Bamba Pizza Review

Bamba Pizza is a cute new universal role-playing app allowing children to cook pizzas for characters in this simple, fun kids app.

I must admit that this type of role-playing game is our family’s personal favorite genre of application, mirroring my son’s love of pretend play - especially with play food.

This is the fourth year my son will receive play food as a large part of his holiday and birthday gifts from my husband and me. Although he has different hobbies as well that are demonstrated in the other toys he plays with, not a day goes by that it isn’t a birthday for a doll or stuffed animal where pizza is always served, along with cake, cookies and many other selections.

Although I would never expect Bamba Pizza or other apps like it to take the place of playing with toys in the real world, my son also enjoys playing with these types of apps when away from the house or when lying in bed before or after a full night’s sleep, when play food items are not welcome.

In Bamba Pizza, children have a chance to choose their character to cook for, selecting from male and female characters as well as robot chef and monster.

Roll the dough out by moving a finger as well as flipping the dough in the air with the flick of the iPad, shown in a helpful hint off to the side. Spread red sauce on the crust and then decorate with toppings. There is a lot to choose from here, including traditional toppings such as cheese, pepperoni, onions or mushrooms, as well as gourmet choices that although not typical, may find their way onto someone’s pizza such as salmon or lobster claws, shrimp - or what I assume is crawfish, as well as colorful candy choices and fantasy foods such as nuts and bolts for the robot and a variety of bugs and even bat wings - presumably for the monster.

I do wish one could move the toppings around the pizza once the original placement has been made, and organizing the foods by category would also be helpful.

Watch the pizza cook in the oven and slice into sections with a finger, also nicely interactive and realistic looking, but I would have loved to see more cooking changes happening such as crust darkening more as well as sauce and cheese bubbling or the browning of toppings.

Finally feed the pizza to one’s character who may enjoy the pie or not. Either way, Bamba Pizza is a simple and intuitive app for kids.

The only issue that gives me pause are the ads for the other apps by Bamba role-playing apps in this series that would be of interest to Bamba Pizza fans. Parents, however still may not be interested in their children seeing these ads. I would love to see a more elegant way to let parents know of their other applications.

Likewise, I have mixed feelings about how this app opens up to the scrolling between different storefronts that have apps in this series, such as pizza parlor, burger joint, ice cream shop, or post office. This is a nice tour of the main street, and having access to many of these apps, I liked being able to enter into any of these establishments, but this would not be the case if I had downloaded only a single app.

Because of this, it would be nice if seeing all storefronts on only the single one connected to one’s app were an option hidden in a “parent’s area” as well - just a thought for a future update.

Even with these issues, Bamba Pizza as well as other Bamba apps will be enjoyed by children - especially those who enjoy the open-ended creative role-playing apps that my son really appreciates.