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Victor’s Cold! (iOS) Review

 
Victor's Cold (iOS) Review
Victor's Cold (iOS) Review
Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

 
At a Glance...
 

Formats: iOS
 
Genre: , , ,
 
Year:
 
Publisher:
 
Developer:
 
Final Score
8.0
8.0/ 10


User Rating
1 total rating

 

We liked?


  • Cute story
  • Lots of interactivity
  • My kids loved it!

Not so much?


  • Some of the mini games get a little repetitive


Final Fiendish Findings?

Victor’s Cold is an interactive children’s storybook application by Slim Cricket for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Each page has a lot of things to interact with, and occasionally features a lite mini-game.

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Posted November 20, 2012 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings...
 
 

Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

My wife and I had a playful bet while I we waited for the interactive storybook application Victor’s Cold!, by Slim Cricket,  to download.  Without an sort of context, other than a penguin’s face as the app’s logo, we weren’t sure if Victor had a cold (e.g. “Ah-ahhh-CHOO!”) or Victor was cold (e.g. “Brrr! I’m freezing!”).  Hey — give us a break.  It’s the silly sort of things a married gaming couple will argue about, when we don’t have to think about the family or the house for a few fleeting moments.  I voted it was for the former, while my wife voted for the latter.

The winner, as always, was my wife.

Victor is a penguin who is cold.  It’s probably because in a place like Antarctica, where he’s surrounded by ice, snow, and iced-cold water.  The story covers his adventures as he waits for mother and father penguin to return.  Along the way, Victor meets a lot of different friends, each one gives him advice on what he needs to do in order to warm up.

Each warming activity is something of a mini-game, and most of them are pretty easy for kids of all ages to do.  (At the start menu there is an option to change between easy and medium settings.)

Tapping, dragging, and touching are the normal gestures.  You can even tilt the device to slightly shift the perspective of the scenario, giving it a three-dimensional feel.

Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

There is one activity that requires reassembling an igloo puzzle, but that’s about as challenging as the application gets.  One of the coolest effects (although is becomes rather repetitive) is wiping away the frosted “breath” on the iPad screen when Victor huffs on the reader’s screen before each activity.

My wife and I really enjoyed Slim Cricket’s other storybook app, The Witch with No Name.  In fact, she reviewed the app for this very site.  Victor’s Cold! is developed by the same studio, and has a lot in common.  It’s safe to say that if you liked one, you’ll probably like the other.

Over the past several nights, I’ve let my two youngest sons, ages 3 and 5, play Victor’s Cold! before bed, in lieu of their normal night time story.  They loved The Witch With No Name, which I highly recommend you check out, but they also really loved Victor’s Cold!, too.

Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

While I haven’t actually timed both of the apps, Victor’s Cold! seems to run a bit shorter than The With With No Name.  The story lasts about 10 minutes.  In addition to feeling like a shorter runtime, the story seems more appropriate for younger kids (there is no “symphony of farts” like in The Witch) and the gestures and involvement, overall, felt more basic, and easier to accomplish.  This could also be due to the fact that my kids were playing on the defaulted “easy” mode, too.

Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

The characters are cute, and the sense of humor is pretty enjoyable.  The only “blue” moment is in the scene above when the bear, who excitedly jumps to the music of a rock band, loses the fur on his butt, as if he split his pants, and you see his bare bear butt through the fur.  (Get it?)  The kids, of course, found this to be hilarious, exclaiming through belly laughs, “I SEE HIS BUTT!!!!

If you have two or more kids playing this app, you’re likely to run into both of them vying for control at the same time.  Because of this, my iPad would read the abundance of little fingers on the screen, as one of the system’s gesture-based app swaps.  I recommend turning off the 4 and 5 finger gesture settings in the iPad’s settings if your kids if you notice this becoming an issue and interrupting play.

Victor's Cold (iOS) Review

When you’re done playing through the story, there is a little “Surprise” mode.  Oooooh!  (Nicely, named, too.)

This mode is also accessible through the main menu.  The surprise mode is an interactive music maker, where tapping various aquatic creatures and bubbles, make different noises and melodies.

Victor’s Cold! was reviewed on a 3rd-Generation iPad, but is also playable on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The app will run you $1.99.  If you have kids, this is a great application.  Developer Slim Cricket has done some amazingly enjoyable things with Victor’s Cold!

I also recommend you pick up The Witch With No Name (technically named The Witch With No Name HD) for $4.99 in the Apple App Store.


Troy Benedict

 


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