-board. Each stop represents a new set of problems. The problems are mostly multiple choice or correct answer. They’ve been pulled from “Skill Sharpeners Math” — one of many inspired by the NCTM standards for K-2. Content includes 300 exercises and mini-games organized around Algebra, Geometry, Data Analysis, Measurement, and Numbers & Operations. Directions and explanations are displayed in print and by narrator; the app can handle up to five children. Features include the ability to adjust sounds and toggle between US or UK English. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Back in the 1980s these six classic video games earned a lot of quarters. Today, all six come on a cartridge the size of a quarter. What’s more, they’re in 3D. The catch is that they’ll only run on the Nintendo 3DS. Titles include Pac-Man, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga, and Galaga Legions, along with two new 3DS only games. In Pac-Man Tilt, you move Pac-Man through stages filled with obstacles, platforms and ghosts with tilt controls. You use flippers, platforms and power pellets to jump, flip, swing, and eat through to the finish line. In Galaga 3D Impact, the 3DS becomes a ship’s gun turret as you attack and defend the ship while ridding space of the incoming Galaga army. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Those frogs can now jump right out of your 3DS screen, in this new edition of the classic arcade game. Content includes six worlds to hop through, including New York, the Far East, and Space. There are 60 stages in all, each with multiple road crossing challenges that get harder. Along the way, you meet other frogs who might destroy obstacles, absorb damage or light the way in dark spaces as you progress through the game. Features include the ability to compete against other players in 4-player multiplayer over wireless, engage in street battles, and show off your skills in the new Forever Mode. Developed by Alpha-Unit Co. Ltd. for Konami. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Your child can help Dora and Kai-lan perform vet checkups, bathe, feed, groom, and potty-train the animals, who do tricks for thanks. Animals include bunnies, birds, puppies and kittens. Features include the ability to save up to three games. The microphone is also used (e.g., say hi to the new pet). Children can also play backyard games, dress-up the pets, and teach them tricks to earn treats, toys, and hats. Developed by Black Lantern for 2K Play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Once you get past the idea of touching the swarms of realistic roaches, ants, or bees, children quickly fall for this collection of 18 counting and classification activities. There are two modes. You can move through a series of structured challenges progressively (progress for one player is bookmarked), or you can freely explore. Management features include the ability to toggle on/off scores, achievements, visual instructions, extended introduction or the background music. The leveling causes the app to get easier if a child struggles. A “bonus mode” presents the hardest challenge. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This cartoon adventure contains excellent music and fast-paced sidescrolling, with plenty of fights in between. On the DS, all the dialog requires reading, which makes this a language enrichment activity, as well. Created by WayForward for Warner Bros. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
In the story, an alien spaceship crashes in the otherwise peaceful realm of Planet Pop Star, and its pieces are scattered throughout the land. You must guide Kirby to find the ship’s parts and help an alien return to its home planet. But, this time, Kirby is not alone. At any time during the game, up to three more players can join in and play as Meta Knight, King Dedede, Waddle Dee or a different color Kirby. The game features Kirby’s Copy Ability, which allows him to inhale, spit and transform as he encounters enemies. Other features include classic and new abilities including: Sword – Kirby dons a green cap and wields a sword; Beam – Kirby wears a jester hat and can shoot energy from a magic wand; Whip – Kirby wears a cowboy hat and can lasso enemies; and Leaf – Kirby is surrounded by a whirlwind of leaves. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Each of the 12 pages in this app document Grover’s creative attempts to keep Elmo (and your child) from turning the page and getting to the end. He tries glue (you can rub it off), locks (you match colors to solve the combination) and so on. See also The Monster at the End of This Book. Created by Callaway Digital Arts for Sesame Workshop. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure combines a video game with collectible toys, with a set of 32 plastic figurines (three come with it) that interact with the game using a “Portal of Power”. The toys “come to life” within the game for you to control when placed upon the Portal of Power. You take on the role of a powerful Portal Master and can control 32 different characters, including the fire-breathing dragon Spyro. As you explore the 3D world, you fight creatures, collect gold and solve puzzles while trying to save your world from Kaol, the evil Portal Master. Each interaction figure remembers your shared experiences and leveled-up abilities, allowing you to customize and power-up your toys, and bring them to life on a friend’s Portal of Power for co-op play and player-versus-player arena battles. This feature makes this one of the most innovative toy/video game marriages to date. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
