| Duck Duck Moose (all apps) |
| Wheels on the Bus (Age 2+) | |||||||||||
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“Wheels on the Bus” is an interactive book. Having a paper version of the book and for a long while reading and singing it almost every night together (complete with actions), when I found this iPhone app I thought it would become an instant favourite.
But I was wrong!
Big-T played with the app a few times, but never really got into it. He goes through a few pages each time, pokes and slides a few favourite interactions, the switches to another app.
Further, this is a high quality app. Its designed well, great music, great graphics, nice animations. It reeks of quality. It may be the highest quality app I have yet seen to date. Big-T normally enjoys the quality apps and rejects the rest. So not being interested in this app was a bit of a surprise to me.
The Application
Has around 10 pages with colourful pictures on each page. Each page as a number of interaction points (things you can poke or slide to get some change on the screen). There are forward/back buttons to navigate between pages. The first page has simple instructions giving hints to look for interaction points. You can even record your own singing for pages if you wish.
The Good
- The quality of the UI, graphics, animations, music is superb.
- The interactions (things you can poke and slide) look fun (to Daddy!).
- Big-T’s favourite page is the one with the bus door where you can slide open the door then poke the bird inside (which then jumps with a funny sound and shocked looking bug-eyes). Maybe because this is a two step interaction (open door then poke) its more interesting. Others interactions tend to be a single step action (poke or slide).
- It has educational value.
- You can sing along to it.
- It is all good clean fun.
The Bad
- Big-T does not enjoy it! I think Big-T is not so interested when compared to sitting down with Dad and the (paper) book we already had and singing along together with all the actions we made up together.
Educational Value
Its an interactive book, encouraging exploration of the interface. It has engaging music to encourage singing along. It teaches what happens on a bus. It does have writing on each page as well, for children able to (or learning to) read. Nothing earth shattering, but it does have educational value compared to most games.
My Score
4 stars. This is influenced by the fact Big-T does not enjoy playing it. If not for this I would have given it a higher score. It has all the hallmarks of a high quality program, but ultimately Big-T is the real audience.
Get it in iTunes
More information, screen shots, and user reviews can be found in the iTunes store.
Other Suggestions
- Singing: Elephant Song, MPB: Spaghetti
- Story Book: Elephant Song, MPB: Spaghetti, Little Bella’s – I Close my Eyes, Postman Plum Interactive Kids Book
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