Friday, March 31, 2017

Adventures for Children in the Lands of the Zoonicorns


It's been a long while since I reviewed anything for young children.  Since so many friends and family members having children, let's change that!  Here’s something so cute parents might even be interested!  Let’s check out Zoonicorns.

"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence." - Denis Waitley


What are Zoonicorns?  Well, they are magical creatures that are part zebra and part unicorn that visit young zoo animals in their dreams.  In those dreams, the Zoonicorns help empower the young animals that visit their dreamland and learn life lessons at the same time.  The tales are told through three interactive stories on a tablet or handheld device and one hardcover book.  All four make great bedtime stories since the adventures take place after the young zoo animals have fallen asleep.  The three interactive stories have concealed bits that can play a little bit like "hidden object" games.  Also for a small $2.99 in-app purchase the interactive books have "Read to Me" and "Autoplay" features.

"The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop." - Mark Twain



There are also three simple game apps that you can download for your children.  There is Ene’s Matching Game, Aliel’s Hidden Objects, and Valeo’s Adventure.  Two of the games, Ene's Matching Game, and Valeo's Adventure can be downloaded for free with in-app purchases for additional level packs at 0.99 cents each pack.  Aliel's Hidden Objects is 0.99 cents for the whole game.





All three games are simply described by their title.  Ene’s Matching Game is the memorization matching game where you are shown cards that are then flipped over and you have to find the matching pairs.  Aliel’s Hidden Objects is a “Where’s Waldo-esque" game where you have to find hidden objects.  Lastly, Valeo's Adventure is a 2D side-scrolling platform game patterned off the Mario Bros. Style games.  In it, you have to get from start to finish, gather stars, and avoid bad monsters.



All three games are simple, yet challenging enough for young minds to be engaged while winding down for bedtime.  I will say Valeo's Adventure does suffer a bit from the typical tablet control problems, the lack of tactile feedback means you never know when your finger is off the actual movement controls.  But in my playthrough of the free levels, bad monsters seemed to be placed with that taken into account.  Still, I can see some children could become a little frustrated at certain points.



Overall

Zoonicorns is a cute and cuddly universe filled with fun, but it seems limited at the moment.  The main draw here seems to be the storybooks and the stuffed Zoonicorns.  From an adult point of view, the games are short with a limited replay value.  Though remembering my own childhood, some of the games I played the most often were similarly limited, it was more about who was playing those games with me.  The Zoonicorn website is split into a children’s section and a Parent’s Zone.  The children’s section has some coloring pages and typical maze, word find, and connect the dots activities that are all downloadable PDF files.  The Parent’s Zone has an online shop for the stuffed toys, the one book and an ongoing blog with advice for activities parents can do with their kids.



It all seems to a nice start to an interesting multi-platform franchise for kids and parents, it just needs more.  Looking at the current offerings it appears like the ongoing blog to help inspire parents is getting more updates than actual things for the children to be inspired by.  Maybe that was the intent, especially for working parents looking for inexpensive ideas that would allow them to spend more time with their children.



Still, I know that the Zoonicorns themselves, especially the stuffed toys, will be the thing that really grabs the kids.  A physical brightly colored, fuzzy toy kids can hug and have adventures with and then at night be read to sleep by mom or dad?  It sounds like a solid beginning.  I say check it all out and judge for yourself, or let your child decide for the whole family.  As for the games, I give them all a 3 out of 5.  They are good, but not great, yet.

For more information, you can see the Zoonicorns official site.

Or you can check out the Zoonicorns Parent's Zone site.

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