Dolls House Review

Dolls House is, as the title demonstrates, a universal app stylized as a digital interactive dollhouse for kids to enjoy.

With more rooms offered than other apps like this, this application consists of nine rooms and a backyard to explore, as well as mother, father, and daughter characters. The look of this app is quite nice, with some photos of real objects used throughout these illustrated living spaces and I appreciate the music used in the background - pleasant to listen to for an adult even over an extended period of time. My favorite detail of this app is the dinosaur bones found in the dirt under the backyard and the Victorian elements found on the roof of this house next to the attic, but unfortunatly one can stay on these images only as long as a finger activly scrolls to these areas, as this app is quick to move back to the closest room that one can interact with.

Each room contains hidden interactions, my favorite area being the bathroom because each character can be placed into the tub and bathed as well as placed on the toilet. The girl here will go potty in a fashion that will satisfy children learning to potty train, but with the modesty intact that most parents are looking for. Here, the mom, when placed on the toilet paints her toe nails and the dad reads his iPad, fully clothed while sitting on the toilet. There is a rubber duck to squeak, and one can also run the water in the sink.

I wish that the each room's interactive elements were as extensive as the bathroom of this application. I like that when the characters are seated in the living room, a plate of spaghetti appears in front of them on the table, but these characters can’t actually interact with these props; one cannot help feed the characters or make the food disappear from the plate. In the family room, the dad can be laid on the couch to make him nap while holding his iPad, but he is the only one who can lie on the couch; the other characters can’t even sit down here. It is nice that the daughter, when placed in her bed, pulls the covers up over her and sleeps, but one can’t place the mom or dad in this bed, and nobody seems to be able to lie down on the bed in the master bedroom. One can open the refrigerator in the kitchen, but there is no food that one can remove to serve to the family members, and the cabinet doors are unable to be opened. I enjoy that the girl can swing on the tire swing in the backyard, but the parents are unable to do so. I wish these constraints did not exist here, and it would be great if in the future, characters could pick up, truly interact with, and grasp objects found within this house.

A physics engine is used here to allow different objects the chance to bounce around the room, adding to a nice effect as a large, yoga-type ball can be bounced in the bedroom as well as a tire swing can move, but the ability to flick a small side table effortlessly around the room and possibly knocking down a character, although interesting to some, is a little distracting and unrealistic for real-world conditions that I enjoy in simulation apps such as this. I do, however, enjoy the family dog in this app as he sometimes roams around on his own, drinks from the toilet and can be fed in the kitchen and enjoys a good bath himself.

This app does a nice job of allowing one to drag objects and dolls to each room of the house, but if this is difficult as sometimes it was for me, it is nice that one can also re-introduce any of the family members with a tap of a picture in the top left corner, then selecting a character to bring into a specific room. I really enjoy that the mother changes her clothing per room, something I wish the dad and daughter would do as well.

I do enjoy the included interactions throughout the app; I just wish there were more. I give these developers credit for asking users to leave comments on iTunes about things that they would like to see included in a future update - good to know.