AD – The gremlin has a fascination with Shopkins. She has a few of the sets and recently wanted to buy one of her friends a Shopkins set for her birthday. I think they are one of those addictive toys that kids just love, as they are very imaginative and there is a bit of a thrill with collecting them. I’ll be honest and say the gremlin doesn’t play many apps on the tablet, apart from her reading game which she does for school but when I mentioned a brand new Happy Places Shopkins app she would be able to play on, she was really keen!
More About the Happy Places Shopkins App
Moose Enterprises and Kuato Studios are proud to announce the arrival of the first official game for the massively successful Shopkins Happy Places brand. This game is now available to download worldwide from the Apple App store and is free of charge!
This is one of the fab games by award winning Kuato Studios all of which can be found on the App Store.
The game is designed for ages 5-8 (UK Key Stage 1/US Pre-Kindergarten/Grade 2) and allows young children to engage in creative, habitat-building and collection play whilst developing early storytelling skills.
The story is set in a fun fictional place called Happyville and Shopkins fans can collect cute Petkins and decorate their own Happy Places, all while completing House Goals with the help of their favourite Lil’ Shoppies. It will allow kids to really create their own stories, be creative and build their own homes.
You can see a short video here:
Playing Happy Days
The game begins as Jessicake, a Lil’ Shoppie arrives in Happyville on her moving in day! Then your little ones can start to decorate the house with some very cute Petkins available. Petkins are furniture or things for the house. I think my gremlin liked the make up and food!
As Jessicake does this she earns more Petkins, Happy Places and Lil’ Shoppies. The children get prompted, depending on the Lil’ Shoppie’s personality. I noticed Jessicake seemed very sleepy and often wanted a snooze in the bed and she was thirsty sometimes too. You move the Petkins around to make her happy. After doing this 25 times you get a parcel with three new Petkins.
You can also purchase in-app purchases for £1.99, which isn’t too bad, as the App itself is free! This helps you to get collectable items and even a mystery box, giving you 5 items. There are no duplicates which is good too. I also liked that there was a parental control, so your little ones can’t max out the credit card!!
Your Shopkins fan can also take part in #HouseGoal challenges which encourage more complex patterns based around simple story settings, such as birthday parties, or cooking contests.
It’s also pretty cool as the TalesMaker technology records key moments from the play session and then presents these to the child as a record of their day. Young storyteller’s can explore sequencing images and applying text to create simple narrative structures, before saving their story creations to share with family and friends.
What Did We Think?
I did think the gremlin was still a little young for this game. She isn’t yet 5. She played on it for a little while with her Nanny but didn’t play for long. It may also be that she doesn’t really play on Apps on the tablet that often and perhaps the draw to play for longer periods of time will come. However, despite this she was drawn to the Shopkins aspect, as she does like them.
She was also quite keen to see what the game had to offer and enjoyed watching the beginning story unfold. She enjoyed dragging the Petkins around and watching to see what Jessicake wanted and helping her out. She also enjoyed it when the truck appeared delivering some Petkins and was keen to see what she had and if it was rare!
I liked that there was a parental control. Not only is there the control to ensure your little ones can’t spend a fortune on in-app purchases, you can also control how long they play for; 10, 20, 30 or unlimited and there is noise control!
Overall I think the App is good fun and for those kids who enjoy building up a house and using their imagination, its perfect. I like the parental controls, the fact that you have a choice about buying extras and can play without.
I also think for Shopkins fans it will be an amazing thing to play alone and with friends. I think my eldest perhaps needed to hit the 5 mark and have a little more time with me playing with her together.
You can download the App for yourself on iOS right here.
Disclosure – we were compensated for writing an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
