Jack and the Beanstalk 3D is a fresh take on
a classic children’s tale, with bells and whistles aplenty. And what it does, it does quite well. The animations are beautiful. The control given to users over how fast or slow those animations run is engaging. And the background music, from Richard M. Sherman (composer of “It’s a Small World”), is charming. We only wish that the story itself was given a little more prominence and the learning potential of the app was better exploited.
Tag Archives: iphone
App Review: Ragdoll Blaster 2 HD
With more than 200 levels, Ragdoll Blaster 2 
HD never gets old. What players may not realize is that much like Angry Birds, the longer they play, the more they learn about physics. There’s an undeniable visceral fun in shooting the ragdoll dummies out of a cannon, but the player’s focus quickly shifts to puzzle solving and how to hit the target — and the app never gives you an easy way out. The setup for the app is simple, but mastering it takes a long while, which are the key ingredients in a fun game.
App review: FIFA 11
FIFA 11 is about as authentic a soccer 
experience as you’re going to find, short of stepping onto the pitch yourself. It’s a loving tribute to the game of soccer (or “football” as it’s called outside of America) and the enthusiasm can carry through to the player. The game is visually gorgeous, but its controls are average at best and can cause a fair bit of frustration.
App review: Food Fight! – An Interactive Book by Glenn Melenhorst
Food Fight! – An Interactive Book by Glenn Melenhorst has 
some charming elements, but ultimately doesn’t stand up to the best interactive book apps — especially with its $1.99 price tag. The story’s message that vegetables can actually be tasty and shouldn’t be avoided simply because they are vegetables is laudable, particularly with the obesity epidemic, but the app’s interactive elements are just so-so, generally made up of brief sound effects and minor animations. Being able to zoom in on the story’s pictures is nice, but serves little purpose other than to better search for hidden stars, which unlock a less than impressive locked page at the end of the book. The app is fun, but it is not great when compared to some of the other excellent storybooks available in the iTunes store.
Read more at Common Sense Media
App Review: PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Loud Crow Interactive hits one out of the 
park with their first app. PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit is one of the best children’s book adaptations we’ve seen. The reading interactive elements are stellar — but what makes the app really stand out is its detailed use of sound and movement with the pop-up elements. Every image is filled with several interactive elements that will enthrall children and adults. Flick the leaves falling from trees in the artwork and they’ll come floating out into the book. Touch Peter or his siblings and they’ll giggle with delight. The narration and music, meanwhile, are soothing and bring Beatrix Potter’s classic tale to life. It takes the children’s book app to a new level – and is worth every penny of its higher-than-other-book-apps price tag.
Tech Tussles: Apple vs. The World
Apple might be one of the most 
dominant players in the entertainment and technology worlds, but to climb to that pinnacle, it adopted a business model that would make most strategists wince.
Rather than choosing one sector to conquer, the house that Steve Jobs built opted to fight a multi-front war. What’s amazing is that Apple has won so often on so many battlegrounds.
App review: Pecos Bill
The tall tales of Pecos Bill are entertaining 
enough without augmentation, but when you blend in Robin Williams’ enthusiastic telling of the story (with his inevitable bits of improv), good looking artwork, and the ability to customize the experience, it’s a perfect storm — and makes for one of the better video adaptations of a classic book in the app store. The Pecos Bill app can be enjoyed by both kids and parents, offering a good blend of education and entertainment. The price is, admittedly, higher than most, but this app comes with a fully animated movie rendition of the story, which is magical enough app that you won’t regret spending the money.
Read more at Common Sense Media
App review: The Velveteen Rabbit
The Velveteen Rabbit is a timeless story of the 
power of love, and this app does a wonderful job showcasing that to young readers and viewers. The artwork is soft and fits the story wonderfully, and Meryl Streep does a good job narrating the story. The app is priced a bit high, especially considering the lack of any real interactivity, but the classic story has the potential to engage and captivate children.
Read more at Common Sense Media
Analysis: Consoles And Kids – The Generation Gap
[In this analysis, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris 
discusses the potential resurgence of ‘edutainment’ games, talking to Southpeak and examining Warner Bros’ moves into the relatively neglected category.]
There is, I will admit up front, absolutely nothing sexy about edutainment titles. Hell, even the name is dull – and sounds like it belongs in a boardroom, alongside words like ”synergy” and “paradigm”.
Core gamers won’t look at ‘em. Kids like ‘em fine until someone spills the beans about them being educational. And, since so many are targeted at toddlers and young kids (a very niche audience), they’re not exactly barnburners when it comes to a publisher’s bottom line.
App review: iMut8r
iMut8r is an app that blends the creative and 
creepy to great effect. It’s certainly too intense for young kids, but for older teens and adults, there’s great fun to be had in transforming yourself or a friend into a ghoul or werewolf. Figuring out the steps is easy, even without reading the tutorials and because the effects change your picture so dramatically, it’s not critical to perfectly align your photo with the template. The price is right and the pictures certainly help older users get into the Halloween or horror spirit.
Chris Morris: Journalist 