I am excited to introduce readers to a new maze app by GiggleUp, Preschool Maze 123. As the name may imply, is a delightful maze app for preschool children – a lovely companion app to their other lovely maze app, Toddler Maze 123.

This app opens up to a boy and girl characters who need help finding their way down a yellow road lined with different maze choices. To select, drag these characters along the path to an area of interest, or just tap to select.

Children will notice the very nice level of difficulty these mazes have to offer, with some very novel elements sometimes added, such as needing to first follow the maze to a baby penguin that one must collect to continue on to the end of this penguin-themed maze, gather up a key before opening the treasure chest at the end of a pirate-themed activity or a super cute photo safari as one needs to maneuver one’s way to cameras to take animal photos before completing this cute section.

Also unique are the mazes themselves, as one views these mazes from a bird’s eye view as players drag a new character who may need to follow the dotted lines of a pirate maze, styled like a treasure map, a maze up in the sky as one navigates between billowy clouds or even through the glass maze of test tubes in a chemistry-themed maze, complete with colors to collect and mix before ending this mini-game.

Each section is bright and colorful, containing different yet always cheerful music to accompany each app.

I genuinely enjoyed seeing what fun details each new theme would contain as well as the surprise hot spots found along the way, adding richness to the experience but never to the point of distraction.

I think the difficulty level of these mazes is spot on for preschool children, possibly even a little older into kindergarten or even the early grade school years as I enjoyed them myself.

These mazes do get progressively harder as one follows the path discovering new characters who star in each of these themes, but the music and warm, friendly style of this app create a calm, relaxed tone that let children work on these mazes at their own pace without any stresses involving scores or best times to beat.

Likewise, I appreciate that although a star is given to show that one has completed the area, a better time would not gain the two or three stars often found in other apps, nor are sticker prizes given. I sometimes feel dubious about needing to constantly reward children for finishing a game, as the app itself should be engaging enough that children will want to continue based on the quality of the game itself. Such is the case here.

I do also very much enjoy the ending of this app as all the characters met along the way sit together for a picnic – a scene that is charming to be sure and a very nice reward for completing this application.

Mazes are great for hand and eye coordination, problem solving and fine motor skills. This is a maze app that will delight children and their parents, content rich and lovingly styled and thoughtfully designed.

I have been a huge fan of GiggleUp apps for quite some time. They are uniformly of a very high quality as well as brightly colored with quite whimsical details. Do check out their prolific list of apps on iTunes. I am eager to see what new apps they develop next.

Art, By Age Range, By App Feature, Just For Fun, Preschool, Primary School, Puzzle, Reviews