Animals Coloring Book
Developer: Star Coloring
Available for PC and Mac
Single Player
Not rated by ESRB, but safe for kids of all ages
Pros: mess free painting fun
Cons: music may put you to sleep The Animals Coloring Book is a water paint simulator. It has all the fun of painting without the mess and destruction of rain forest trees. The demo offers two pages and the full version of the game has twenty five pages to paint. You can erase and reuse the pages as much as you like. All this mess free fun can be yours for $19.95 or less. They often have a sale of some sort, currently there’s a 30% off holiday sale. This can be a great tool to teach your children about animals, colors and how to make various colors by combing them. Your child can paint pictures of fish, elephants, donkeys, turtles, dragon flies, mice, camels, cows, ants, and more. There’s plenty of variety here. Graphically this game is very pleasing. The pictures are 3D looking which offers a unique perspective and adds realism. The different angles offer more spaces to paint. The interface is really easy to use and my kids can operate the game without needing my assistance. In fact, they often launch the game and play it on their own. When it comes to painting, all you do is click on the color and then click on the paper. There are nine colors that you can blend on the palate to make even more colors. There’s also a pitcher of water to virtually clean your brush. The sound effects are pleasant and add a nice touch. I’m not a fan of the music, it’s cute but more variety would be nice. It pretty much reminds me of wind up mobile music to put a baby to sleep. My kids haven’t fallen asleep while playing this game. There is an option to disable the sound effects or music. From an appropriateness standpoint there is absolutely nothing to worry about and this game is safe for kids of all ages to enjoy. This is a pretty neat idea for a kid’s game; it’s both fun and educational. They have other themes for the coloring books including Christmas, Fruits and Vehicles. If you want to buy the game you have to go through the website http://www.starcoloring.com . There is a demo available and if you buy it, they offer a fourteen day money back guarantee. My kids enjoy the game and I’m sure other computer savvy toddlers out there will like it too.

Game Play: 15/20
Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Stability: 5/5
Interface: 5/5
Game Score: 38/50
Appropriateness: 50/50