Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa [DaddyApps]
Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa is a rare educational app for the iPad that lives up to the hype. Here is our DaddyApps review.I received a promo code for this app a few months ago and was waiting to review it until I could explore the app myself. Then I noticed something — my pre-school age son, Thing 2, was way ahead of me. Not only was he making his way through the app with ease, he seemed to be enjoying it and actually learning something. I asked him about various animals, he knew what they were. He was absorbed by Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa, but not in a distracting, jittery, video-game way. For Thing 2, playing Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa was a fairly calm experience, which I appreciated even more than than the fact it appears to be genuinely educational. He was interested, intrigued, entertained, engaged — these are all good things.
Aesthetically, the app looks fantastic on the iPad screen. And while it is engaging, it’s not loud, which I appreciated. A lot.
The game itself appears to be a fairly basic poke around and explore a place, in this case Africa, with two cute characters. Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa is for the iPad, suggested for ages 4-9, and costs $4.99. I highly recommend you check it out.
Here is the full description from the press release, a gallery of screenshots, and a YouTube video.
In Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa, best suited for ages 4-9, you embark on an amazing African journey with Ansel and Clair, and explore three stunning interactive locales: the Nile Valley, Sahara Desert and the Serengeti Plains. In each place there are animals, plants, places and landmarks to explore.
Your friendly travel companions are Ansel, an intergalactic travel photographer from the planet Virtoos, and a knowledgeable Virtoosian robot named Clair. Both of these original animated characters were specially designed for the touch screen. Together, Ansel and Clair are on a mission to take photographs and document their journey so they can teach their fellow Virtoosians all about Africa.
But Ansel and Clair can’t do it alone, they need your help! In each locale take photographs of the things you’ve learned about and arrange them in a travel log to document their experience. That way, Ansel and Clair can share them with everyone when they return to Virtoos. And don’t forget to help Ansel along your journey by finding him food to eat when he is hungry, lighting a fire to keep him warm, or saving him when he is in trouble.
As you begin your journey and head into Africa, Ansel and Clair’s spaceship (named Marley Peterson) breaks apart, scattering parts across Africa. Once you land, you’ll have to find all the missing parts before Ansel and Clair can return home to Virtoos!
For more information, visit AnselAndClair.com, and also see this review from iPadCurriculum.com.
Ansel and Clair’s Adventures in Africa for iPad, $4.99, iTunes App Store
[...] immature children to navigate on their own. Plus a characters are lovable though being cloying. My kids found this honestly engaging and educational. Even we schooled a lot, given it’s not a continent that we know most [...]