My Animal Rescue

Upon opening the application, the user is presented with a splash screen preparing the player to enter the game. Basic audio instructions are given at this point and a simple press on the screen starts the action. The user is helped by a selection of in-app on screen instructions.

The graphics are simple and look like they have been hand drawn, although does add somewhat of a charm to the game. The user moves the monkey along the log with their finger; this is excellent for fine motor skills. Guide the coconut around the screen until you hit an animal. We like the fact that the umbrella really helps with direction of the coconut. There are 12 animals in total to free these include a turtle, giraffe, elephant, tiger, lion, snake, monkey, gorilla, rhino, leopard, zebra, and hippo. All animals when hit will be spelt out visually and with audio. This is great for learning the names of animals and the initial spellings. It is good to see that the animals are spelt out in lower case in line with the way younger students learn words and spellings. The letters and clear and colourful and there is a tally at the bottom of the screen for how many animals you have rescued. The option to spell the animal out phonetically would have been a useful tool.

Differentiation for the app can be added by pressing the ‘add coconuts’ option. This makes the game faster and more complex. We did notice that sometimes the coconuts hit the animals too fast and often animal names overlapped or were said too quickly. Once the animals have been cleared the user moves onto level 2 and so on. These levels are somewhat similar and the app would have benefited from different animals at each stage. The ‘pause’ button is a nice feature and could be used to stop within the game so the app can be passed to another player within the classroom. There is a nice feature of a cascade of animation once the player has hit the magic 20^th level.

Although this game is somewhat simple in appearance and game play it is highly addictive. There is room for potential although it can be frustrating when you have failed on level 19 only to return to the beginning! We suggest maybe a half way point to start from once reached and a log of current levels or scores so to create further competition in the classroom. As the app is highly competitive the developers should consider a section where a player could sign in to create a winning leader board.

You can download My Animal Rescue on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.