Sprinkle Junior
Sprinkle Junior gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Sprinkle Junior comes from the Sprinkle family of games and is specifically designed for small children. It's not entirely clear from the app itself, but the back-story is that some tourists unknowingly left behind little firebomb meteors as their rocket ship passed by Titan, one of Saturn's moons. The goal in this junior version remains the same: Spray water to put out the fires. Unlike the versions for older kids and grownups however, there is no limit to how much water kids can use, all levels are unlocked from the start, there are no puzzles to solve, and there's no countdown timer. Through 30 levels, kids simply spray water to put out fires.What kids can learn
Water play is a classic source of endless fun for most kids. This digital version seems as realistic as digital water can be, so kids should enjoy spraying water and watching it splash around.
Watching how water behaves as it splashes around obstacles lets kids observe water physics without wasting the real stuff. Also, in some levels kids must use a little logic to get the water to the fires.
There are no instructions and no help options. A short animated video gives an obscure introduction to the overall premise. Levels are unlocked from the start, so there's no sense of progression.
What's it about?
In each of 30 levels of SPRINKLE JUNIOR, kids find a hose, a landscape, some silly alien beings, and a series of small fires. Kids must move the hose up and down to aim enough water at the fires to snuff them out. Once all fires are out, kids pass the level. Sometimes kids also have to manipulate some objects in the scene to pass the level, for example, put out fires on four little blocks and then feed them to a monster-looking alien. All levels are always unlocked and kids have unlimited water and time, but there are no instructions or hints.
Is it any good?
Sprinkle Junior is an accessible, safe, and straightforward game; it's only shortcoming is that it doesn't strike the right balance between simplicity and challenge. Kids can certainly have fun spraying water around, feeding alien monsters, and manipulating silly objects in this extra terrestrial environment, but there are only a few instances where water physics make a difference or they really need to figure things out, like when kids have to put vegetables in a pot before taking it off the fire. Also, kids are free to choose whatever level they want at whatever time, which allows for great flexibility, but also eliminates the sense of achievement or progress kids get from passing levels. On the other hand, with no instruction or hints, some kids might get stuck on certain levels and not know to drag and move items out of the way. Most kids will figure things out and have a great time, but a a little more depth and a few more options would make this app amazing.
Families can talk about...
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Families can talk about the back-story, if they can figure it out. What effect did these tourists have on the inhabitants of Titan? Are there be similar situations in real life?
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Talk about water physics. What makes water behave the way it does? How does the game represent the power of water? Build some real-life waterways with tubes, tunnels, straws, etc., and watch what happens.
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Work together on setting time limits for using screens. Talk about how easy it is to get drawn in and spend a lot of time playing games like this.
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Discuss fire safety. What happens when something that is on fire touches something else? What kinds of things catch on fire? What should we do if there's a fire?
App details
| Devices: | iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android |
| Price: | $1.99 |
| Pricing structure: | Paid |
| Release date: | November 12, 2013 |
| Category: | Family Games |
| Size: | 16.90 MB |
| Publisher: | Mediocre AB |
| Version: | 1.1.3 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 4.3 or later; Android 2.3 and up |
