Tag Archives: app review

App review: Mother Goose Interactive Nursery Rhymes

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Mother Goose Interactive Nursery Rhymes strives hard to bring the joy and magic of the classic children’s tales to life, but misfires on a few key points. While the art and illustration are gorgeous, the app only tackles a small number of nursery rhymes — certainly not enough to justify the price. Worse, the narration of the rhymes often doesn’t match the words onscreen, which will be unhelpful to kids who are trying to learn to read via the app. (For example, in “Three Blind Mice,” the text reads “they all ran after the farmer’s wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife,” but the narrator skips the word “off”.) The extras — a puzzle and a freeform art pad — are fine, but are done better elsewhere for less.

Read more at Common Sense Media


App Review: Touch Maze

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Touch-based maze puzzles seem like a great idea for products like the iPhone and iPod Touch, but in order to be fun, the touch sensitivity has to be flawless. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with TOUCH MAZE. All too often, the screen will fail to keep up with users’ finger drags, taking players’ minds off of the solution and focusing it on getting the on-screen marker moving again. That’s a problem when playing a time-based game. The iPad two-player version of the game is a nice twist — and adds to the enjoyment of the app, but ultimately suffers from the same flaws.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy

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Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy is one of the first apps for kids to take the needs of deaf users in mind. The ASL interpretation of the book is well done, with plenty of expression on the interpreter’s face relaying the impact of the author’s words. It is, however, much less interactive than other children’s storybook apps, which is a wasted opportunity. And often the entire page’s dialogue isn’t shown at once, so kids choosing to read without narration may inadvertently skip parts of the story by finger swiping between pages instead of using the arrow keys on screen.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Highborn HD

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Strategy games are hard to make for a mass audience, but Jet Set Games has found the formula in Highborn HD. By blending tactical decision making with a good dash of humor and entertaining characters, it’s accessible to mild fans of the genre, but core fans will find plenty to enjoy as well. The game’s a good looking one, too. It wisely sticks with a 2-D model when you’re moving your forces around the map, but goes into a cartoon-like 3-D during battles.  The game has a lengthy solo campaign consisting of eight parts (and another “chapter” on the way) as well as a rich multiplayer element.

Read more at Common Sense Media


App review: Hungry Shark – Part 2

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For a low-priced app, there’s not a lot to complain about with Hungry Shark 2, but it’s not a game that’s going to wind up on your most-played list. It’s a fun diversion for older kids, but the gameplay gets repetitive quickly — boiling down to keep eating or you die. The graphics are nice and the sound effects that accompany each kill are fine, but even those get old after time. It might be a fair price for two games (the first Hungry Shark comes bundled with purchase), but ultimately Hungry Shark 2 is a one-trick pony.

Read more at Common Sense Media

App review: Friendly – Facebook Browser

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Since Facebook itself hasn’t come out with an iPad app, you have to applaud Friendly – Facebook Browser for making the effort. This is the best way for Facebook fans to interact with the social network site via the device. The app’s use of large fonts make it easy to browse — and eliminate the need for pinching and zooming the page. The layout is very natural, as well, making it easy to find the area of the site you’re looking for. But there are some standard Facebook features that are noticeably absent. You’re unable to upload any photos via this app and you won’t be able to play any Facebook games, which could be distressing to FarmVille fanatics. The page also doesn’t automatically refresh, meaning if you want to see new updates, you’ll have to click on another tab, then back to your news feed.

Read more at Common Sense Media