Explorium – Ocean for Kids

[appimg 888729172]

App Info

Price: [app 888729172] {price}
AppStore User Rating: {stars}[/app]

Overview

Head down to the depths of the ocean playing as Alex or Alice in Explorium – Ocean for Kids. Once there, ocean animals, plants, and other features appear. While swimming around, Alice and Alex can interact with the creatures and other ocean items they encounter as exclamation points appear. When tapped on, each exclamation point contains information about a particular ocean element. As they go deeper into the ocean, they’ll also encounter fun minigames and earn pieces to help make an important ocean discovery. Whether they’re looking to learn more about the ocean or just want to have fun, kids will enjoy exploring the depths of the ocean in this app.

Features include:

• 7 different languages
• 4 levels of difficulty
• Encyclopedia of ocean terms
• Selection of minigames

Quality

Thanks to the background music, the app has a very mellow feel, hinting at the quietness you might imagine you’d find at the bottom of the ocean. That mellowness, however, is interrupted by the characters’ laughter and the voice of a narrator as kids tap on exclamation points to learn more about the ocean or stumble upon the fun minigames. While playing the game, kids can opt to hear the information in one of seven different languages and can also choose from four different levels of difficulty.

Education

Kids will learn a lot about various elements of the ocean as they dive down and explore all around. Each piece of information contained with the ocean’s depths is highlighted with an exclamation point. Tapping on an exclamation point reveals a short sentence or two about the object that appears as text on the screen and is read aloud by the narrator. As kids discover different objects in the ocean, their descriptions also become available in the app’s encyclopedia, giving them a chance to review what they have learned. With over 40 ocean objects to add to the encyclopedia, kids will spend a lot of time discovering different elements of ocean life.

Entertainment

When kids first enter the game, they get the chance to play as Alex or Alice. The chosen character then dons scuba gear and dives into the ocean. Scattered throughout the ocean and facts about different elements of the ocean are fun mini games for kids to play. While these games don’t teach kids much about ocean life, they do incorporate ocean creatures and other objects and prove to be a lot of fun. Kids who’d rather just play can also access the minigames from the app’s main page rather than trying to find them while exploring the ocean’s depths.

Value

A free version of the app allows parents to see whether kids will enjoy exploring the ocean. Most will find that purchasing the full app is worth it, especially because it’s chock full of information about ocean creatures and other elements found deep in the ocean’s depths, plus it contains fun minigames.

Child Friendliness

Most kids will find it easy to maneuver through the app and find their way down through the ocean. Special exclamation points, arrows, highlighted objects, and a narrator also provide guidance when needed. Access to parent areas and links is protected by a parental block, but whenever kids tap to return to the main menu, they’ll be asked to rate the app as well, which has the potential to take them out of the app. Pop-ups such as this do not belong in an area where children can access them easily, it needs to be removed. A ratings button located in the protected section for parents is much more acceptable. Making this simple, but important, change would increase this app’s Child Friendliness and overall ratings.