Overview
Gigglebug is an app about raising the spirits of five animal friends: the Gigglebug, a moose, two owls, and a bear. The player accomplishes this mood change by tickling.
How to Play
Gigglebug starts by showing five animal friends excited to go to a party across the lake. But when the friends board the rickety boat to get to the party, they capsize the boat and end up in the lake. Their joyous mood is now replaced with gloom.
The narrator of this scene asks the player to help by giving each soggy animal a rub. When a child's finger touches an animal, it starts to squirm. The player sees red vapor come up off the character until they locate the animal's tickle spot. Touching the tickle spot turns the vapor into colored bubbles as the squirming animal delightfully starts to giggle. Kids bring the animal out of the dumps by finding and rubbing them in their tickle spots. The tickle spots change, each producing different colored bubbles. Kids need to keep rubbing until they have found three tickle spots that produce enough bubbles to fill three colored balloons.
Kids get to tickle the Gigglebug, a bear, a moose, and two owls. When everyone is once again happy, the troupe steps back into the boat and safely rows across the lake to attend the party. The Gigglebug app ends with an interactive band scene where the player can turn on and off different instruments.
Shared Laughter
Gigglebug is irresistibly funny. By finding each animal's tickle spot and seeing them belly-laugh under your administrations, it is almost impossible not to join in on the giggling. The app shows kids the impact of shared laughter and positive thinking.
Mimicking the way people have unique tickle spots, these animals also have tickle spots that constantly change. By challenging kids to find the changing location of each animal's tickle spot, Gigglebug turns the cheering up into an interactive game where persistence pays off.
The illustrations, painted in delicate pastels, contribute to this app's gentle and positive vibe. Kids will love discovering that each character has its own unique kind of laughter.
Best For
Gigglebug is the perfect app to pull out when your child is feeling tired or gloomy. It's actually lots of fun to play with others, since it allows multi-touch. And shared laughter with real people is even better than shared laughter with cute animated animals!
This Gigglebug app review was written by Jinny Gudmundsen.
All tech products are judged on a five star scale by looking at the following factors: fun, education, ease of use, value, and technical.
