Papa Penguin – iPad Game Review

By Juli | June 21, 2011 | 1 comment

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Papa Penguin, by Ideal Bureaucracy, is a charming arcade game targeted towards children.

Papa Penguin is a thoughtful, caring penguin who puts all his effort into catching fish for his two penguin children, who are always ravenously hungry. In this simple game, children help Papa Penguin gather fish and deliver them to his demanding kids.

In the game, you control Papa Penguin with a finger, dragging him around to all of the fish swimming in the ocean. The kids sit on an iceberg on top of the water, and direct you to get them increasing numbers of fish. Papa Penguin begins with collecting two fish for his hungry kids, but it soon, they’re demanding more and more.

Control wise, it’s easy to collect fish, and even young children will be able to accomplish that task. However, Papa Penguin can only remain under water for a limited amount of time, and an eye must be kept on the timer. There are bubbles to collect under water that allow him to stay in the water catching fish for a longer period of time, but ultimately, you need to get those fish fast and get them to the kids before he runs out of air. Papa Penguin can go up and get air any time while catching fish without changing the number of fish he’s carrying, but make sure not to go too deep and run out of oxygen. Because of the oxygen mechanic, this game is best suited to children who are old enough to watch multiple variables at once.

In addition to the timer, you also have to avoid enemies that are floating around in the water, such as jellyfish and spiky red fish. Jellyfish are poisonous and spiky red fish are well, spiky, and both will cause Papa Penguin to lose oxygen faster and quickly die.

When Papa Penguin collects several fish in a row, he will enter turbo mode, which causes him to speed around ultra fast. This is great for picking up lots of fish, but you must be careful not to speed right into an enemy. Turbo speed continues as long as Papa Penguin continues to eat plenty of fish.

If Papa Penguin dies, you will have to start from the beginning again. The game does not save your levels, which is something that I found frustrating.

Papa Penguin features cute graphics, and soothing underwater music that’s fun to listen to. This is a game that kids will love and that parents might just get addicted to as well.

What I liked: The gameplay, controlling the penguin with just a finger, is simple and smooth. It’s easy to play, and I think kids will enjoy the colorful graphics and sweet characters.

What I didn’t like: For a children’s game, Papa’s Penguin was seriously lacking in directions and information on how to play. An in-depth tutorial level explaining the controls, what to avoid, and the power-ups seems like something that should have already been added. I also thought there should be an unlimited breath mode for younger children who aren’t as great at paying attention to timers. I thought that the gameplay quickly got repetitive, but that’s the case for most arcade games. They’re mostly suited to playing for short amounts of time, and Papa Penguin definitely falls into that category.

To buy or not to buy: At just $.99, this game is well worth purchasing to entertain kids and adults alike.