Dr. Panda’s Daycare Review

Dr Panda’s Daycare is a charming, highly interactive and open-ended universal application allowing children to take care of baby animals in a daycare section by letting players entertain, feed and put down for naps a nice selection of five animals including a cow, elephant or monkey.

This app opens sweetly as a parent of each animal is seen dropping its child off at daycare, starting this app out in their playroom consisting of toys, balls and dress-up hats to interact with, with cute choices such as allowing these creatures to hula hoop, helping them build with bricks or riding a skateboard.

A language-neutral app, Dr Panda Daycare does not include speaking of any kind, but these animals will communicate with smiles when they are being entertained in a way that children will find satisfying.

Other areas of this app include playing about in the yard, complete with a kiddie pool to float in, a slide and a small bouncy house area the animals will love to play on.

Also note the see-saw to share and the balloons which will float up into the sky if not given to an animal to hold. My son loves this section of the app but would love to see these animals swim around more instead of simply floating and would really like to see a playhouse be included for these animal children to play in as well.

A music room is also included complete with spotlights to tap on as well as instruments for each animal to play together as a band or individually. Children will enjoy the different music they can make, choosing which instrument to play together to create different music as a whole group or just an animal or a few.

My son, eager to give his opinion here as well, would like the animals to be able to bow after performing their music and misses being able to see the parents watch their children make music, as the parents in his school are often invited to come and watch their kids during special performances.

Users can also put these animals down for a nap, rocking them to sleep as well as including a few toys to enjoy as well as other details such as shutting the curtains to darken the room or tapping on the window to change the weather - an element found throughout these interior areas I really like, but I do wish the rainy weather could be included in the outside scene as well.

My favorite part of this app is the kitchen where these animals can be seated around a table and fed food found in the fridge or cupboard. Explore the working sink and toaster, or use the burners to cook food, make tea or drag dishes into the sink when finished with the snack. The choices here are very good, with a nice selection of food to choose from ranging from sausage, sushi, fruit, egg and even a birthday cake. Light the candles with a tap as well as help an animal put the candles out by bringing the cake close for it to blow out.

Do note the duck-shaped garbage can in the corner, and darken the room if you would like by lowering the shades on the window.

I would love to also be able to open the drawers found in the kitchen to find utensils, specifically knives to cut food such as the cake into pieces. As of now, one needs to pass the cake and other food around for the animals to take individual bites if one wants to share - not quite the message young children should emulate when offering others food to taste.

It would also be great to be able to move the chairs around the room as well, a detail my son felt was missing.

We do appreciate, however, how these characters are still holding or wearing any objects from one area to the next - a fun detail that brings a lot of richness to this app that my son also really enjoys.

In a future update, I think it would be great to also include a bathroom area allowing these young creatures to either use a baby potty, adult toilet or have their diapers changed if need be as well as washing hands for a fun, educational interaction that could encourage good behavior as well.

Even with these notes, Dr. Panda’s Daycare is a delightful role-playing app for toddlers and those in preschool. This app is right up my son’s alley as he loves to pretend to feed and take care of his stuffed animals and dolls. I am sure that after playing Dr. Panda, my son will act this app out with his toys - high praise for an application, to be sure.

I have been very happy with other Dr Panda apps especially Dr. Panda’s Restaurant so it is a special treat to see the animal diners here as well, dropping off their children in this cute crossover.

It will be very interested to see that new Dr. Panda apps may be developed in the future. I really wish that there will more open-ended role-playing apps such as this in the future.