Educational apps in the Windows Phone Store can be an excellent way to catch your children's attention and teach them not only about ready, writing and arithmetic but also general life lessons. Nutty Apps offers a host of such apps (along with some adult titles) that cover cooking, visits to the doctor and more. Pet Vet Doctor focuses on pet care and is one of this month's AdDuplex HERO Apps.
If you aren't familiar, the HERO Apps program is a promotional campaign for Windows Phone and Windows developers on the AdDuplex Network and partners AdDuplex with myAppFree, AppDeals, PluralSight and Windows Central to deliver a host of benefits to the top apps and games each month. Our role in the HERO App campaign is to offer a little exposure to these titles by sharing them with you, our readers.
The primary menu for Pet Vet Doctor is mapped out with options to take on the various pet care tasks, access to the game's store and access to the game's settings. Game settings include sound and music controls, resetting the game and a camera option. It does not appear that the camera function is active and I suspect it would allow you to capture a screenshot of your healthy pet.
The game's store has several in-app purchase options that include unlocking additional animals, bandage styles, toys and dress-up accessories. Pricing ranges from $.99 to $4.99.
Pet Vet Doctor deals with four primary tasks related to pet care. They are accessible from the main menu and include:
- Clean Up: Here your puppy dog has gotten loose in the mud, bushes and even has a few scratches. It is your job to use the towel, antiseptic and comb to get the puppy back into shape.
- Check Up: Your pet cat has bumped its head, has a few blisters, a runny nose and a few scratches. You are tasked with getting the cat back to health.
- Groom Up: Similar to the Clean Up task, the Groom Up task has you using a brush, cotton swabs and cucumber slices to give a bunny rabbit a makeover.
- Dress Up: With this task you have a lion cub, panda bear, panther and dragon that are available to play dress up with you. You have an assortment of hats, collars and toys to choose from.
With the Dress Up choice, the free game only includes the lion cub. The additional animals are available through in-app purchase through the game's store.
The mechanics of Pet Vet Doctor are simple, but I had a few issues with regards to responsiveness that may be frustrating to a child. You have your tools lining the bottom of the screen and an animated hand will guide you to where those items can be used. For example, the hand will point towards a band-aid and then to a cut. You tap/hold on the item and drag it to the respective area and hold it in place. A progress meter will appear to the left of the display to notify you when the task is complete.
There were several instances where I would tap/hold on an item, but it would not budge. I did find that if you tap/hold and then wait a second the object moved with more reliability. My concern is younger children will not have the patience to wait and will get frustrated when the game doesn't work.
All in all, Pet Vet Doctor is a decent learning game for your Windows Phone. It is ad-support with those annoying, full-screen ads that pop up from time to time. A gaming store purchase will remove the ad-support, if you are so inclined.
I would like the responsiveness tweaked to be more kid friendly. It may take sitting down with your child and walking them through the game's mechanics, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
If you try Pet Vet Doctor, let us know what you think of the Windows Phone title in the comments below.
Download Pet Vet Doctor from the Windows Phone Store (Free)
AdDuplex HERO Promotion
AdDuplex is a fantastic resource for the cross-promotion of Windows Phone and Windows apps. AdDuplex has launched a new program designed to help developers promote their apps even further with free access to various tools and resources from AdDuplex.
The HERO Apps promotion partners AdDuplex with Windows Central, myAppFree, AppDeals and PluralSight to provide additional benefits to the top apps every month that include:
- Vouchers to advertise on AdDuplex
- One month subscription to Pluralsight Plus
- A featured campaign with myAppFree
- A featured campaign with AppDeals
- A review here on Windows Central
If you are a Windows or Windows Phone developer, you can sign up for the HERO Apps program here at AdDuplex's website. To participate in the program, you will need to apply within thirty days after your app or game has launched on the AdDuplex network.
Windows Central is already partnered with the myAppFree campaign and is proud to be partnering up with AdDuplex with the HERO Apps program. It is another excellent opportunity to help promote both the Windows Phone and Windows platform.