Cozmo’s Day Off Review

Cozmo’s Day Off is a really fun and creative space-themed universal application which includes both a story as well as numerous highly engaging interactions and mini-games.

I love the look of this app; the illustrations are great as are the various interactions one can find by tapping around the pages. I like that some of the interactions are different each time they are tapped and are sometimes rather involved as well with multiple things happening from just one touch. The look of this app has a nice 1950’s space theme and I like looking at all the retro elements, including a few that remind me of an earlier steampunk style as well. The music as well as the narration is excellent and it is fun that one can change the pitch of the narrator's voice as well as your own if you choose to make your own recording. Mini-games are also included throughout the app as well as some highly creative and unique elements. One will just have to tap to explore for himself; just be sure to touch and explore everything on the screen. Check out the "help" section if you want direction in finding the interactions that these pages contain. I greatly appreciate this information being included and wish a section like this would be part of app interactive apps.

The story is one that most everyone can relate to, that of an alien named Cozmo who has quite a difficult day just trying to get to work and then finds out something he is not pleased by, but that may make a child chuckle. For me, the story ended a little too soon, as I am really interested in the world that was created and simply wanted more. I like the addition of the mini-games, but one can get so involved with them that the narration from the previous pages gets forgotten. Parents may want to first finish the book aspect of this app and then start again to look for various hot spots. Even after the book is finished, children will enjoy exploring all the space-themed interactions over and over again.

The mini games will also hold a kid's attention nicely, and I think that it is nice that one can control how many musical sounds that can be followed to win a “simon” style music game. I wish the same were true for a rather involved arcade-style navigation game. It would be nice to be able to choose how many levels one must pass to see the special surprise promised once seven levels are completed, something I have yet to see myself after trying many times. All in all, a unique, fun and highly interactive experience.