Follow Mama Kangaroo in a journey across the Outback to saver her baby joey ‘roo! Easy to play and hard to put down, Run Roo Run will keep your kiddos (or you!) entertained for hours.
Price: FREE
Age: 4+
Some reading skills or parental guidance are needed to understand the storyline but the only gameplay skill required is tapping.
Pros:
– One-touch gaming – seriously, all you have to do is tap!
– Levels increase in difficulty but aren’t complicated at all
– Guidance provided for those who are slower to master the exact art of tapping
Cons:
– None – this app has all of the pre-requisites that constitute a full five stars: fun, easy, and FREE!
Throw a couple shrimps on the barbie, turn on Animal Planet for a Steve Irwin marathon, and settle in with your iPad to play Run Roo Run. Okay, so it’s not exactly a well-rounded Australian experience, but it’s a lot of fun and so easy a dingo could do it.
Mama ‘Roo is on a trek across the Down Under to find her baby joey captured in Perth and taken to a zoo in Sydney. For those who are unfamiliar with the geographical layout of the country the two cities are on opposite coasts and approximately 2400 miles apart. Mama needs to bounce, hop, and run her way through obstacles such as pointy rocks, turbulent bodies of water, and prickly pear cactuses (cactii?).
The game opens with a short wordless animation that informs the player of the plight of Mama ‘Roo, so reading skills really aren’t necessary. When the map pops up with the levels that need to be completed, younger players may initially need some help trying to navigate to the next level if they aren’t playing through or come back to play the game after closing the app. Besides that, I cannot stress how dextrously easy this game is to play.
One tap begins the running, one tap helps Mama jump, and two taps help her to maintain her airtime longer. Each jump is marked by an arrow that helped me figure out where I went wrong if I accidentally jumped on a cactus and the level started over again – a yellow arrow told me the jump was successful but a red arrow was a fail. While each level was timed there was no penalty for not finishing within a certain time frame; I was merely rewarded a gold, silver, or bronze star upon completion of the level.
As I moved through my journey the levels became more challenging and I also picked up new skills. Somewhere near Dundas Nature Reserve I learned how to use upward-facing fans to elevate my pouched pal over several sharp rocks in one jump. Just south of Maralinga I learned how to swing on ropes Tarzan-style, and 5 hours outside my final destination of Sydney I began utilizing canons to shoot my Mama ‘Roo across the level.
Because the levels are only one screen – meaning the scenery won’t change until you move to the next level – gameplay is uncomplicated and moves quickly, keeping young players engaged and curious. It’s also really addicting and it’s easy to want to keep charging through the journey and finding what surprise will come next. Potential for frustration is it a minimum because of the one-touch motion, and while the graphics may not win any art direction prizes for Most Detailed, the artwork is clean, bright, and streamlined.
Besides finding out that there’s a new ‘Mad Max’ movie in production, this is one of the coolest Autralian-themed ideas in a long time. It’s no surprise that Run Roo Run is quickly climbing the charts over at iTunes, seeing as how it’s from the developers at 5th Cell, the birthplace of the wildly popular Scribblenauts Remix. Fun, free, and easy – it’s everything that a family dinner at your local Outback doesn’t offer…
Please help support iPadKids by downloading the game via the App Store icon below!
