Ever wondered what a moose would look like when spliced together with a pig and a bear? No? Well, you'll have fun with today's app pick anyway. Called Herd Absurd, this cute app by Australian indie studio Tinybright lets you create funky animal hybrids that are sure to induce giggles from the whole family.
In Herd Absurd, you can mix and match different body parts to create unique animal matches.
Let's Slide
Herd Absurd is a silly slider puzzle game that lets juniors mix and match different body parts to create a known animal or something else altogether. If you are familiar with the story selection screen in Animal SnApp: Farm, this is just like that, but bigger and more hilarious.
After pressing the big, unmistakable play button, the app greets you with a colorful screen that contains three stacked blocks. The top block contains the head (or feet, depending on the animal), the middle depicts the abdomen and the bottom has the feet (or head -- again, depending on the animal). As you may have expected, each body part can be swapped for another by simply swiping on the blocks. There are enough parts to create over 2,700 possible combinations.
Designed to be a fun and creative playground, Herd Absurd encourages you to experiment with how different animal combinations can look and sound. While swiping away, you can tap on each body part to reveal (often) comical animations and accompanying sound effects.
It is worth mentioning that the app has no rules and no penalty system, so you are free to create all sorts of creatures as you wish. However, the app does provide reward stickers if you can match the animals that it assigns you with. To reveal the animal that you have to make, simply tap on the pullstring at the top of the screen.
Included are enough body parts to create 15 matching animals or 2,700 other possible hybrids.
Parents Need to Know
Herd Absurd is a wonderfully imaginative app that encourages juniors to explore and imagine by creating funny animal hybrids. The extremely simple gameplay and cheerful theme make it appropriate for use with juniors aged 2+.
I glad to report that the app is very safe for juniors -- it has no ads and no in-app purchases. There is an option to exit the app to download free wallpapers from the developers' site but it is safeguarded from tiny hands by enforcing a double tap to activate the menu.
While the app encourages free play, you can also earn stickers if you match animals that are randomly assigned to you.
Things I Like
Remember what I said about balancing between learning and playing? Well, Herd Absurd is a really great example of an entertainment app for juniors. Despite using the overly done animal theme, the app manages to provide a fresh and fun experience.
First of all, the idea for the game is really simple but addictive. It was clever for the developers to appeal to children's love for (often) absurd things. Even as an adult, I found myself grinning from ear to ear whenever I swiped through the available body parts and stumbled on a curious combination.
The overall look of the app is also really charming. I prefer children's apps to have simple and colorful graphics so I'm really happy to find them implemented in the app. The animations and sounds are really cute and I seriously tapped on all parts of each animal to make sure that I didn't miss any one. My personal favorite is the fly with the disco ball eyes, but I'm pretty sure the other animals will amuse your little ones as well.
Finally, I like the app always seems to provide you with a rewarding experience whatever approach you use. You can, for example, create the weirdest combo ever and the app will not penalize you for letting your imagination run wild. On the other hand, there is also an exercise to match shapes and colors. You don't have to follow it but if you do, you will be rewarded nicely.
In Herd Absurd, let your imaginations run wild.
Conclusion
Herd Absurd is a fantastic and humorous app that would send juniors (and adults alike) into fits of laughter. I highly recommend it for parents who are looking for apps to encourage creativity in their juniors.