We love Trunki products and purchased quite a few of them for our trip to America. We also have a little boy who loves his iPad, so when Trunki asked for people to review their new app we were happy to take part.
The app follows on from the PaddlePak animated TV advert and is aged at children 3-6 years of age. It is free to download from the App Store and can easily be found by searching for ‘trunki’ or ‘paddlepak’. I did have to update the operating system on our ipad for this app to download but that was a simple process that took about twenty minutes.
Whenever I download a new app for Ethan I always leave it for him to discover and he quickly found the new addition on the iPad.
The first thing I noticed about the app were it’s lovely colours. They are nice a vibrant just like the Trunki product range. None of the buttons on the app direct you back to the app store for more downloads at an extra cost which is a bonus for us as we do get tantrums when ‘free’ apps want money from you, and Ethan doesn’t understand why the button he is pressing isn’t doing anything. Thank goodness for passwords. There is a button that directs you to the Trunki shop website but this button didn’t cause us any problems.
When you start to play the game you can choose from nine lovely PaddlePak’s to control. Ethan quite likes Jaws the shark, my favourites are Inky the jellyfish and Pinch the crab.
With each character there are five levels and you collect items that you would need for a trip to the beach.
With each level you have to collect more items 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50. Your PaddlePak friend is easy to control you simply touch the screen with your finger to make them swim up, and remove it when you want them to swim back down.
At first I thought you would have to avoid the items not required for that level but the PaddlePak is quite happy to gobble up all of the items as he swims. If you happen to bump into any rocks your PaddlePak spits out some of the unwanted items so it doesn’t affect your score.
With each completed level you are awarded a sticker to add to your sticker book.
If you complete all of the levels with every PaddlePak character there is a lovely reset button which means you can start the game all over again. There is also a button that allows you to switch off the music if required, very handy if the game had been played for a few hours!
Ethan’s Verdict: Ethan is quite happy to play this and it is his favourite app to choose at the moment. He isn’t that accurate at collecting the required, but he happily makes his way through all the levels in his own time. I’m sure it will keep him entertained for a while yet.
This seems like a great little app – Ethan looks like he’s getting stuck in there and enjoying himself! Hours of fun 🙂
He does love his iPad, I say his it is ours but we never get a look in!