Toca Boca, 2018

Yes, this is a review of a mobile game/interactive experience for ages six to eight. No, I will not be taking any questions regarding my motivations in reviewing it.

Toca Mystery House, like many of Toca Boca's other kids' apps, is less a game, more a digital toy. There are no win conditions, and barely any objectives. This is a point in its favour.

The creepy, run-down mystery house is lovingly detailed with peeling wallpaper, a decaying lift, shattered test tubes and mysterious slime. As you explore the house, you'll discover different rooms, each with its own inhabitants and experiments to try.

A lab monster transforms when you mix up different potions to feed it, a thing in the fridge fridge sucks up (or ejects?) goo, and a musical ogre lets you ting their teeth. Elsewhere, the ceiling peels away to reveal strange constellations and a pair of mysteriously alien figures invite you to unfold a glowing box.

It's all very cute, engaging and nicely animated, with good use of sound, although there's not really all that much to find and do, so you/the child you were hoping to distract may not get very extended play out of it.

Despite its mysterious and mildly creepy setting, there's nothing here that'll upset your average four-year-old, but it's absorbing enough to be a satisfying fidget app for adults, too.

Toca Mystery House costs 4.49€ on the Google Play Store and is free with Play Pass. It's also on iOS for 3.99€.

Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tocaboca.tocamysteryhouse&gl=US

Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1380057710

Screenshots

#KidFriendly #TocaBoca #Android #iOS #Cute #NonViolentGames

TeamV, 2022

Spookity Hollow is a Halloween spin-off of Play With Gilbert, a kid-friendly exploration/collect'em-up game in which you control a kitten.

This is more of the same, but with a new environment to investigate: the autumn-touched valley of Spookity Hollow, replete with jack'o'lanterns and costumes to collect, as well as kitten and bird friends to meet. I'm still looking for the ghosts!

It's aimed at ages four and up, so there are approximately zero scares here, but plenty of locations tucked away amid autumn landscapes, from a mansion atop a hill, to a little tomb???, to what's hidden beneath the lake.

Configurable day/night cycles and seasons add some variety (fireflies come out at night!), there's local multiplayer, and you can, of course, name and customise your cat.

Sure, the landscape and plants could be more varied, and the architecture could be spookier (and more furnished).

But look, you either want the very chill, nonviolent Halloween kitten game for very small children or not here.

This may really be one for existing fans of the main Play With Gilbert game, which has more depth and its own seasonal Halloween event, but I'm happy to have all these games in my library for Smol Owlbear, and it's fun to dip into them even as an alleged adult.

I've seen Spookity Hollow discounted to 3.29€ on Steam – it's also available on itchio – and you'll be supporting a solo indie dev who makes cute things.

Plays nicely on Pop!_OS Linux via SteamPlay Proton.

Buy on itchio: https://joure.itch.io/spookity-hollow Buy on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739150/Spookity_Hollow/

Screenshots

#HalloweenGames #KidFriendly #SpookityHollow #IndieGames #LinuxGaming #CollectEmUp #Cute #NonViolentGames