Bob the Builder: Build City
© 2016 Mattel, Inc.
The vehicles follow your fingertips, in this construction-themed logic game. You "drive" three vehicles around a map, shown in top-down view. If you match the color of the vehicle to the color of the parking spot located in front of the construction site, a hardhat icon appears. Tapping the icon makes the construction happen, as if on autopilot. Besides the color matching, it's fun to explore interactive features in the map, such as car wash or a fish that jumps in the pond. To be clear, you don't do any actual building with this app... a computer does it all for you. The towers complete themselves, and watch your vehicle clear roads of fallen trees, and so on. Once you figure out the color matching, the app is fun to play, although there is on end to the rebuilding -- it seems to operate on an endless loop. Content includes three vehicles: Scoop the digger, Muck the dump truck and Lofty the mobile crane. Our nine year old tester was confused at first, wanting to use the machines in ways not intended by the app (e.g., to clear the roads of the cars, demolition derby style). The map is cluttered, which makes it hard to find the vehicles you need. From a spatial problem solving point of view, this clutter actually increases the challenge; but this is an unintentional learning outcome. The Bob the Builder branding is shown with every building challenge, plus there is a bit of clumsiness when moving around the scrolling map, plus noisy background music. We liked the positive messages and emphasis on team work between the vehicles -- and children learn that each has specific strengths. It is also for two children to play together, controlling multiple vehicles at the same time. All in all, this is not a bad app, but it could be better. The UK research team Dubit is listed in the credits.
$2.99, iPad, iPhone
Teaches: Spatial relations, logic
CTR Rating: 72%