Wanderland Review

Wanderland is an interesting, open-ended forest-themed app that lets children explore at their own pace without rules or specific game play. The game consists of three basic areas: the Treehouse, Forest and Collection Jar. Each of these sections allows the child to explore and interact with various elements in their own time.

In the Treehouse, one can explore the interior of this Elfin home, tapping to change the look of the walls, curtains and bedding with other objects worth exploring. I like how one can personalize the Elf character as well, touching the head to change the face and hair, and I like that girl as well as boy choices are included, along with a gender-neutral bear type creature. Clothing and shoe options are included as well. To leave the Treehouse and venture outside, tap on the door entering the forest.

In the forest, one has the opportunity to wander about, interacting with various woodland fauna, transforming caterpillars or planting flowers, among other activities. Use a finger to guide the elf where you would like him or her to move throughout this landscape. As one travels, one will come across many found objects that one can collect to examine latter, such as blocks, coins, or feathers, along with insects and other creatures. To collect, drag object into the collection jar in the bottom right corner of the screen, an aspect of this game that I fiund very satisfying.

The collection jar has all of the treasures one has picked up on his journey through the forest. My son and I enjoy collecting all the blocks - reminiscent of the mega blocks my son enjoys playing with. It is lovely that one can stack them together, and that one can stack towers in ways that would topple over in real life, something we have fun doing together, my son proclaiming “That’s beautiful, Mommy.” I also enjoy balancing the found coins on our towers, I wish there were more objects that would interact with the blocks as this is by far our favorite part of this application.

Wanderland will be a big hit with a certain kind of child who will enjoy taking his time exploring what this app has to offer. The illustrations are lovely, bright, and colorful, as is the Elf theme, which is sure to delight fairy fans. There is a lot to tap, but older kids may possibly find these choices redundant and get bored easily from the lack of goal-oriented game play. I found this game to be very relaxing as did my son. We have enjoyed this game before sleep, its soothing music helping the transition to bedtime. I have enjoyed this app and found myself exploring here longer than I had expected, mainly to gather up blocks to stack later. I do wish previous collection jars could be saved from one game to the next as gathering treasures can be time-consuming, and it is a shame to lose everything when we are finished for the time being.