Bottom Line: Just released! Dr. Panda’s newest addition, Hoopa City, gives your kiddo a chance to design and build his own little community with the excellent quality that we’ve become accustomed to from our friends at TribePlay. The only limit for your little one is her own imagination.
If you would like to purchase Hoopa City from TribePlay (iPad/iPhone, $2.99), please use the handy link below so they’ll know who sent you:
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I’ve discovered a new holiday at my house. It’s called “Oh-My-Goodness-Mommy-You-Have-A-New-Dr.-Panda-App-On-Your-iPad” Day! And it is super exciting. There were cupcakes. And a balloon. I think the princess would have liked for there to be fireworks, too, but we’d have had to get a permit and all, so that didn’t happen. But still, the excitement when my girl discovered Hoopa City, the new offering from the makers of Dr. Panda, was pretty intense. As usual, she was not disappointed.
I learned today that the cutie-patootie hippo from the world of Dr. Panda has a name, and that name is Hoopa. This new app takes us to Hoopa City, where our little hippo friend is a construction worker and we are tasked with helping him build a cute little town . . . or a big city . . . or a beachside resort. Your little builder can truly make it whatever she wants it to be.
The premise is simple. Starting with a blank grid, your little builder sets out to make whatever kind of community he desires by using the building elements provided. Want to put a house down? Tap first on the building block at the top and then on the square where you want the house to be. Bam! There it is. At first it seems like just a simple little building game. You lay down some roads, put a few houses and buildings down, and then you’re done, right? Wrong. As usual, our friends at TribePlay took what was basic and made it deluxe by adding the ability to customize each structure or building element by combining two things to make something totally new.
My princess has been having a ball discovering all of the combinations she can make here. She found that one building block made a house, and if you add another building block to it you get an apartment building. But if you take the one building block from a house and add an element of water to it, you get a swimming pool. Very cool.
There are many different building elements available to your kiddo. A “heart” element on its own sets down a hospital, but when combined with something else, it changes into another necessary part of the community (i.e. Heart + Building Block = School). And if you reverse the combinations you get something different (Building Block + Heart = Police Station).
A “dollar sign” element helps to make up the business part of the community. On its own it gives you a cute little shop, but add another element to it and you might get a bank or a library. There’s a “lightning bolt” element for energy. On its own it makes a windmill, but it can be combined with other parts to turn into a water fountain or a water mill. The “road” element lays down your road for your network of streets, but add a little power to it and it becomes a railroad. Add some water and it becomes a little canal.
There is also a “water” element and a “nature” element that you can use to create lakes or fields of flowers. Or you can try combining them with other things to see what you can come up with. And if you don’t like what you put down? You can just take a shovel and dig it up.
The whole time you are building, all of the familiar characters from the Dr. Panda-verse are toodling around in and out of your scenes. I’d love to see the addition of a way to integrate them more fully in the activities. Sure, you can make a house, but maybe there could be a way to make it into Dr. Panda’s house. Maybe you could build a swimming pool and be able to take that hard-working Hoopa and let him take a swim. Just a touch more interactivity with the characters would be a very welcome addition.
As always with Dr. Panda apps, the play is without pressure and without end. Your child can combine and build and design for as long as they like without running out of timers or having to earn new elements. The gameplay is pretty intuitive as always. My little girl required very little instruction to get started. Really, the only help that I gave her was to show her that she could combine elements to create new things. Since then she’s been off to the races, building away.
I’m giving Hoopa City a 4.5 star rating. Even though there are a few things that could be improved, the near limitless capacity for creativity makes this one a winner in my book.
*****
Kelli is kind of jealous that her daughter built all of the Dr. Panda characters new houses with swimming pools. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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