Cinderella – Nosy Crow animated picture book

Cinderella – Nosy Crow animated picture book Review

by on March 16, 2012

When it comes to interactive books, there are degrees of interactivity. For some, it means just a few animations and some simple games, but with Nosy Crow’s Cinderella, the bar has been set much higher, because you can actually explore the screen as well as helping Cinders through the story. If you have an iPad 2, by using the magic mirrors you can even appear in the game yourself.

Cinderella’s visuals are simply stunning; quirky hand drawn characters look both flat and 3D at the same time. As well as being able to move the background when you move the iPad, you can also pick up the characters and move them around the screen. You can either tap and hold to drag them around the screen, or simply tap them the once and flip them around. This may sound like a novelty, but in some cases, this ties in to some of the games that are available along the way, allowing you to move the characters to the next point in the story.

As great as it is being able to move the characters around the screen, it’s the backgrounds that are the real treat. As well as shifting when you move the iPad, they also extend beyond the boundaries of the screen, and can be explored by dragging your finger left, right, up or down. Here you can find hidden bonuses tucked away in the corners of the page, like extra animated characters, or moveable elements. For example, keep an eye out for the robin who is hidden on every page – tap on him and he will either help you out with your next task, or at least offer you witty advice on your current situation.

Unlike some interactive books, the games that are dotted throughout the book are not only delightful, but also develop the story. Whether it’s helping the ugly sisters get ready and taking their jewellery from one side of the room to the other, or finding hidden mice and the pumpkin in the vegetable patch to create Cinderella’s carriage, there’s a lot of fun to be had here. However, if you don’t fancy playing these games, you can still continue the story using the page-turner arrows at the bottom of the screen, but you’d be missing out.

At £5.49, Cinderella isn’t a cheap app, but for that price it offers a level of interactivity and depth unlike any other. With so many elements hidden within each page, you feel like every read will reveal something different. Even the speech phrases that the characters say when you tap them are slightly different each time, which makes each read a subtly fresh experience – something you need, considering the classic nature of the story. It can either be read to your child or they can read along with it, and this, along with the sheer depth of the interactivity, means that this is the kind of app that will last well beyond a single read, ending up a firm favourite for years to come.

Download this app: Cinderella – Nosy Crow animated picture book

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Review courtesy of Tap!