If you’ve got an iOS device in your technology arsenal and a below-waist-high child in your care, you likely own a Toca Boca game. Or two. Or three. They are one of thee premier developers of apps for kids.
We’ve got them all, and a dedicated Toca folder on our iPhones and iPad to boot, and I only began to get them for free and in advance a few months ago. Yeah, we are certifiably smitten with many of their offerings and while the newish Toca Home didn’t pop with us, Toca Train pulls into our home station with considerable fanfare.
The idea is a simple one, but par for their course, the execution and graphic presentation is above top-notch. In the case of Toca Train, your child is at the controls of a passenger & cargo train traversing the woodsy 3D countryside of an undeniably (although unnamed) Scandinavian country. Pick up a variety of curious-looking passengers, decide who’ll exit at other stations, then pick up and deposit cargo ranging from crates of fish to a single giant pumpkin. While chugging along, choose an scrollable panoramic overhead view or one from the conductor’s seat. There you can check the map, toot the horn, and take a sip of tea. That is about it, but you know what, it is so beautiful to look at that even with just a handful of stops and choices to make once there, Toca Train is a delight for kids ages 2-5. And for kids in that wheelhouse already with a train fetish — giving them the gift of the Toca Train app is going to be like Christmas morning after a plate of sugar cookies and a 1/2 gallon of chocolate milk.
You could argue, as an adult or as a child with minimal attention span, that Toca Train (and most other Toca Boca apps) will get boring after a short while. But I’ll argue, offering up my girls ages 5 & 8 as exhibit A, that the fun with this kind of thing is often in the repetition, with the slightest of alterations in the sequences serving to keep it all fresh and keep youngsters coming back for another ride.
Download Toca Train from the iTunes App Store now for $1.99.
*OWTK received a free download of Toca Train for review consideration. The opinions above are honest and unbiased, as always.
