Hungry Pigs app review: building your child's memory

Introduction

This education app for toddlers and preschoolers is meant to help build their memory through number, letter, and picture recognition. Think of it as a brain teaser-type app but for kids instead. This one is ideal for kids ages four and up, although some younger kids would probably still make good use of it.

Building Memory Skills

The whole point of this app is to help kids with their memorization and recognition skills in a fun way. They will need to remember the order of the eggs that are shown to them and then repeat the pattern in order. They are shown the eggs for just a couple of seconds before the number/letter/color is then hidden.

There is no countdown clock; instead, kids have three wrong answers before the game ends and they need to start over. Each section (letters, numbers, or golden eggs) follows the same premise. The controls are extremely simple for even young children to use.

 

How Does it Hold Up?

Because my son is in the perfect target age group I turned this one over to him to give it a try. On the positive side it was very easy for him to understand and use. He didn’t need my help at all when it came to gameplay; however, I found that the time he was shown the eggs (just seconds) before hiding the pictures, was just not enough. This is especially true when a player gets up to four or five eggs at a time.

The fact that there is no countdown clock is great but only three tries before a player needs to start the game over acts as a negative because he quickly caught on to this and then started getting frustrated.

Even the gameplay gets a bit tired after a few tries. It’s very basic and it’s literally just the three categories you can play in. I understand it’s for four year olds and up but their attention span needs more excitement and engagement than this one offers. This is not a game my son would come back to often.

 

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to use and understand, very kid-friendly
• No countdown timer to add stress to the gameplay
• Builds memory skills
• Three different categories

 

Cons

• They only get three wrong answers before the game ends and they will need to start at the beginning again
• There isn’t that feeling of moving up in the game and completing a level, which takes away from the sense of a challenge and of accomplishment

 

Final Words

While this one is free so you really don’t have anything to lose in that sense, I expected and wanted a lot more from it. I was hoping it would be one of the brain teasers like the adult versions with variety and fun but this one was anything but. Instead it was one-dimensional and not a game I’d likely be returning to anytime soon.