I am pleased that you can use all the characters over and over again because to spell out my son’s full name, we need multiples of some letters, and this is difficult with the original toy. My son, 2.5 years, really enjoys spreading out the different pieces on the board as we work on phonics and has taken my lead, now choosing “m’s” for mom and “d’s”  for dad, telling me he is spelling these words.

It is nice that there are apps like this for parents who prefer their kids to play with traditional, battery-free toys while still embracing the new technology of the iPad. Plus, there are no pieces to lose or pick up off the floor!

Three “monster worlds” are available; Alien Monster (my favorite), Classic Monster, and Volcano. Alien Monster contains adorable sea-like alien monsters with a chime tool that shoots alien eyeballs from the craters of a planet, a decidedly cosmic keyboard sound, and monsters ranging from an anemone-shaped harpsichord of creatures to a cyclopean squid. Classic Monsters is a veritable graveyard of horror-show creatures, with a Thriller-inspired soundtrack, and a skeleton, vampire, mummy, zombie, and swamp creature. A piano keyboard consisting of spiders on a web, each with a different tone, lines the sidebar. The Volcano world pairs fiery sounds with a two-toned Volcano that sings the word “Volcano” at different pitches. More worlds are planned.

My 4-year old had a ball with it and got his 2-year old sister up and dancing to his musical stylings.

Did I mention that I love this app?

My son (2.5 years old) really loves to paint using this app. He will scream, “I made this for you … I made this for you,” every time the color changes, watching as his work takes on a life of its own. He loves to shake my iPhone, saving a copy of the current screen to the camera roll. The sound of a shutter clicking and the feel of vibrations are very satisfying to him, leaving me having to delete hundreds of photos from my camera roll.

I think this app would be a hit with anyone creative. Adults will appreciate the multitude of options there are to control every aspect of how their designs are created. Kids will simply love the ease of use and the beauty that they can create at the flick of a finger.

My son is not a “keep inside the lines” kind of kid, but at 2.5 years, his fine motor skills are still being developed, and sometimes his fingers don’t do what he wants them to do, so for now he mainly chooses the “paint bucket” setting to color in the animals. I do wish there was an “erase” button because sometimes my son will ask me to remove a mistake if he switches over to “paint brush” mode. When I am not able to, he can get frustrated and lose interest. I do like that both the “paint brush” and “paint bucket” features are available, as well as a blank page for him to draw on.

In Chain Reaction, the player taps on small squares to initiate a “chain reaction” which looks like a series of small bubbles. Each chain reaction garners points, Timed and free play modes are available.

In Star Chaser, squares are moved around a grid by taping the screen. The object is to collide with stars, garnering points, while avoiding red circles, which end the game. Options include Free Play, Timed mode in which a clock is continuously counts down to zero and is restored through gathering stars, and Challenge mode which challenges the user to obtain a specific amount of points. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

In Orb Assault, the square is moved along the screen by tapping at the location where you want it to go. Four color options are available at the bottom of the screen; the user chooses a color for the square, and then must collide with the corresponding circles of the same color while avoiding circles of a different color. Three difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard) are available.

Eight electronic songs options are available.

I found the games to be very challenging and not seem terribly responsive to my taps. My 4-year old got the hang of it much faster than I did (so what else is new?). The graphics are reminiscent of the 1980’s Atari, but this is a solid game with enough depth to engage and maintain interest.

Like Flick Fishing, Doodle Fishing engages the cast with a “flick” of the phone and a flick back to “set the hook” when a fish bites. The reel-in is a bit flimsier; instead of dialing a rotary spool, the user simply slides a bar across the bottom to control reeling speed.

The game includes an map which the player navigates around by boat, which is controlled by a small steering wheel and throttle. When a location is selected, the player taps the screen to initiate the fishing expedition.

The grapics are consistent with the other “Doodle” games; (Doodle Jump, etc.), the graphics are a pleasing palette of bright colors and hand-drawn cartoon characters.

I don’t think think Doodle Fishing exceeds Flick Fishing in quality, but it’s a pretty fun little game in its own right; further development of the map portion of the game has the potential to improve it and add a new dimension of play.

This all is a great concept, but achieving good results is very difficult in practice. Pictures must have exactly the same lighting and scale to merge effectively. Getting kids to sit still long enough for an unblurred front face shot was more challenging than I had imagined.

Pretty fun, with the caveats mentioned above, I recommend.

The tune is not the same as the well-known bone song, and I found myself wishing the skeleton would sing the song rather than just printing the lyrics at the bottom. My 4-year old son found it amusing for a very short time. Some planned updates include themed theater sets and holiday outfits, the ability to record your own dance loops and share them, and tickling Mr. Bones, the skeleton.

Despite being cute and funny the app is very limited; not yet worth the money.

The WeeMee iPhone app is NOT an online companion to the social networking site; it is simply an avatar creator. The avatars can be assigned to contacts, saved, and shared on Facebook and Twitter. The avatars bear a resemblance in size and proportion to South Park figures. Users can start from scratch or can edit pre-fabbed WeeMee’s, tweaking hair, skin color, face shape, eye color, hair style, facial hair, eyeglasses, hatwear, clothing,food, hobby, and environment.

As a mom of a 2 and 4 year old, I downloaded this not realizing it was based on a teenage social networking site. Once I delved into the WeeMee virtual world, I became filled with dread for the dawn of the teen years. The iPhone app itself, however, since it is unconnected to the virtual world, is actually rather innocuous and entertaining. My 4 year son and I had fun creating and saving avatars and trying to fashion them after people we know. A word of caution: there are some in-app purchase opportunities to clothe your avatar in the latest trends, so beware your password security with the kids.

I did not know if my 2.5 year old son’s attention would hold, but he really enjoys this app.  After taking a moment to show him how everything works, he took over designing his own beads and the stringing of his bracelet. “Mom, I’m good as this,” my son said, smiling.  It’s really fun to see what shapes, colors, and designs he likes to choose, and he enjoys the sound effects and sparkles that play when your bracelet is done. There is also a button to tap to add more “fairy dust,” and he taps this button often, saying “it’s pretty.” I would recommend this app to any child who is into crafts but also to crafty adults.