Kiwi and Pear's World Adventure Review

Kiwi and Pear's World Adventure is a really sweet and fun geography-themed app for the iPhone which includes a storybook as well as three mini games.

I really enjoy that there is a storybook included in this app about two adorable monkeys and their transcontinental adventure. The story is both cute as well as educational, introducing basic facts about the different places they visit. I love the places the developers chose to include, like Niagara Falls, the Autoban, and the Great Wall of China. Hidden interactions are also included which my son has had a lot of fun with, and I was pleased to see how many of them further this experience, such as flash bulbs going off in Fenway Park, the ringing of Big Ben, and the falling of cherry blossoms in Japan. I also really like the basic look of this storybook; the colors are bright and plentiful. Details include a lovely sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge and the grandeur of the Amazon jungle. Adults will appreciate some of the elements which may remind them of 1980’s pop culture, such as puffy rainbows coming out from the monkey’s airplane and animals reminiscent of Mrs Grossman's stickers.

There are also three mini games included. Fruit Catch involves the catching of fruit falling from the sky in the Amazon. I am glad that the controls involve the movement of a finger back and forth in the guide instead of the tilting of the iPhone, making this game easier for the target audience of four year olds. There is also a game based on a classic game of memory involving the turning over of cards to find matches.

The World Map game is a game also geography bases and includes the places visited in the story. Search the map for the areas of the world which correspond to the hints given. Dots are included on the map of the places to choose from, but this game is not easy because many of the questions asked here are of places not mentioned in the book which may be hard to find for children, such as Easter Island. I wish after one or two wrong answers, the correct answer would be highlighted so one can learn the places not already known. It would also be nice to zoom the map in and out so more areas of the world map could be seen at once. All in all, a lovely app kids will enjoy.