Toddler iPhone App Review: Elmo's Monster Maker

Creator: Sesame Street
Price: $3.99
Pop Culture Mom Rating: 4.5 out of 5

I will be the first to admit, despite my daughter's Elmo obsession, I resisted purchasing this toddler iPhone app for a really long time. iTunes even recommended it to me several times before I finally broke down a couple weeks ago and purchased it.

The concept seemed incredibly stupid: help Elmo design monster friends. Seriously? How could that be remotely fun for a toddler? For one, her obsession is with Elmo, not other monsters. Additionally, designing a monster seems like too difficult (and boring) of a task for a toddler to perform. And for four dollars?? Thanks, but no thanks App Genius.

Well, I stand corrected. The game is easy enough for my 21-month old to play, and she absolutely loves it.

Here's how it works: Elmo asks you to click on a monster so you can create a new friend. And out parade a bunch of faceless monsters saying "Hello" in different cutesy monster voices. Your child clicks on a monster, and then the fun begins.

Elmo walks your child through creating a monster face by adding eyes, a nose, and (if desired). If your child randomly touches the iPhone screen anywhere, chances are s/he will end up choosing a set of eyes, a nose or a hat. Besides, let's face it, your toddler really doesn't care what the monster looks like in the end.

After the monster is created, your child can then take a picture of the monster with a randomly selected background, have the monster interact with Elmo, or watch the monster dance. Pop Culture Toddler loves all of the activities, but it appears her favorite is the dancing. There are three different styles of music with matching backgrounds, but her favorite is the country western-style music with the western background. When the music starts going, her little fists start pumping, and she starts getting down with the monster.

This toddler iPhone app has been a joy for my daughter, and I'm sorry I resisted it for so long. Better late than never, though, right?

Here's one of the pictures Pop Culture Toddler saved to my camera roll of one of her monsters:




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