As with other editions of Scribblenauts, children use language to unlock puzzles, by typing in the items they need. Need to kill a shark? Type “hair dryer” and drop it in the water, to electrocute it. Want to get through a gate? Type “shovel” and dig under it. Content includes 10 original levels designed specifically for Apple devices, along with 40 fan favorite levels from Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts. The more levels you solve, the more Starites you earn, and these unlock in-game achievements. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Based on the children’s line of plush pillows from CJ Products, the idea is to collect accessories for your pets by completing each level. You also help pets find their friends. The story idea works well. Content includes 16 Pillow Pets characters, levels that include “Fantasy Woods,” and “Rainbow Valley”, and the ability to accessorize your pets with 40 items. Developed by First Playable. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a collection of 600 puzzles for one player. Games include Sudoku – the classic numbers game in 3D; Bridges – link all the islands on the screen with bridges, making sure to match the on-screen numbers to the amount of islands you are connecting together; Boxes – divide the board into rectangles where each piece has to be included with the digit that will be the size of the boxes; Museum – light up an entire hall without overlapping the lighting with the limited number of lights given to you; and an exclusive unlockable 3D puzzle created specifically for the Nintendo 3DS. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Now Moshi Monsters (the popular virtual world)can fit in your pocket, in the form of this one player Nintendo DS game. Your mission is to explore eight areas of the Wooly Wilderness to see if you can spot hiding creatures, called Moshlings. There are 52 Moshlings to find, and each has specific needs that are met by shopping, searching and combining various elements such as the string with a banjo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This one player Zelda game turns your Wii into a flying, sword-fighting puzzle solving adventure, complete with problem solving opportunities and reading. Note the E10+ rating, for plenty of fantasy violence mostly due to the realistic fighting. Also note the gender bias, with a story line full girls who tend to giggle and boys who are warriors who must prove themselves for the girl’s approval. You must play the male role. This title requires a Wii MotionPlus controller. Zelda, like Mario, is one of the hallmark Nintendo characters. As a result, the limited-edition version of the game ($70) includes a gold Wii RemotePlus controller and a music CD featuring the Zelda Symphony. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
As with other I SPY titles, the riddles form the basis of the castle theme. They also hide 12 mini games and three logic puzzles. The more riddles you solve, the more items you collect. These, in turn, unlock more rooms. A hint system helps you find the most challenging objects. There are three sign-in slots, so three players can save their progress. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Combine the board game Monopoly with the zany spirit of Nintendo and you get Fortune Street, a fast-paced business game that contains 15 game boards based on popular Mushroom Kingdom and Dragon Quest locales. Using virtual dice, you move around one of 15 themed boards in random intervals, buying shops to build your portfolio and collecting symbols you can cash in at the bank to earn gold. You can play the stock market, purchase shops and collect shopping fees. Players with multiple shops adjacent to one another see them grow in value and their shops level up, and if another player lands on those squares they have to pay an increased fee. A beginner setting lets you learn the basics, and there is an advanced mode with more challenges, options, and the ability to play the stock market. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The basic Tetris challenge is the same as always; to steer a falling block into place on a grid as quickly and efficiently as possible. Color and shape matches earn points. Content includes 20 game modes with names like Marathon, Computer Battle, Fever and Survival, plus Party Game Modes for two to eight players, using the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Developed by Hudson Soft for Nintendo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Drag-and-drop puzzles abound these days in the app store, but not many have animated pieces. The animated features bring a new type of timed problem solving to the challenge. For example, you can watch an animated part of the scene move, and use that as a clue to know the order in which the parts go. Songs include Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Oh Where Has My Dog Gone?, Down By the Bay, Itsy Bitsy Spider, You Are My Sunshine, Old MacDonald, This Old Man, I’m a Little Teapot, Twinkle Little Star, Yankee Doodle, Bach Minuet, Wheels on the Bus, London Bridge, Saints Go Marching, Boccherini Minuet, and Coming Around the Mountain. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
