Maya the Bee: Flower Party is a collection of mini games for children ages 2-5.

Popular children's character Maya The Bee has a new collection of interactive games for iOS. Though perhaps not as well-known in the U.S., the independent little bee is quite the character.]]>

AppCraver rated this app 4.5/5.

Maya the Bee: Flower Party is a collection of mini games for children ages 2-5.

Popular children's character Maya The Bee has a new collection of interactive games for iOS. Though perhaps not as well-known in the U.S., the independent little bee is quite the character. The original story from 1912 has been adapted all over the world for film, television, comics and even a German stamp. The iOS game title Maya The Bee: Flower Party features Maya and friends in a series of six mini games geared towards children ages 5 and under.

Flower Party opens with three panels of imaginative forest scenes. Children can swipe to move back and forth between the panels, then tap to choose a game to play. The app will naturally lead children through the games by instructing them to swipe and tap until each of the various games have been explored. 

Activities include: a memory matching game that expands to increase difficulty; a bubble-popping game that focuses on size, color and number recognition; puzzles to build hand-eye coordination; tracing tests to improve fine motor skills; a hidden object game that introduces the characters; and a free-style jam session that lets kids pair various characters with musical instruments.

Maya the Bee's music game features three characters and lets children mix and match musical instruments to create a unique song.

The instructions for Maya the Bee: Flower Party are slim. Aside from the opening animations which explain how to swipe between panels, individual games do not have instructions to explain gameplay. This isn't usually a problem. Start to play and tapping the screen provides visual feedback letting players know when they're not doing it right — although not necessarily how to fix the problem. Throughout the games Maya also expresses positive reinforcement for various actions with phrases like "Super!" and "Awesome!".

One of the best features about Maya the Bee: Flower Party is how it unfolds as children play. Choose a game and after a few minutes of play - between 3-5 repetitions - the app will take young players back to the forest scene, unlocking new party guests or adding a new party decorations to interact with on the screen. The panels continue to become more lively over time, filled with dancing characters and imaginative displays of fireworks and plants.

Overall, the games have a realistic learning curve for kids that increases difficulty without adding undue frustration. The mini games work together beautifully with the rewards delivered on the main pages for maximum interactivity and exploration.

Maya The Bee: Flower Party is available for all devices, however, it plays best on larger screens like the iPad and iPad mini. Little fingers on small screens may have trouble with some of the games, particularly the tracing and memory match.

Just like the many Maya films and storybooks, Maya The Bee: Flower Party comes in multiple languages for enjoyment by children all over the world. Choose from 10 languages: English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Turkish.

See screenshots and comments for this app on AppCraver.com.

Here are more apps you might like:

Playground HD is a Tidy Collection of Kid-Friendly Games

Is your Alarm Clock Too Friendly? Bomax The Cranky Alarm Can Fix That

Take a Bite Out of Vampireville: Haunted Castle Adventure

RC Plane 2 is Ultimate iOS Flight Simulator

What is the most popular sport in the world? Golf, no. Tennis, no. American football, not even close. Football, a.k.a. soccer in some parts of the world, has an estimated 3.5 billion fans worldwide and for those who are English football fans ... your life just got better with the release of TOPPS KICK, the exclusive Barclays Premier League digital trading card game for iPhone and iPod touch.

TOPPS KICK is unique in that it doesn't just allow you to collect your favorite players, it's also a casual fantasy football game. The cards you collect can be played in real-time to earn points and push your team up the ranks. In addition to earning points, you can go even deeper into the experience by chasing rare cards, unlocking special awards like daily coins, test your trivia skills and join in on the conversation with a community of football card collectors. 

When you first start you are allotted a few thousand coins to purchase a complete set of 11 cards. This is your base and since you're left with about one thousand points you can hit the store to purchase one, two and three card packs for 200, 500 and 800 points, respectively. These are not necessary as you can also trade cards.

If you want to save your coins for a later time just head over to the trades tab where you can browse who is trading who and also offer up your own trades. You offer your trade within the trade tab by selecting the cards you want and the cards you're willing to give up. Fairly simple. This allows you to build your ultimate team. You can also have duplicate cards, which could earn you a lot of points if you have a player who is known to score a lot.

With TOPPS KICK, you can pick cards from any of the Barclays Premier League teams, including Arsenal, Aston Villa, Cardiff City, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Hully City, etc.

What's important to note is that you earn points in real-time so your players have to actually be playing. My suggestion is to check the schedule to ensure you're playing the right players at the right time. This also makes it more challenging since you might have to trade your favorite players if you want to stay in the game.

If you're looking to extend your love for English football then TOPPS KICK is the perfect app to do just that. It's free, allows you to collect all your favorite players and provides a solid opportunity to learn more about your players through their daily news recaps. A must have for any footballer.

See screenshots and comments for this app on AppCraver.com.

Here are more apps you might like:

Throw with Joe: Play With a Legend in Tilt-Controlled Football Game

Slotspot Goes Mobile on iPhone

Two Towers Offers Newbies and Veterans Challenging Gameplay

Old-school arcade style games are alive and well in the App Store and it’s great to see the young generation of app developers working to keep them going. In a break-out app by 16-year-old Akshay Goradia, Lunar Defense applies the principles of arcade style gaming to a mobile platform, resulting in a simple and fun challenge of blowing up asteroids to save the moon.

Lunar Defense has a simple interface with various shaped and sized objects (asteroids) that are destroyed by aiming and launching your weapon. Complete with powerups and friendly spacecraft obstacles, Lunar Defense challenges players to achieve the highest score by saving the moon. 

Lunar Defense’s gameplay is simple. Using the slingshot-style weapon and touch physics, players launch what looks like an orb of light at incoming asteroids. Some asteroids take more than one hit to destroy and players must also avoid friendly fire with the occasional spaceship. Each game supplies three lives and powerups randomly appear to help you progress as well. Compete against your own high score and the Game Center leaderboards or challenge friends on Facebook and Twitter.

What’s great about Lunar Defense is it demonstrates the younger generation of gaming developers’ take on old-school games. It offers a little bit of progressive challenge, an element of replay and the simplistic style of an arcade shooter. Overall, the game is fairly well designed, especially in terms of motion and physics. The accompanying artwork is charming and the graphics do a good job of capturing the young and the old. Despite the fact that some objects don’t feel like they’re actually separate from one another, the general gameplay goals are still achieved. In short, though it’s not the most riveting arcade game ever invented, it certainly puts a new twist on an classic theme and does so in a well thought out manner.

For a break-out app from a young developer, Lunar Defense earns applause for effort and presentation. It has a few elements of addictive gameplay and because it’s an active pick-up-and-play game, the casual replay value makes it a good time killer. For these reasons, it should be fun to see what future ideas Goradia brings to life. Lunar Defense is free for iPad and iPhone, so in support of the next generation of app developers, give it a try.

See screenshots and comments for this app on AppCraver.com.

Here are more apps you might like:

Atlantis: Pearls of the Deep Uses Gravity to Improve Match 3 Gameplay

Splash It! for iPhone is a Unique Bubble-Popping Game

Lich Defense Shines Like a Gem Among Magical Tower Defender in the App Store

Adventure Game Fans Might Not Mind the Chaos of Chaos Minders