Piece me Circus! Review

Piece me Circus! is a delightful universal puzzle app with a circus theme that adults as well as children will enjoy,

The interface of this app is very child-friendly, opening up directly to a main page where each of seven wonderfully whimsical circus characters can be found.

This app stands out in the crowd of apps similar to it as the illustrations used are simply wonderful, with bright and bold color choices and a look all their own. I love the palette of colors used here, with the reoccurring color choices of bright turquoise, vivid pink and purple, as well as the other colors used to create circus folk of eccentric colors that I greatly enjoy.

From a bear balancing on a striped ball to a strong man and high wire dancer holding an umbrella, the style found here is both reminiscent of vintage circuses, while maintaining its own unique style that is quite special and great fun to look at.

The backgrounds used within these puzzles are also visually quite interesting as they are well detailed using shades of gray, nicely contrasting to the bright colors used within the puzzles themselves.

After a character has been selected with a tap, one is brought to a faint highlight of the puzzle in question. A shake of one’s device or well- placed tap will randomly toss the pieces across the screen with a satisfying sound, now allowing players to move these pieces into the faint outline offered. It is nice that this outline includes subtle but effective shading, creating depth and the sense of this outline being a dimensional puzzle cutout that one is filling, much like a traditional puzzle.

This classic feel is further realized as the pieces one moves across the screen have a subtle white outline that surrounds each piece but which can no longer be seen when the piece is fit correctly within the master puzzle, complete with a click to let one know that these pieces are in place. These details are simple and may not be specifically noticed, but their inclusion creates a rich puzzle experience that I have become very accustomed to within the best puzzle apps.

Do be aware that these puzzles can be less forgiving than other puzzle apps that I have seen that take a more general approach to the placement of the pieces, as some apps have varying degrees of “pull” where, as if by magnetics, the pieces are drawn to the correct place within their puzzle. Piece me Circus! does lack the element of a lot of “grab” and one must be rather specific with their placement in order to fit each piece in correctly. I do not see this as a flaw, but this app can be more difficult that other apps like it, expecting more from players - something that may or may not appeal to parents.

Even if these puzzles are a little more difficult, the artwork used is so grand that most children will be happy to work a bit harder to solve these puzzles because doing so triggers a fun and whimsical animation as well as narration and text, naming each circus character as well as some fun sound effects. Once these puzzles are complete, one has the choice of resetting to do again, moving on to the other puzzles in this series or going back to the main page to select a new puzzle to work on.

I also like that these images are dissected in the interest of being put back together in ways a little different and special than other puzzles may be, making me think of the first time I put these puzzles together.

It is terrific how the apps with the Piece Me series of apps include bios of the artists responsible for the lively illustrations used throughout. I greatly enjoyed reading the short biography about artist Alberto Cerriteño, seeing a photo of him with his kids and other artwork he has created. It made me very interested in seeing more of his work, becoming possible by an included web address for those like me who are interested in seeing more.

I do love the idea of this series and appreciate the fact that although the puzzles included and the app itself wok the same at the other apps in this series - Piece me Birds! - the specific styles used, although some period elements exist in each collection, could not be more different in terms of both use of color or specific style of artist.

It is great that this app is universal as this app looks great and plays well on the iPhone, but I do recommend using this app for the iPad in order to see the artwork in full impressive detail.

I would love to see more apps added to this series as I find the introducing of children to contemporary artists an invaluable teaching tool.