Wimzoo Educational Games Roundup: Slurpy the Frog, Smarty Sharky, and Smartsters

Wimzoo Lead

Educational games for children have a limited shelf life. As a child gets older, the lessons from one game will become likewise unproblematic and they'll need more than complicated activities to stay interested. Indie developer Wimzoo has the age spread covered with their three Windows Phone edutainment titles: Slurpy the Frog, Smarty Sharky, and Smartsters. Starting at the preschool age, each game targets a slightly older set. They're all extremely similar, and then nosotros'll cover them in a single review.

Head past the break for the total 3-game review.

Slurpy the Frog

Slurpy the Frog

This title plays like a touchscreen activeness book for preschool kids (ages three-v). Every 'folio' contains a brusk and simple activeness. Once your child completes the activity, it'due south on to the next page.

Some of the activities include: identifying circular or rectangular items, finding which item is different, dragging items to match their shadows, dragging animals to their homes, identifying which items are vegetables, fruits, and more.

The controls are simple. Almost games but involve touching the picture that is the correct answer. Some crave dragging a picture onto another picture, which works pretty well. While the instructions for each activity are displayed at the tiptop of the screen, they are as well read aloud by a female voice, and so no reading is required. Touching the instructions even repeats the voice clip.

Slurpy the Frog is patterned afterwards activity books and as such, the pages come in a specific guild. There are over 100 pages to piece of work through - thankfully kids can salve their identify and come up dorsum afterwards instead of having to offset over. I'chiliad not sure the linear nature of the pages works in the game's favor; allowing them to be randomized or played by category would probably enhance the replay value.

After every 10 pages or so, a minigame involving the titular amphibian comes effectually. As he sits grinning on a lilypad, a happy little wing floats overhead. Tapping the blood-red circle that appears makes the issues fly over to that spot. Afterwards it flutters to a few dissimilar spots, the frog catches information technology with its tongue and eats it. The fly-eating minigame is sort of a airheaded suspension from the learning-themed activities.

My young daughter enjoyed Slurpy when we kickoff got it at the starting time of the year. She hadn't started playing real games yet, and then the simple inputs and concepts appealed to her. I noticed that she could judge her way through every single activity though: there is no penalty for simply trying every answer until yous get the correct one. In that respect, it's possible to play Slurpy without actually learning annihilation. Parents with very young kids should supervise them and make certain they're playing right.

Smarty Sharky

Smarty Sharky

While the shark-hosted sequel to Slurpy is recommended for the aforementioned three-5 age group, the activities are a footling more advanced. These include: counting, selecting the missing piece from a puzzle, putting three pictures in chronological club, finding the particular that doesn't belong, which baskets are empty, and plenty more.

Smarty Sharky has a different minigame between educational activities. For some reason, a shark is sitting in a gunkhole, using a rod to fish. He actually has 4 lines, each with a letter hooked onto information technology. Kids have to place each alphabetic character - "Touch the Due west," the narrator commands. Once all four letters are defenseless, Smarty speaks in a high-pitched vox, informing players that he has eaten a fish and it was yummy. Honestly, the shark minigame is poorly-conceived compared to the frog one.

Smartsters

Smartsters

As kids go older, they will naturally require more complicated games and activities to keep them interested. Smartsters is targeted at ages 5-7, and then Wimzoo makes a few tweaks to the formula of their previous games.

Kickoff, players select i of four 'Smartsters' – cartoon people who resemble characters from the Mr. Men series of books. The choice is purely aesthetic and doesn't bear upon the activities. New activities involve choosing words that rhyme, addition, subtraction, identifying beast types (reptile, mammal, etc.), elementary spelling questions, and stuff like that.

Award ceremonies supplant the minigame interludes of previous titles. Here the child's character receives different types of medals depending on what score milestones they take reached. Speaking of score, that'southward new to Smartsters too. Unlike the other titles, score provides an incentive to answer questions correctly. Getting an activity correct awards a point. If kids miss a question, the game moves on without allowing them to attempt over again.

Smartsters as well features a local scoreboard. Here children can view the highest scores they have accomplished with each character. Because in that location is no actual name entry, it's non really possible to play Smartsters competitively like a proper leaderboard would encourage. I guess the idea is that a kid volition desire to play through the game multiple times with different characters, but since each playthrough is identical, I don't know if kids will carp.

Graphics and sound

All three of Wimzoo'southward games use cartoonish fine art that'due south fine for the little 'uns. Every bit an developed, I'chiliad far from impressed; the art is apartment, simplistic, and largely unappealing. Simply they are indie products intended for very immature kids who probably won't mind very much. Only don't expect professional production values.

The audio fairs a little better. Audio effects like getting a correct reply or Slurpy eating flies all audio pleasing. The female narrator is a mixed bag – while she sounds adequately natural in the start ii games, by the fourth dimension Smartsters rolls around, the vocalization takes on a robotic quality. Not sure what the deal is there, but it doesn't harm the product too much.

Overall Impression

Wimzoo's games all have high market place ratings, so parents obviously similar these games for their kids. Slurpy the Frog, Smarty Sharky, and Smartsters share practically identical molds, so if your child enjoys 1, he or she volition probably dig them all. As a critic, I'1000 disappointed at the full general lack of improvements between titles. They're basically content packs for different ages, and the base formula could use some improvement. Just if you have a child of five or lower who likes to play with your phone, these titles would exist a decent way to keep the pocket-size one decorated.

Slurpy the Frog - Price: $.99 - Marketplace link
Slurpy the Frog Free (ad-supported) - Marketplace link
Slurpy the Frog (French language version) - Price: $1.29 - Marketplace link
Smarty Sharky - Price: $ane.29 - Market link
Smartsters - Price: $one.29 - Marketplace link

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