Toca Nature
© 2015 Toca Boca
Starting with an empty plot, this app lets you create your own very simple ecosystem. You can "paint" with trees, lakes and mountain in an area about 20 square blocks in size. An ax icon lets you reverse mistakes. Things get interesting when the animals appear. This happens when the conditions are correct. A grove of oak trees spawns a deer, and a pond creates beavers and fish. Nice touches include day and night modes (with sounds), and the ability to zoom in on a particular animal. When zoomed in, you can give an animal food, take it's picture, or follow it around. The graphics are not high resolution, but our testers didn't mind. This is a peaceful app... of all the past Toca Boca apps, we think it's the most serious. There's also a collecting play pattern -- as you explore you can pick up acorns, berries or fish to feed to animals later on. Bio-majors, don't get too stressed by the lack of scientific detail or content in this app -- complex relationships are presented very generally. For a young child interested in exploring big ideas, this app is perfect. In addition, the entire experience provides an informal way to experiment with touch-driven navigation tools, and thinking about the relationship between 2D and 3D.
$2.99, iPad, Android, iPhone
Teaches: science, creativity, logic, spatial relations, ecology, ecosystems, earth science
CTR Rating: 96%