Hoopa City
© 2014 Dr. Panda Limited
See Hoopa City 2 http://reviews.childrenstech.com/ctr/review.php?id=19441 Think "Sim City" for preschoolers, and you get the idea of Hoopa City, an app that represents a new direction for Tribeplay's "Dr. Panda" series of apps. This app is named after Hoopa the Hippo, a sidekick character that appears in all the Dr. Panda apps. The app turns your screen into an open-ended globe sandbox that you can easily populate with buildings, plants, roads and waterway. Because you can easily rotate the globe with a swipe, children are presented with a unique spatial challenge, especially when they discover that they can build a road that goes all the way around the globe, connecting villages. The best part? There are no time limits or rules, and choosing different building elements is simple. Weaknesses include some annoying music that can be can be silenced in the parent's menu, and there's no easy way to reset your village or control the continually moving characters that appear at random. Testers said "we want to drive the car!." The bottom line? This is another excellent Dr. Panda app that is well worth the download.
$2.99, iPad, Android
Teaches: creativity, spatial relations, towns, villages, urban planning
CTR Rating: 90%