When we were sent through a code to test out a new kids' app last week, it was absolutely perfect timing. I was stuck in bed with the flu and this kept the kids entertained for hours !
This was the first time we'd come across Dr Panda but he actually stars in a wide range of apps, including Airport, Supermarket, Bus Driver and Beauty Salon. There is also a previous restaurant game too.
In this app, customers come to your pierside restaurant in pairs and you create a dish for them using the ingredients of your choice. There are 20 different ingredients available, including fish, kiwifruit, eggs, peppers and tomatoes, so there are lots of different combinations available.
You can combine flavours and seasonings to make a delicious dish or, if you're feeling cheeky, go out of your way to make it disgusting. If you make it too spicy, your customers will breathe fire, much to the Madhouse Mini-testers' delight ! You need to watch your customers for reactions to see what they think of your food and how you can adapt it to their tastes, so it's a great way of learning about facial experessions with young players, as well as using your memory to remember which ingredients they did and didn't like.
It's also a great introduction to basic kitchen techniques. Kids learn basic recipes such as throwing together a plate of pasta or making a pizza, and they get to try out various techniques such as grating, chopping, baking, boiling and frying.
It's a gentle, non-competitive game with no scoring or time limits to worry about. The Madhouse Mini-testers were confused by this to begin with, because there are no levels to work through or targets to attain. There are dozens of different reactions to discover though so they love trying out different combinations of ingredients and kitchen tools to see what they can come up with and keep coming back to the app.
There are absolutely no third party ads or in-game purchases, which is great, but I would like to see some updates with further ingredients and recipes at some point to keep it fresh.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £1.99
for more information : https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/dr.-panda-restaurant-2/id796333129?mt=8
Disclosure : We received a code for the app, in order to write an honest review.
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that looks really fun, kids always love cooking games.
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