Bottom Line: Bugs and Numbers is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Little Bit Studios. Your kid NEEDS this app.
Dear readers: I love this app. You need to download it today. Yesterday, in fact. That is all. Love, Emilie.
iPad/iPhone ($2.99)
I don’t know what I can say about Bugs and Numbers that hasn’t already been said about the other apps from Little Bit Studios, both of which got the rare and highly coveted five stars from SAFK. This one is every bit as beautifully done, every bit as engaging, and every bit as worthy of five stars. The 18 games represent a variety of skill levels and are appropriate for a wide range of ages, so no matter how old your little app users are, they’ll find something here to interest them. Truth be told, I found plenty here to interest ME. When I refused to turn the iPad over to my five-year-old last night, she informed me that I needed to work on my sharing skills.
Bugs and Numbers focuses on counting, left vs. right, shape identification, seek and find, addition, subtraction, telling time, fractions, tallying, color by numbers, tracing, sequencing, patterns, comparisons, learning to count money (American), and basic measurements (inches and pounds).
I am writing to the developer immediately to complain that they did not fit in Latin, Greek and Swahili.
As a new member of the SAFK family, I’m a little spoiled – I got to check out previously-reviewed five-star apps before writing my first review, and Bugs and Buttons was the first app I tried. So my expectations have been a bit skewed from the very start.
What? You mean not every app has such realistic graphics that the tarantulas make you squirm? Not every app features cockroaches so real you want to swat them with a rolled-up newspaper? Not every app comes with butterflies that look like they’re about to fly out of the screen and land on your nose? Or pizzas that look like a late-night college snack?
In that regard, Bugs and Numbers doesn’t disappoint. The graphics are top-notch, as are the music and sound effects. The developers really paid attention to tiny details, and it shows: bugs who turn their heads to follow a game and bugs who applaud with their wings are just a couple of the little things that make the experience more genuinely interactive. And the sense of fun that comes with these little bugs is infectious – when we uncovered the surprise disco ball in the bug collection box, we got the giggles over the disco-dancing bugs and laughed til we were just heaps of mush on the couch. How many apps -- or kids’ toys of any kind, really -- have given you that kind of moment with your kid?
Let’s see, I’m supposed to point out flaws in the app as well as the good things, right? Hmmm. Let me think. Nope, can’t come up with any. If I had to voice a complaint, I guess it would be that this app so closely resembles the previous two. The folks at Little Bit Studios are so talented, I’d love to see them take on e-books or maybe an appisode series of some sort featuring their lovable little arthropods.
If you already have the previous releases from Little Bit Studios, add this one to your collection. And if you’ve never met these bugs, introduce yourself. You’ll be glad you did. Ellie gives this app two thumbs way up, and I give it five stars.
Emilie Davis has lived in more than one bug-infested apartment. She is happy to meet bugs who do not crawl over her toes in the dark.
Little Bit Studios is an advertiser at smartappsforkids.com.
Comments