Dr. Panda Farm
© 2016 Dr. Panda Limited
Complicated but fun and loaded with things to do, this Dr. Panda app is tricky to learn, but soon has you doing all sorts of busy work in order to help a farmer grow and prepare food, and take it to market and sell it. The farmer is Dr. Panda, and the design follows many of the apps in the series, with big, colorful graphics. The bad news is that this app can be hard to use initially, especially for younger children. As Dr. Panda apps go, it's one of the harder to use and learn. There are five planting and growing stations, plus a store. You can make bread from wheat, feed the chickens, take care of the cows, harvest vegetables, collect eggs and fill jars full of jam. Your food ends up at a farmer's market and is sold to a line of customers, who give you specific orders on what they want. It's a bit like diner dash -- In order for keeping a lot of jobs going at once, you earn building tools, and get to expand your farm. The graphics in this app are unique -- they're shown as pop-up inspired art. While this looks good, it also slows down the transitions between screens. The bottom line? This app could be easier to use at first, but the overall process is fun, and there's plenty of tiny tasks to manage at once. Just like in real life. Progress is saved automatically.
$2.99, iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle
Teaches: classification, farming, food, shopping, money, logic
CTR Rating: 86%