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Heather H.
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Strengths |
This new app is a cute one for preschoolers to interact with all of their favorite Dr. Panda characters. Unlike the typical Dr. Panda apps, where the user interacts with one character at a time, on this brand new app the child can play with up to five characters at once. There are even some new characters added to the Dr. Panda universe! The interactions are open-ended and fun, and more reminiscent of my daughter’s favorite, My Playhome, than the rest of the Dr. Panda apps. There are four different areas to play, and each offers completely different interactions.
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| Suggestions |
The actual interaction with the app was harder than I expected — my depth perception seemed off, and the characters wouldn’t always go where I expected or wanted. I do thank Rachel J. for pointing out that they go where their shadow is, rather than where their feet are. Now I can move the characters around more easily. I wanted the characters to make faces (like they do in Dr. Panda’s Restaurant for foods they don't want) when they ate too much ice cream, but I couldn’t get it to happen. Every time I tried, they eagerly accepted and ate cone after cone after cone.
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| General opinion |
Overall, this is a great toddler/preschooler app that’s much more open-ended than the previous Dr. Panda apps. It’s recommended for those in the target population, especially at the price of $1.99.
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Rachel J.
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Any time a new Dr. Panda app is released, I automatically squeal because of the solid reputation Dr. Panda has built in quality kids' apps. From the very start-up screen of this app, my squealing was intensified as I saw Dr. Panda and his pals have had a facelift. It doesn’t take away from the characters fans have come to know and love, but a bit of a fresh animated feel every now and then definitely does a panda good. I loved seeing the new characters, too, especially the cat family (see my avatar for reference). As a speech pathologist, I can use this app in a variety of ways. It lends itself well to narration by your kiddo, as the characters have a lot to do inside this app, but not much to say for themselves. Story-telling and creativity are at the heart of the app, which is fantastic. A free-play feel gives your tot total reign of this swimming pool, and with three worlds, play time with this app can last as long, or as short, as you’d like. |
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The scenes of digital swimming are not quite as problem-solving based as others in this beloved series, and I was a little let down to see that. As a whole the app seems a bit “tossed together” and not as thorough as its predecessors. While each of the four areas has its own theme, three of them revolve around swimming and I found them to be pretty similar at their core. Dragging and dropping the characters was a little “off” for me — your child’s chosen pal will land where its shadow falls and not where its feet are aimed. This was tricky for my happy child tester to adjust to. |
| General opinion |
All in all, Dr. Panda’s Swimming Pool makes a great addition to any existing Dr. Panda app library. Priced at $1.99, it’s a simple pick-up for kiddos that has the potential for a lot of app play. While it’s certainly not the best of the Dr. Panda series, it is still a great gem tucked inside the app market. |
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Rachel H.
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This is a great free play app for kids. With familiar characters from other Dr. Panda apps, kids can dress the cute little friends for the pool and select different play areas to explore. There are three swimming areas as well as a dressing room equipped with shower and potty. Even though each area is swimming based, there are different toys, food and items to interact with in each room. My kids especially loved squirting water at the animal friends in the elephant pool and from the water cannon. It is super easy to add new characters from the dressing room and to bring as many of them into a play area as the child wishes. |
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There are four different play areas, each with their own food and toy selections. It would be nice if there was a selection of toys to add or a place to move them out of the way in each location. At one point, I had five friends at the pool, and though I left some of the characters out, it would be nice if I could contact the parent somehow to quickly remove a character I no longer wanted to play with. Those are really two fairly nit-picky suggestions, though; I truly love the app as is. |
| General opinion |
This is a quality app as we would expect to see from TribePlay's Dr. Panda series. There are no instructions and no time limits. Kids can do what they wish and explore to their heart’s desire. There is no right or wrong way to play. My son threw a pirate-themed birthday party and wants everyone to know that the characters loved eating ice cream by the pool. |
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Cynthia
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Dr. Panda apps are fun, but sometimes I don't see how much fun they are until I give them to one of my kids to test. The app has four areas of play: dressing room, elephant pool, pirate ship and a big kid pool with a slide. As Dr. Panda fans have come to expect, there is a lot to discover in each section, from making ice cream and shooting a water cannon to finding a hidden treasure and hearing a toot from the bathroom while an animal friend uses the stall. As a mom, I love the custom settings for music, sounds and my absolute favorite, being able to turn off the promotion screen, which is where other Dr. Panda apps are displayed. |
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The only technical issue I saw in the app were some overlaying of graphics. The animals were difficult to move when they got tangled, but they sorted themselves out after I continued fiddling with them. |
| General opinion |
As a geeky app reviewer, I was a little bored. After a few trips around each section, everything had been discovered. Then I handed the app to my son and my boredom vanished. My little guy adored this app. I lost my iPad to him for a large chunk of time while he giggled with the little critters jumping off the diving board and the squirting elephant. Clearly my son knows how to have fun better than I do. |
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Kelli
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We’ve become accustomed to high quality apps from the folks at Dr. Panda, and Dr. Panda's Swimming Pool (though a little less seamless than some of TribePlay’s other offerings) is no exception. The host of familiar characters thrown into yet another fun situation is sure to be a winner with the preschool crowd. The endless play of the Dr. Panda apps is one of my favorite things about them. |
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I’m afraid that this app felt a bit thrown together to me. While still a premium app compared to most on the market, I felt like the activities lacked some depth compared to many of its Dr. Panda predecessors. Some of the functions just weren’t as polished as I’d expect with a Dr. P. app. For example, when feeding the little animals ice cream the only way I could get them to eat it is to hold it over their head rather than in front of their mouths. Small distinction, I know, but small things like that really stand out when you are expecting perfection. |
| General opinion |
Still a very good app, despite some shortcomings. I love the subject matter and the cute, familiar characters, and I am sure they will be popular with their preschool audience. I was a little disappointed by some small glitches (like the one I mentioned above) and what I felt like was a little less careful craftsmanship than I have grown used to seeing in the Dr. Panda apps.
I do have to note that I was a tad disillusioned to hear bodily function sounds in a Dr. Panda app. I know they’re amusing to the kiddos, but I kind of thought Dr. P. was above that. And I have to say that I join some of our other reviewers in being dismayed that the tots in Pandaland aren’t given the opportunity to wash their hands after going to the restroom.
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