Dr. Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse

Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse – app review

Dr. Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse

Monkey and I are both fascinated by Turtles.  I was lucky enough to visit a Turtle Sanctuary in Sri Lanka many years ago and see the work being done there to secure the future of sea turtles.  Seeing Turtles at Sea Life Centres is always a highlight of any visit with Monkey.  When we were asked to review a newly launched app recently, I knew it would be an instant hit.  We’ve been having fun with Dr. Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse. We’ve been using the app on my iPhone, but there are also versions available on Android and Google play.

Dr. Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse

Dr. Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse introduces us to a baby turtle called Toto who lives in a treehouse – I found that a little strange, but it didn’t put Monkey off at all.  One thing to note – there are no play instructions.  But saying that, it’s fairly easy to navigate around the screens.  There is no language involved which makes it a globally playable app.

Meet Toto the Turtle! Toto has just hatched and now he needs a friend to play with and take of him! Will you help him? Toto lives in a treehouse all by himself and he needs someone to make him food, wash him and of course play with him! Will you help him and be his friend? Toto may be small, but he loves to play! Blow bubbles, play jump rope or with a tire swing, or even dance to music! There’s a nice kitchen where you can make sandwiches or even big ice cream cones! All that playing might make Toto tired, though, so make sure he gets plenty of sleep.

Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse

Monkey has loved having fun with Toto – making him sandwiches to eat, washing him and putting him to bed.  There are four areas of play – his bedroom, waterfall, playground and living area of the treehouse.  You navigate between screens by tapping the little treehouse symbol which appears at the top of each screen.

Toto shows you what he wants in thought bubbles.  You can put him to bed and drag his starfish toy into bed with him and then rock him to sleep in his cot.  Shut his curtains or play him music and watch him dance.  Having no instructions has meant Monkey has discovered lots of the functionality of this app by trial and error.  But that’s been half the fun of the Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse app.

Each time Toto has a thought it gives you an icon – for example – cake, meaning he is hungry.  Change locations and it’s time for lunch.  Monkey did find some area confusing and neither of us could work out how to make the water bottle give Toto a drink of water.

Monkey’s favourite part of the Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse app has been making sandwiches for Toto.  Picking items of food from a washing line to make up delicious combinations.

You can find out more about Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse on Facebook.

A positive for parents – no in app purchases are required, no third-party ads and there is no time limit to play.  By going into settings I was able to turn off the promotion ad for other apps as well as mute the background music (the music can be a bit annoying!).

It’s a great game to play whether play is for a couple of minutes or for longer periods. Something else that really attracted me to this particular app is that the makers, Tribeplay are helping to raise awareness of the plight of sea turtles.

TribePlay are working with the World Wildlife fund to support their ‘Adopt a Turtle’ scheme by purchasing turtle adoptions for Toto fans. The support helps fund their essential work to halt the drowning of marine turtles entangled

TribePlay are working with the World Wildlife fund to support their ‘Adopt a Turtle’ scheme by purchasing turtle adoptions for Toto fans. The support helps fund their essential work to halt the drowning of marine turtles entangled in fishing lines and nets.

We received a wonderful Turtle soft toy for Monkey and an adoption pack.  We are both rather excited about this.  You can find out more about this here.

The Dr Panda’s & Toto’s Treehouse costs £1.99 and has been available to download since 14th August.  On iTunes it suggests an age range for the app of 6-8 years.  This has surprised me to be frank.  Monkey is nearly 5 years old and can play this game easily.  I’m not sure the app will hold his attention by the age of 8.  For me I would say 4-6 is a more relevant age group.

Target live date: August 14, 2014 Base Price – $2.99/£1.99

disclaimer:  we were given free access to this app along with a Sea Turtle adoption package in exchange for an honest review

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