We tried the Kinect version of Puss in Boots: The Video Game, and quickly became exhausted — in a good way — as we kicked, waved our arms, balanced, strummed a guitar, clawed and snuck our way through the first of what looked to be about four levels (we cannot confirm this). We also did not try the two player features. The PS3 Move compatible version lets you use your controller, or choose to use the Move remote and transform the gameplay into a full-motion sword fighting experience. In the Wii version, you use the Wii Remote to slash with Puss’ sword, the Nunchuk to dodge attacks, and button combinations to deliver damage to enemies. The handheld DS/DSi version continues the movie’s storyline with a new plot that has Puss engaging in swordfights, flamenco style dance battles, dozens of mini games, and rhythm-based activities. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
You heard it right, Pokémon fans — 3D, for the first time. The game contains 600 Pokémon, including the libraries from both Pokémon Black and Pokémon White.
There’s also Boss Pokémon, which is stronger, and two new battle modes. In Team Battle, you are joined by two of your own Toy Pokémon as you battle numerous mini bosses in a quest to defeat a Boss Pokémon. In Charge Battle, the strength of your team is challenged when two large battalions of Pokémon collide. The game also allows for two players to team up and play over a local wireless connection, or you can use the StreetPass features and challenge Toy Pokémon that other nearby players have collected, and view customized Mii characters within the game. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This second edition of Bartleby’s Book of Buttons contains 17 pages, each containing one or more puzzles that must be solved in order to unlock the next page. In the page labeled “Whale in the Way”, you must figure out how to get a sleeping whale to wake up, in order to see the door to a hidden cave. This requires playing records on Bartleby’s phonograph (spun with your finger). If you pick the right record (street noises) long enough, the whale wakes up. Other screens have you tilting the screen to steer a bubble and shining a spotlight on various points on the screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on the printed book “When I Grow Up” by Al Yankovic with illustrations by Wes Hargis, this 18 screen book deals with the age-old question “what will I be when I grow up.” In this case, the question is answered by the author, “Weird Al” Yankovic, the famous wisecracking comedian/musician. Note that the app was initially released as a book but has since been enhanced with five story-related games. For example, in Haute Cuisine Hero you’re a cook who is supposed to tap an ingredient when it is above a pot of stew. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This four-pack of previously released apps consists of four chapters: Into the Snow We Go (make pictures in the snow, decorate a snowman); Rainy Days and Rainbows (draw paintings, dig through leaves for treasures, race pine cones); Backyard at Twilight (look for bugs, discover constellations, learn about shapes); and Go-There-Square (pop musical bubbles, collect dandelions, build a bridge out of flowers). Each adventure combines original animation from the Canadian Television series, and three activities that support free play. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
If you’ve ever tried to roll a marble through a maze (by tilting the game board), you get the idea of the Mercury games. In this new edition, called Hg (the element symbol for mercury), 60 new levels offer nearly unlimited challenge. Why? You can always go faster. The game uses the six-access motion sensing in the PS3 controller (we’re not sure how the Xbox version works) to move a ball of Mercury through a series of creative twists and turns. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Eight timed games give young children a chance to play with firehouse themes. Games include Firetruck Traffic (help the firefighters get to the fire while avoiding other cars by tapping on the screen); In The Trees (tilt the screen to guide a firefighter into the trees to rescue pets); Put Out the Fire (spray water on burning windows); Safety Net (guide a net to catch jumping animals); Find & Rescue (a hard to control maze game); Helicopter Drop (a confusing game where you drop water out of a fire helicopter onto flames) and Firefighter Gear (a confusing matching game). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.