Dr. Seuss Band - Oceanhouse Media

Title: Dr. Seuss Band

Developer:  Oceanhouse Media

Compatibility: iPad / iPhone / iPod touch // iOS 3.2

Size: 42.9 MB

Description:   If this were 5 years ago, we could call this "Baby's First Rock Band" or "Baby's First Tap Tap [Whatever]" and lots of people would recognize the reference to the games that gave players points for tapping correct "notes" in time with the song.

This app is one of the many Seussian apps from Oceanhouse but doesn't really use the famous Seuss words or drawings (the songs are totally made up to Seuss' book titles).  The user gets to customize wonderfully goofy instruments (think trumpets with all sorts of crazy bagpipe-like attachments) and, once set, taps notes that  correlate to a C major scale in time with the lighted pulses coming down from the top of the screen.

You can change the difficulty level -- the harder the difficulty, the more notes you need to tap.  You can select a number of different songs, but some instruments and some songs are locked -- you need to achieve a high-enough score to unlock them (or you can just be lazy and pay via an in-app purchase).

While the app offers free play, we've never bothered to try it -- aside from the goofy sound and bright colors, there's no advantage to this over, say, Garageband (which we also have installed).  Also, until I was prepping this review I hadn't realized that you could also play this on an iPhone or iPod touch.  I have no idea why you'd ever want to do that on such a (comparatively) tiny screen.

As musical games go, this is reasonably diverting.  Once mastered, it probably won't hold much allure, but I think it could take your kids a long time to do that...

Age Range: 2 through 7

Price: $0.99 (plus in-app purchases -- $7.99 unlocks everything)

Link: iTunes

Animal Alphabet Band - Mibblio / Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Title: Animal Alphabet Band

Developer:  Mibblio / Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 5.1

Size: 82.2 MB

Description:   One of these days I swear I'll review the main Mibblio app, but they keep releasing stand-alone versions of their "Mibblets," and I get distracted by the shiny new object.  This one features "Animal Alphabet" from Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke's second album Pleased To Meet You.  If your family's seen the fun video, this app will seem very familiar.  It'll also seem very familiar if you've used other Mibblio apps -- the song plays while the user can add or remove different tracks (e.g., guitar, percussion, keyboards) from the recorded song while simultaneously being able to play melody and stringed/guitar instruments in harmonically compatible keys, not to mention percussion.  It basically lets kids (and adults) play along in ways that allow some creativity but also help make whatever comes out sonically sound decently.  (You can also pinch out to expand it to full screen if you just want to read and sing along.)

In addition, the songs are accompanied by illustrations that feature lyrics to those songs.  The result is a musical picture book over which the user has some small control.  Since Wilde is a trained illustrator of his own books, album art, and videos, naturally his illustrations (based on the video) are present here as well.  Wilde does a good job of conveying personality to the variety of animals with a minimum of adornment.

The price for the app, $0.99, is pretty cheap, the same prices as if you'd buy it through the main Mibblio app.  It's well-done, of course, and if you have ever wanted to try a Mibblio app (or if you're a KWMC fan), this is certainly a worthwhile one to try.

Limited-time note: The song (not the app) is available for a limited time here.

Age Range: 3 through 6

Price: $0.99

Link: iTunes

Note: I was provided a copy of this app (via the main Mibblio app) for possible review.

Happy Hanukkah - Mibblio / Matisyahu

Title: Happy Hanukkah

Developer:  Mibblio / Matisyahu

Compatibility: iPad // iOS 5.1

Size: 78.9 MB

Description:  Mibblio is back with another seasonally appropriate app, this time celebrating Hanukkah with reggae-rapper Matisyahu.  Matisyahu released "Happy Hanukkah" as a single in 2012, and while it's not a kids' song per se, it's certainly family-friendly.  As with their stand-alone app for "Miss Elephant's Gerald," the app takes the song and applies to it Mibblio's "mibblet" architecture, which allows the user to select the individual tracks (e.g., drums, keyboards) they want to listen to from the song and play music and chords (as well as percussion) in chromatically harmonious ways.

As with a lot of the Mibblio mibblets, the quality of the illustrations are key to whether the overall effect is positive, and Hilli Kushnir's artwork is tremendous in this regard, providing a series of joyful tableux (e.g., flying dreidels, twinkling candles, a playful kitten representing the lion of Judah) to accompany the celebratory text.

One note for Mibblio fans -- unlike the "Miss Elephant's Gerald" app, this is not available in the main Mibblio app.  So at $2.99, some families may not want to spend that amount for an app whose playability is limited to maybe 2 or 3 weeks a year.  But families celebrating Hankkuah (or getting ready to celebrate it) will find this fun to play along with.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $2.99

Link: iTunes

Note: I was provided a copy of this app for possible review.

Miss Elephant's Gerald - Mibblio / The Pop Ups

Title: Miss Elephant's Gerald 

Developer:  Mibblio / The Pop Ups

Compatibility: iPad / iOS 5.1

Size: 93.5 MB

Description:  The Brooklyn-based band The Pop Ups enter the app world with an app that lets kids play along with the slightly jazzy pop tune (which I've previously noted here).  The best part of this particular app, besides the Pop Ups' song, are the illustrations by Liz Starin. They are perfect for the song.  The app has a decent replay value.  As with the "mibblets" produced by Mibblio as part of its primary app (in fact, this song is available there, too, for $0.99), it allows the user to play along on various instruments whose notes adjust depending on the chords being used. This allows your kid (or, well, you) to always be in tune.  The user can also mute or un-mute specific tracks to create their own arrangement.  Pop Ups fans will be happy, and this is one of the better implementations of the "play along" genre.

Age Range: 3 through 7

Price: $1.99

Link: iTunes 

Note: I was provided a copy of this app for possible review.