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It’s rare that the trailer for an app aimed squarely at the preschool market should appeal to me as much as it does to my toddler. However, this was the case with Wombi’s new Detective app. I couldn’t wait to get it downloaded onto my iPad and see what it was all about.
The app takes on the look and feel of classic film noir detective stories, it’s Philip Marlowe (or Dixon Hill if you’d prefer) meets Muppet style cartoon characters. In fact, it has a similar vibe to The Muppet Christmas Carol: a faintly grimy backdrop and storyline juxtaposing with the downright comical as a giraffe tells you about his stolen teddy bear. The music sets the tone beautifully, the graphics remain simple and age-appropriate whilst staying true to the genre and the 1920s/1930s background.
The gameplay is incredibly simple as befits the intended age group. However, it has been beautifully thought out, making the game one adults can enjoy watching as their child plays. Each storyline plays out identically. On loading the app, your desk phone will ring and answering it begins the story as a victim of a crime tells you (in pictures) about an item that has been taken from them – these include a teddy bear, necklace, trophy and a few others. You then question the victim by tapping three buttons, giving you the clues necessary to identify your perp: their eye color, height and hat.
Next comes a police line-up where you identify the only character who matches your three clues. Once you’ve found the baddie, it’s off to their house to figure out where they’ve hidden the missing object by pinning Polaroid photographs to an aerial map of the area, matching objects to likely locations (spanner in the garage, ball on the beach, etc). Finally you’ll have to search the area using a variety of tools dependent on which location you found yourself in: metal detector on the beach, flashlight in the garage. The story is simple but actually follows a plot from beginning to end, which gives a clear sense of achievement as you uncover the stolen object and stamp a big green star on the closed manilla folder.
There are one or two things I would change about this app, number one on that list being that the cartoon animal characters who call to report their stolen items do not speak in English, or in any language for that matter. Instead they speak in nonsense noises as the important points they make pop up as pictures in a speech bubble.
It is not important to the game that they speak, as everything needed to solve the crime is given visually; however, it is a well established fact that children learn from hearing language and this seems like a wasted opportunity for my son to hear new words. Some of the stolen objects are not common items and my son didn’t know what they were – the trophy being a clear example. If the character had used this word instead of the nonsense speech then he would have had the opportunity to learn a new word independently rather than having to ask me.
I would also change the height clue when it is time to pick out the thief, as this was not clear to either me or or my husband when we first played through, let alone to a young child.
I love Detective despite its repetition, as it teaches so many useful skills that I haven’t seen in other apps. We have dozens of puzzle and learning apps that all cover similar ground, but Detective offers us new skills such as using a set of given information to deduce the correct answer, and considering a set of images to conclude where they are most likely to be found. The forest location also teaches basic navigation skills as you follow arrows to the correct location of the hidden object.
Detective teaches pre-schoolers critical thinking and deduction skills which are just as vital to learn, yet easily overlooked as they are harder to weave into an activity or game than simple facts such as letters and numbers. Some parents may be wary of the content, as the game introduces some fairly negative concepts such as criminal behavior and theft. However, I have chosen to see it as a learning opportunity with my son; a way to explain that not everyone is nice, that we have to take care of our things and not leave them where another person might take them (an unfortunate habit of his).
My son adores this game. Snce its arrival it has quickly become the number one app of choice. He is consistently thrilled to find the missing object, although unlike with most of his apps he does occasionally need some help. If you’re looking for something totally different in a preschooler app, then Detective is a definite for your collection.
Detective is available in the app store for the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone priced at $1.99/£1.49. A copy of of the app was provided free for this review.
