Got this app today for free on Amazon's FAOTD for my two year old (27 months). She really likes this app. She loves music, so the app's melodies are a big hit with her (and me because they are not annoying) along with the really great and engaging graphics. There are several game levels and she has been able to get enjoyment from each. (Note: that her hand-eye coordination and ability to match shapes is excellent for her age.) I highly recommend guiding any younger children through each level at least once before attempting to let them do it on their own in order to gauge their skill and avoid frustration and/or negative experiences. Some levels will not be intuitive for younger children, such as spinning the spider's web and navigating the ground hog's maze.)
GAME PLAY: (note I made up the level titles...)
Six areas/levels of play. You can navigate to any of them right from the start by using the navigator to the right side of the screen.
[1] Owl Hide and Seek with Object Matching: The app opens up to an owl in a tree scene. The owl is sleeping and awakens when touched. A flashlight spot for the owl's eye engages and then is moved around by the child to find the critters hiding in the dark (which make noises off an on to aid in locating). Once found and tapped, the critter remains still and in place until the child drags it to it's matching silhouette at bottom.
[Younger children may need assistance locating all of the critters as they do move around and hide before coming out again. Toddlers not proficient in drag/drop object matching will also need assistance.]
[2] Caterpillar Feast and Metamorphosis: Several different play frames on this level. Child leads a caterpillar down a stem to its food (leaf, pear, apple, plum) and then the caterpillar eats it following the child's finger path/taps. Child can make it do tight turns, run wavy lines, loops, etc. all while it eats up the food along the way. Once the food is completely eaten, the caterpillar spins a cocoon and transforms into a colorful butterfly/moth (released by tapping cocoon). Each scene is slightly different providing variety.
(My toddler was able to play this level independently once she learned that all the fruit needed to be eaten to get to the cocoon part. This is an excellent level for young children with easy game play, nice music, and lots of bright colors. There are several different caterpillar and butterflies/moths.)
[3] Web Spinner and Fly Catch: This level features a spider who you guide to spin a web. Once the web is spun, flies/insects buzz back and forth across the screen and your child "catches" them by tapping them while they are over any part of the web. They make a satisfying pop type sound when they get stuck in the web.
(This game level is harder for young children. Assistance will likely be required to help spin the web. Once that is done, they are free to play. Also, note that the size of the web will vary depending on the circle size you drag. Be careful not to make it too big, because it is possible to get stuck and not complete the web because it extends off the screen. If this happens, you have to start the level over to continue. Note: after a bit of repeated, guided, game play, my toddler was able to spin the web on her own.)
[4] DO Feed the Squirrels: A family of four hungry squirrels sit on a tree branch while a smaller squirrel drops in from above with different food offerings (acorn, mushrooms, pine cone, and a rotten nut). Your child taps the food and the little squirrel will drop it (or something else will happen sometimes) to the squirrel directly below. Some of the food is edible and others (mushroom and a rotten nut) are not. There is no wrong or right, just different reactions. Basically, your child feeds the different squirrels until they go to sleep when they are full. Once all four are asleep, the level ends and then restarts.
(Although super simplistic, this level had my toddler cackling and laughing constantly with all the faces and noises each of the squirrels made. She especially liked tapping the white mushroom and the resulting white cloud. Note, the squirrels will chew and spit out the rotten nut.)
[5] Cloud Showers Bring Porcupine Flowers, Food and Fun: This level opens with a porcupine and a little white cloud. Your child touches the cloud and by holding it over different circles that appear it rains making the plant below grow. For an element of mischief, the child can get a reaction out of the porcupine by putting the cloud over him (probably the only annoying sound in the game when the child keeps it over the porcupine's head). (Note: the cloud disappears once the plants are all full size.) The child interacts with each plant--the white mushrooms puff (like in the squirrel level), the berry plants can be fed to the porcupine by dragging to him, and the flowers can be used to decorate the porcupine's back (he holds the purple one). If the child does not get the berry or flower all the way to the correct position(s) it falls to the ground, but can be picked up again and the child can continue on. No negative noise or action results if the object drops to the ground.
(My toddler enjoyed this level very much. She liked telling me there were "strawberries" and "booberries" and letting me know we needed to "feed him." If the cloud over porcupine noise bothers you try to teach your child to water all the plants to full size first since the cloud will go away rendering the child unable to water the porcupine--of course, eventually they are going to figure it out! Also, this level allowed great counting and word development for us as we identified different things in the scene and counted items such as the berries and flowers.)
[6] Digging, Dining, and a Door: Your child guides a ground hog (?) through it's maze of tunnels to its home eating up little worms along the way. Once at his home, your child will need to match each shaped-key to the corresponding key hole in order to open the door and end the level. The paths home vary with each game play providing variety.
(Apart from spinning the web, this was the most challenging/hardest game for my toddler. The child must guide the ground hog along the corridors of the maze and thus touching other places on the screen (like where the worm is wiggling) will make the ground hog get stuck against the wall if there is one in between. Also, the tunnels can be true mazes so this can present an element of frustration for a young child who cannot figure out the correct path (or doesn't grasp following the path), but could perhaps provide more excitement for slightly older children. [My toddler got better with this over repeated guided play.] Adult assistance HIGHLY recommended for this level for young children due to specific maze path navigation and possibly even the shape matching at the end since the key shapes also rotate near the locks making the shapes not exactly match and can prove confusing for a younger child as it's disorienting.)
POSITIVES: Overall a great, engaging app with good music, great graphics, child-friendly play with no negative sounds or interactions and relatively stress-free play for children old or developed enough to accomplish the tasks and goals found in the games. Developmental and educational highlights include: shape matching, coordination development, logic development, and pattern learning. Guided play with your child present a plethora of learning opportunities with all the vivid game play screens where you can identify animals, objects, colors, actions, etc. on the screen and count things too! GREAT APP! I would even have paid the full price for this one, but I'm thrilled we got it free!
NEGATIVES: Large file size ~52MB which is not unexpected with all the graphics (and music) really, BUT as other users have stated, this is stored on your device (a Xoom tablet in our case) and not on USB storage or an SD card. That is a lot of file storage space if you don't have much. Also, when I checked my settings, this app had 22 MB cached as well--so if you're tight on resources, you may want to go into Settings and clear you cache when you reclaim your device back from your child (along with being sure the app is completely closed--see below).
Additionally as others have reported, the app does not close/exit completely and there does appear to be residual sounds that continue on after you've left the app--which means it's still holding onto your processing resources too. SO bottom line, make sure you have enough space you're willing to sacrifice for this app, and once you get the device back from your child, clear the cache and exit the app (I slide it close from the window area of our device and this effectively closes it) to stop any additional noises and help re-free up device resources. {Note: if the developer solves these issues, this would easily be a 5-star app! I almost gave it a top rating anyway, but there is no work-around for the storage, unlike the sound issue.}