One of the many perks of having kids is being able to say “I watched that when I was a kid!” and listening to them groan and tell you that’s the four hundredth time you’ve said that since the beginning of the most recent episode of My Little Pony. Although the ponies and Care Bears and Ninja Turtles look a little (okay, a lot) different from what you remember watching, the true classics stick around for generations.
One of my personal favorites growing up was Rocky and His Friends starring moose & squirrel duo Rocky and Bullwinkle, which was a show that my own parents subjected me to when I was a kid. It became something I just had to watch, and my two favorite characters were Mr. Peabody and Sherman – the dog dad who adopted an orphan kid. I was pretty excite to see a trailer for the updated movie version, and despite the failed Rocky and Bullwinkle movie in 2000 I have high hopes for the upcoming movie aptly named Mr. Peabody and Sherman.
Because it’s free, and because I’m way too excited about a kids’ movie, I downloaded the companion app to play myself let my kids play. Aptly enough the game follows a trivia format, showcasing Mr. Peabody’s endless knowledge of everything. Players travel in the WABAC time machine through 10 different time periods to answer questions in either challenge or trivia modes. Questions cover topics like historical events, random facts, and even sports or music.
This game is best played with someone else, either online through the game center or taking turns with a single iPad. Content is family-friendly and while there are some voice narrations by Peabody and Sherman, the questions are read-only. That means that players who aren’t yet reading probably won’t be able to play independently. Some of the questions have some more mature themes -like death and violence – so the game is best for older school-aged kids and adults.
I have mixed feelings about the game. I love the characters and trivia games are in my wheelhouse, but there was so much going on that interrupted the game play continuity. Moving through the levels require fuel and the level seems to drop disproportionately and arbitrarily. More fuel costs real money at the bargain basement price of $0.99, and I mistakenly bought two fuel packages because there’s no real safeguard (like a warning prompt) for accidental IAPs. Downloading is free, but IAPs popped up everywhere; definitely change your iPad settings to disable purchases if you have a tap-happy kiddo.
If you set your iPad restrictions properly and you really REALLY like trivia, then this app is a fun find. I’m not sure that I’m going to keep it, I just can’t find the replayability and my ADD is way too bad to sit through 4 minutes of extra “stuff” just to answer a few questions.