Falling Wall Review

Posted by Amy Solomon on February 28th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Falling Wall is a delightfully quirky universal logic game for children by the developers at Busythings.

From what I can gather from the lack of reviews in general for Busythings apps, I believe that the public by and large has not been exposed to the terrific, wonderfully animated Busythings educational apps that are often excellent at teaching spatial awareness and problem solving.

Such is the case in Falling Wall - a novel approach to having children flex their reasoning and spatial awareness skills. Pink men and yellow worms need to be moved to the holes in a wall soon to be knocked down by a monkey who is itching to press the plunger of dynamite that will send the wall flat onto the ground. If the men and worms have been positioned where the holes will fall, the level will be solved and the characters will dance for joy at being saved. If players place these characters in the wrong area, however, they will be crushed with their heads, making fantastical dents into the wall.

I appreciate how the wall is broken into panels that correlate to the checkerboard pattern seen on the ground. Moving the characters around the ground will in turn highlight the area of the ground where the character has been placed to greatly help players fully understand the placement of these men or worms for the best outcome, but even with this helpful detail, this game is harder than it looks.

Four different levels of difficulty are included which offer players a chance to explore grids 2X2 to a 5X5 board that allows for men and worms to hide in holes found anywhere among the 25 included panels, and it is good to know that this game is randomized - great for re-play.

I also smitten by all the whimsical details that are included in Falling Wall, such as the dynamite plunger raising a bit after each character is placed on a tile. When the positioning is complete, tap on the monkey who will count down from three before knocking down the wall, fist-pumping after causing the explosion. If successful, the characters will dance in their holes, popping up and out of the wall with enthusiasm. If positioned wrong, instead of a head popping safely through the hole, a crack in the wall can be seen where the head becomes crushed. Also note the helicopter with giant claw removing the fallen wall as well as the characters parachuting down, returning for their turn once more.

I delight in all the details, sound effects and musical moments included, making this app rich with nuance to keep this game light and fun.

I can definitely recommend Falling Wall to be used both at school as well as a great game for parents to share with their children. This is a wonderful app for spatial reasoning, making it a terrific educational app disguised as a kids' game.

Do check out the other Busythings titles both in iTunes as well as the reviews posted here at GiggleApps. Busythings apps have so much to offer that parents and teachers will be remiss if they don’t check out this UK-based developer.

iPhone Screenshots

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iPad Screenshots

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