Toca Town Review
Price: $2.99
Version: 1.0.1
App Reviewed on: iPad 3
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Toca Town is Toca Boca’s new highly open-ended digital toy, bringing dollhouse play to iOS devices. Toca Town allows children of all ages to manipulate a very nice selection of Toca characters around six locations that include a park, restaurant, family home, apartment, grocery store, and police station. Characters can be moved around within each landscape as well as transported to new areas of this app easily, including any object they may be holding at the time, making transitions between areas simple and intuitive. Objects like foods, books, or other more specific items such as keys found at the police station can also be held as children drag figures around the screen while acting out their own stories, much like one would with a classic dollhouse in real life but without the little pieces that parents need to keep track of.
Although I try not to compare applications, it is difficult not to make note of iTunes's other most popular digital dollhouse My PlayHome and its sister app, My PlayHome Stores. Fans of these creative-play apps may be quick to point out that, unlike My PlayHome, Toca Townspeople cannot change their clothing, pour juice or coffee into cups, or pull the covers up over the figures when lying down to go to bed.
However I do appreciate the quirky, utterly Toca details seen throughout these scenes, including the loose feathers flying from the pillows found in the apartment encouraging a pillow fight as well as the DVD one can place in the machine that shows a moody black and white image that adult fans of period films will smile at. I also am quite fond of the people's reflections that can be seen within the mirror in the bathroom, the ability to toss random objects into the toilet, as well as the flatulent noises and the percussive sounds of solid waste being dropped into the toilet - a favorite moment for my six year old son that continues to create loud, over-the-top belly laughs.
Another very special feature of this app is the ability to whimsically create complex foods by combining ingredients into a pot on the stove of the Restaurant section. Posters in the kitchen will give a few hints on making dishes, but many other combinations exist as well. I appreciate having to collect cheese from the store to then combine with pasta to create mac and cheese, picking up a whole chicken to combine with bread to make chicken sandwiches as well as sushi combinations by adding fish or shrimp to rice. A personal favorite moment of this app is discovering how an acoustic set of the now iconic Toca Band theme is included in the coffee house area of the restaurant if a character sits in the spotlight and picks up the guitar - a real moment for me within Toca Town.
I do like that much of this app resets when one exits and then re-enters different scenes so players can get use out of objects that have been thrown in the garbage, and I appreciate how the foods that have been eaten become re-stocked. I do however wish that there were an unlimited supply of shopping baskets found in the store. Very few carry-alls are included in this app and they are very helpful for bringing objects from one area to another, especially for shopping for foods one plans to cook in the restaurant. Unfortunately I find these different baskets easily misplaced within the game and sometimes hard to track down - a bit of a disappointment to be sure.
Even with these notes, Toca Town has certainly become one of two definitive digital dollhouse apps that will keep children busy for quite some time. I love the details that have been included within each of these areas within Toca Town, but I do hope to see a series of updates as well.
Even with these notes, I do adore all the cross-over moments found within Toca Town - from the Toca Mini figure found in the playroom to the eclectic cast one can choose from. I am really happy to see Toca Boca return to arguably what they do best by creating an app without rules or even specific mini-games to complete. I do hope Toca Boca will continue to develop more open-ended applications in the future as I see them as giants in the App Store that are really able to occupy children for long periods of time in ways that are creative and quite special.