My Little Car Wash App Review
App Info
Price: Free
Overview
It’s time for a hands on trip to the car wash and man are those cars dirty. Kids have the opportunity to spray off paint splotches, scrub the tires, and make sure the cars all get squeaky clean. On the way to the car wash, they might get a bit distracted by the invitations to unlock the premium version of the app and, within the premium version of the app, may get distracted by the invitations to play other apps, but once they get to the actual game, they’ll enjoy picking out a car to wash and making sure it gets clean.
Features include:
- Different cars to wash
- Multiple car wash features
- Car washing liquid lab
- Funny self-portraits
Quality
As long as kids follow the play buttons, they’ll have little trouble getting to the car wash game. Once in the game, kids are given instructions for choosing a car, but that’s where the explicit guidance ends. Kids must figure out what to wash and how to wash it in order to get to the next step which can be a bit frustrating at first. The app itself is also a bit busy, with a mini laboratory (in the premium version) that doesn’t seem to really connect to the car wash, a parent info section, and invitations to download the premium version or other developer apps.
Education
This app is not being rated for education.
Entertainment
It takes awhile for the car to go from dirty to clean. This means there are a lot of steps to keep kids busy. In the free version, there are only four steps to get through the car wash. In the premium version, there are 7 steps to get to the end. Once kids clean one car, they can select a different car and start the process all over again. Buried in the parent section and, surprisingly, protected by a parental block, is a funny self-portrait game that will also entertain kids.
Value
The free version of the app is fun for kids and worth checking out. In the premium version, kids get access to more cars, more car wash features, and the mini laboratory, but these features do not really justify the price. The fact that the premium version comes with more ads for other developer apps also lowers its value.
Child Friendliness
The app is full of parental controls to keep kids from accidentally purchasing the premium version of the app, downloading other apps from the developer, or accessing social media. Access to the funny self-portrait feature is also protected by a parental block. However, kids can still access the parent info area and see that it links out to Facebook and Twitter. In the free version of the app, they are continuously encouraged to unlock the premium version of the app. In the premium version of the app, the premium version ads are replaced with an invitation to play a new game which is actually an ad that takes kids to a page featuring other apps from the developer.
- NO external links
- NO 3rd party ads
- YES social media (protected, but visible)
- YES more apps(protected pop-up ads)
- YES in-app purchase (protected, but visible)
