This I SPY-like ebook starts each page with a rhyming poem, and then lets you tap around nine pages of hidden objects. There are 50 items, some hidden rather cleverly — for example there’s a small cabinet in the cabin of a sailboat, requiring that you open the door to find it. The view changes slightly if you tilt the screen, adding a realistic effect. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This maze game (search “A-Maze-ing” in the app store) lets you navigate through 16 detailed, hand-drawn scenes by dragging vehicles through a map. As you explore the connected maps, you find 85 hidden items embedded in the pen and ink maps. Your mission is to find them all, a task we stopped at around 11. Because up to five player profiles can be stored at once, it is possible to sign in or out and continue progress at a later time. Hidden items include stars, letters, penguins, numbers and ice cream trucks. Created in the Netherlands. The free version limits the number of levels and the amount of fuel for your car. See also Roxie’s Doors. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Peekabook: Find Hidden Fun UFO Characters consists of 10 scenes (Deep Forest, Blue Lake, Country Road and so on). Each scene has aliens tucked behind trees, rocks or other background items. To find the aliens you tap around the screen. After all the characters are found, you get a round of applause, and a new level. Created by PopApp, Bright Colors and Visualizes.com.ua. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This didactic set of multiple-choice problems presents four letters or pictures, and verbally prompts children to “touch the picture that starts with the letter ‘Z’.” In a second mode, the letters are presented as rotated images. Children are asked to find the correct orientation. Children earn stars with each correct answer; there’s no ongoing assessment. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a collection of interactive pictures done by Charley Harper, a mid-century modern illustrator, designed to let your child explore the forest and discover animals hiding behind tree stumps and foliage. When they see something moving they can tap it to see what it is, learn the names of the animals, and hear the real sounds they make in the wild. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a collection of 17 puzzles of six varieties. The most noteworthy and familiar are the I SPY-like, hidden object games, which have you searching the screen until your eyes ache. In the story mode, adapted from the modern Nancy Drew books, Nancy tries to help a wedding take place by finding all the items needed for the ceremony. You interrogate 15 suspects — reading required — and complete the games in order to solve the crime. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Waldo, star of the 1987-vintage books by Martin Handford, comes to your clear iPad screen in this sequel to Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey App (versions also run on iPhone and iPod touch). After you log in, you choose a play mode, and then start searching in Hollywood sets. Each set has a theme, such as Robin Hood, The Wild West and The Three Musketeers. 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.
Inspired by the board game of the same name, Pictureka is a hidden picture game where you race the clock to see how many objects you can find in 60 seconds. You race to earn points. There are both adventure modes and a turn-based mode that lets you compete against another player. 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.
Well designed but very challenging, this picture searching program follows a tried-and-true formula that translates well to the iPad’s clear touch screen. While it isn’t designed specifically for children, it’s the kind of app that a child (or adult) can do. It is also fun to do as a huddle game, with many people helping to spot the hidden item. You start by logging into one of four game-save slots, which saves progress automatically. The goal is to search through ten scenes that consist of hundreds of tiny, clear items, shown against a single color background and arranged into an outline that you instantly recognize (e.g., a dog, shoe or pair of scissors). 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 classic game “Spot the Difference” and featuring Heathcliff, your goal is to find and identify the differences between two almost identical classic Heathcliff comic cells before the time runs out. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
While this isn’t the first 3D I Spy title (see I Spy Universe) this is the first time the 3D graphics have been combined under one theme, along with a better clue system and a set of theme-related games. Content includes 33 riddles and 11 spooky themes. When all the riddles have been solved, you can escape from the spooky mansion, and your progress can be saved for long term 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.
Road Trip Bingo turns your iPhone or iPad into a bingo board. Instead of numerals, the 5 x 5 grid contains a random assortment of items you might see passing by your window, ranging from common things — a cloud, tree or exit sign, to the more unusual — a horse, sailboat or a police car (may your sightings be rare). Once you spot an item on the board, you give it a tap to mark it with a virtual marker. Five in a row in any direction wins, an event marked by a chime and a sticker. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
How many times can you touch a target in 60 seconds? That’s the challenge of this fast-paced matching game for one to four players, that runs on the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. First you are shown something to pick, such as a colorful tomato or a potato. Next you see your item, mixed in with two other choices. The goal is to touch it as quickly as possible. Wrong answers result in a buzz — correct answers bring up a slightly larger, harder set of items, one of which is yours. 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.
Part of zinc Roe’s Tickle Tap App series, this $1.99 App turns your camera-equipped iPhone into a color sampler. After a brief introduction, children see a viewfinder surrounded by six colors. Once an item is scanned, the app tries it’s best to average all the pixels into one color, and concludes “this looks like orange.” 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 a solid addition to your children’s App collection on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Created for Highlights, Inc. by Mobad Games (www.mobadgames.com) the $1.99 app contains eight seek-and-find puzzles based on the original puzzles that have appeared in the print version of the magazine, starting in 1946.
Highlights Hidden Pictures (www.highlights.com/iphone) starts by introducing each hidden picture, one at a time, along with a coloring book-like scene with titles such as “Best Friends,” “On the Farm,” or “Pigs Pizzeria.” Children as young as three can touch to find the dozen or so hidden items, or pull in for a closer inspection to find a hidden hammer, cane or banana. Each correct find is filled in with color, while random jabs result in a bonk on the cowbell. Get stuck? A hint feature circles the area where an item might be found. When all the pictures are identified, you are rewarded with a shower of confetti and see the entire picture, colored in. The main menu remembers which puzzles you’ve already solved and it is also possible to replay a puzzle at any time. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.