Mobo Kids Puzzle World

Puzzle World downloads easily from the App store and takes up a meagre 75.6MB of space. The application loads quickly and the user is confronted by a bright and colourful stylized atlas of the world. The background music is pleasantly anticipatory and not intrusive. Starting the game could not be easier as the iconized start button is centre stage and ready to be pushed. The only other icon button is a small picture of a mouse on the bottom right of the screen, when this is pressed a further four icons represent various different links. Three links take you to the app store through a parent lock and shows the user further games produced by Mobokids. The final link sends you to the review section on the App store for the user to write a few nice words about the app.

Pressing on the start button on the introductory screen zooms the screen into the first country, the United Kingdom. A delightful animation of a fox with goggles flying a vintage biplane with a very large flag of the UK hovers over the country. Just so the child knows where they are in relation to the other countries in the world a pointing icon is discreetly pointing at two countries with their respective flags, Canada and France. Once the game starts the map zooms in a bit further to a map of the country, as is the case with the UK the map has zoomed into the county of Wiltshire and a silhouetted outline of Stonehenge appears across the screen. The child then has an option of placing one of three choices as a jigsaw piece to fit the object. In the first case they have a choice of Stonehenge, Big Ben and a desert island, dragging the correct piece to the screen elicits a jolly xylophone sound and the map screen moves to the next silhouetted outline. Each puzzle piece when fitted starts an individual animation to add a bit of fun and engagement. When all the pieces are fitted correctly a short burst of the respective National anthem plays with a full screen of all the work displayed of that particular country.  The fox then flies on to the next country.

When the user reaches Italy, they have a choice to finish the game or move pay for the rest of the countries on offer. There are twelve countries in total and the journey is right around the world! Of special mention were the VW Beetle in Germany, my first car, and the bouncing kangaroo in Australia. Of a rather disappointing mention the cricket bat and ball were in India, surely a mistake? However, this is a delightful game that illustrates how children can learn interesting facts about the countries of the world in a fun and exciting way. This game also gives the parent or teacher the opportunity to extend the learning and could be an excellent gateway out to discover more countries of the world or go into greater depth of the favourite country.

This app is a must for the busy parent or teacher and should be downloaded and put into the toolkit. My grandchildren certainly loved it and I am sure it will be a popular hit. Well done to the developers and congratulations for not adding some form of assessment system, we all recognise the overzealous here!

You can download Mobo Kids Puzzle World on your iOS or Android devices from the app stores. Download the Mobo Kids Puzzle World app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.