This only lasted for a few days before the hair got too tangled to retract anymore. Growing up, my older sister had a doll which, with the press of a lever, could grow or retract its multi-colored hair. Unlike Play-Doh, Toca Hair Salon requires no clean-up. Swiping left will allow you to adorn the character with accessories such as hats, glasses and hair bows. Swiping right with two fingers at the bottom of the screen will take you along the counter to tools that allow you to comb, color and wash the hair. At this point, you are free to swipe the character’s hair away or grow it back at will. Before you lies a set of shears, clippers, a comb, a razor and a mysterious bottle simply labeled “Grow”. There is no tutorial and the music has lapsed into silence. The character you chose ambles amiably on screen and waits. Next you are taken to a counter in what looks more like a living room than a hair salon. In a bold narrative twist, you play the owner of a rival Hair Salon, scheming to undercut the famous Toca Hair Salon across the street with your daring hairstyles. Select one you like and you are ready to start. Hit the Play button and you’re presented with six character portraits. Start it up and you are greeted by a friendly animated Toca Boca face (each of the apps has a unique animation), followed by a title screen, a catchy tune and a big Play button. Okay, now let’s look at Toca Hair Salon 2, perhaps the most popular Toca Boca app. But much like a ball can be used to play various games but is not a game in and of itself, Pokémon is not, by definition, a game. Is the goal then to catch every pokémon? To defeat your neighbor in PvP battle? To own a Shiny, Sassy, EV-trained Gardevoir? To complete the Nuzlocke Challenge? These are all perfectly valid objectives and can be considered extrinsically defined games. Pokémon is interesting in that it seems to present the victory condition of defeating the gym leaders, the Elite Four and your rival (whoops, spoiler alert), but the game (ummm, I mean, non-game) continues on after you do so. Since SimCity does not actually have a victory condition, Wright famously categorizes it not as a game, but instead as a Software Toy. For example, in Chess, the objective is to capture your opponent’s king and in Super Mario World, the objective is to defeat Bowser in the final castle. Got your answer? It’s a trick question, none of these are games! Before you send that scathing tweet, hear me out.Īccording to game design legend and SimCity creator Will Wright, games, by definition, have intrinsic objectives and victory conditions. Quick test: Which of these is not a game: SimCity, Minecraft or Pokémon? Take your time. This is a trend that I dislike (why can’t there be an educational game with mature themes?) but it’s hard to argue with Toca Boca’s economic success. “Educational games” have somehow become synonymous with games that are safe and wholesome and are where parents often look for content for their kids. Just ask Toca Boca CEO, Björn Jeffrey who points out that many apps in the education category of the app store are not necessarily educational. How can you say they are not educational? Well, it’s not me who says they aren’t educational. I know what you’re thinking: Toca Boca apps have been topping the iOS Education charts since 2012. Otherwise, let’s take a look at the “educational” and “game” qualities of these non-educational-games. If you are just interested in reading about the specific apps, feel free to scroll down to the "Not a Review" section. (North Berkeley to Millbrae takes just under an hour.) Seven and a half minutes with each app doesn’t sound like much, but they’re very light and I exhausted the content before even reaching Daly City (48 minutes in). I played with each of them on my new iPad Mini 3 while on the BART train to work. To understand the Toca Boca phenomenon, I purchased and installed eight of their apps for $2.99 each: Toca Hair Salon 2, Toca Kitchen 2, Toca Town, Toca Builders, Toca Boo, Toca Nature, Toca Train and Toca Kitchen. What are these apps, you ask? Why, they’re from Toca Boca, which just celebrated its 100 millionth download last Tuesday. I’m back from vacation and ready with something fresh for your faces! You may know me for writing about educational games, but today I am writing about some apps that are not educational.
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