iPhone App Reviews

Balloon Animals

T.J. Brumfield | Jul 15, 2009 Games

User rating: (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)

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I just got done spending time blowing up cop cars, and brooding with fellow undead, so the logical next move was to play with balloon animals. I’m glad you’re following me here. In all seriousness, I have a wonderful three-year old daughter. While I’m a little reticent about letting her play with the phone, I do enjoy finding apps I can play with her.

For the sake of comparison, while evaluating Balloon Animals from UFO Interactive Games, I also checked the free version of Balloonimals from IDEO Toy Lab. In short, I thought Balloon Animals was a much nicer app all around.

First off, when I started the app I was given the option of instructions. While I am capable of figuring things out on my own, many apps force me to do so. I think providing clear instructions is part of the fit and finish many apps are lacking. That being said, the app is pretty simple to operate.

On the left, I can swipe up and down to get a selection of backgrounds. On the right I can swipe through my choice of 14 different balloon animals to create. Some of these are quite creative. I’ve never seen a balloon rhino for instance! Each animal comes in three different colors. The color buttons are in the middle where you can preview what your final creation looks like.

Once you’ve made your choices, press the play button. This is where the fun comes in. Balloon Animals will walk you through creating the animal step-by-step. If the balloon needs to be twisted around, you must draw a circle with your finger. As you begin to draw the circle, you see the balloon twist around. If you only go half-way around, the balloon only twists half-way around. To bend the balloon to the left, swipe to the left, and the same for the right. In theory, you could use this game to train yourself to make real balloon animals.

Honestly, it never crossed my mind before to pick up such a skill. However, now that I have this app, I’d consider learning how to make a few balloon animals to impress my daughter.

The competing Balloonimals doesn’t let you simulate creating the animals. You simply rub the screen and animals are created automatically, yet Balloonimals costs twice as much.

Another thing I like is that Balloon Animals gives you the option of saving your creation (with background) as a picture. You can then email it to family members. Some children’s apps I’ve tested automatically fills your camera roll whether you want to or not.

I hope future versions add even more animals, and perhaps a new gameplay mode. If you really wanted to learn and memorize the techniques to make these animals, then the new gameplay mode would allow you to select the animal and create it, but it wouldn’t prompt you how to make it. You’d have to memorize the moves in the normal gameplay mode.

Balloon Animals certainly passes the toddler test, and that is good enough for me.

Tags: $0.99, Games, kids, T. J. Brumfield