Tiggly Christmas iPad app review
Tiggly Christmas is a new app that works with (or without,) Tiggly Shapes. My daughter’s about a year too young for the suggested age range (she just turned eight months old,) but she is fascinated by this app.
While the results were mixed with Tiggly Safari which shares the same basic format, Christmas had movable elements that she interacted with and a mirror which utilized the camera. She recognized a baby in the mirror, if not her own beautiful self.
Tiggly Christmas wraps your child’s imagination up
The object of Tiggly Christmas is to match the Tiggly shape to the shape displayed on the screen. By doing this your child is given a new ornament that is placed on a tree. During my run with the app I didn’t notice what Maggie picked up on that you can drag the ornaments all around the tree.
After the tree’s decorated with about ten shapes, the game shifts to matching shapes to build a gift to put under the tree. Same basic play – place the Tiggly Shape on the screen where it’s indicated, piece appears and the game congratulates you.
Tiggly Christmas brings your child into the game
After the present is under the tree we were treated with a mirror that Maggie flipped for, and it took a picture that ended up being over the fireplace. You can also flip the lights on and off and move the present you made around the room.
After it’s all done, you get a Happy Holidays card, which I’m sure someone’s going to ask why it wasn’t a merry Christmas card as it’s Tiggly Christmas. Then again they don’t know the orthodoxy of the penguin delivery agent that’s sending that card or who the picture of your child and a Christmas tree is going to.
Tiggly Christmas: not quite as fun as GTA-V
My ultimate comparison as a 40-something man for any of these children’s apps has to be “is it Grand Theft Auto V?” not quite, but I think at under two years old a kiddo might spend hours trying to get five stars with Tiggly Shapes and the Tiggly Christmas app. What Tiggly Christmas lacks in 3D immersive reality and complex characters with intricate intertwining storylines, it makes up for in the fact that the audience is not 40, and probably does not play GTA V.
Maggie and I played through the game two or three times tonight before she conked out. We saw a couple of different mirror shapes, a different present, and Maggie learned she didn’t need the shape at all if she just kept slapping the iPad eventually it would recognize and give her the shape.
I’m not sure if that’s a planned frustration-relief option that Tiggly has built in, or if my daughter has mad hacker skills at under a year and has managed to simply position her hands in the right way.
What we may have managed to teach Maggie tonight was that ornaments can’t be moved when both hands are on the screen. Or not, we’ll see. Whatever the case it was quite a bit of fun hanging with my daughter as she interacted with a tech toy.
Additionally you can send the postcards via email, social media, or over Airdrop. I didn’t see this feature when I was playing with it, but was also dealing with a child mad intent on making things happen.
Before using, consult your technician
One word of warning to parents, disable multitasking gestures under settings before playing this game, or you’re going to find your child is in your Facebook or App Store.
Tiggly Christmas is available on iTunes until December 15th for $0.99, after that it’s $2.99.
