I had great expectations of "Wheels on the Bus." It is continuously one of iPhones best sellers making it a Hollywood style hit in iPhone land. Legend goes this was created by three friends looking to entertain their kids (GENIUS!) who must be ka-jillionaires by now. I even liked the name of the publisher "duck, duck, moose," its cute, creative and nails the spirit of fun and humor i want to have in front of my children. To cap it off "Wheels on the Bus" is one of Wormies favorite song requests... which comes complete with dance steps, hand gestures, and made up verses not found in the official lyrics book.
The first run through of the application with Wormie was pretty successful. She got the actions down p quickly, and figured out how to get through each screen on her own. I figured it was game on and walked away assuming she would be at it for a while. About two minutes later she was back... "I want a new game," she demanded, sounding much, too much like Arnie in "The Terminator." I was bummed - this was not the James Cameron blockbuster i was expecting!
The game play is simple and straight forward making it ideal for the toddler set... swipe the buss to move it forward, swipe the doors to open them, push the teddy bear to make him jump. For what ever reason though the song and iPhone app did not click for her. In a nutshell i think it was too tame, and not as good as the real life version for Wormie. Maybe she was too much of a fan, and maybe hollywood has upper her expectations but this app was a miss for us.
One of the parent hooks for this is that you can make the song play in several different languages. While i think this is awesome for you overly competitive, want your child to rule the world types, my kid had no interest when she realized that all the verses we have made up in our family were not in the application. When she heard the song in French is was all the more reason for her to "Move on Back" to one of her more engaging apps.
I have not completely given up though I will try it with Deadly when he gets a little older, since my gut tells me thisit is better suited to a slightly younger toddler who can handle a device. Given my childs disinterest, and my desire to like the app I would be interested in hearing other folks experiences.
Age Range: 2-4
Difficulty: 4.0/5 (5 being easy)
Look & Feel :4/5 (5 being cool)
Parent Helper: 2.0/5 (5 being helpful)
Price $.99
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