In carrying with the kids app theme for today, I’ve decided to finally review Balloonimals.

I love this app. It’s amazing. Whenever I show off the iPhone’s capabilities to those unfamiliar (e.g. my mom), I tend to whip out Balloonimals because it’s quick, graphically flashy, and interactively beautiful. It’s the stuff that makes you weep it looks so cool. The only reason I didn’t review it earlier – I’ve had it sitting stagnant on my phone for a few months now – is because we originally were going to branch out into video reviews on Appstruck. We bought these cool, compact Flip cameras for an economical price, only to find out their image quality, well, sucked. Maybe perfect for the casual liasion with friends you wish to store forever, on a memory card, but definitely not adequate for clearly magnifying the tiny images on an iPhone. Oh well, soon enough. Until we manufacture a quirky Appstruck intro clip for our video reviews, with David and I back to back, arms crossed with comical expressions on our faces, I prefer the writing in the meantime.

But, on to the kids. It’s true, most kids won’t appreciate how nice one iPhone app looks over the over, so long as it’s entertaining, but with Balloonimals you get the best of both worlds: not only is it super fun and engaging for kids, it’s eye-popping and pleasing to adults. Bam, two birds with one stone. Toy Labs Ideo created a beautiful app that simulates making balloon animals, or, balloonimals, as they’ve cleverly coined. With a stark white background, the pencil thin balloon really pops out, and in the lower left of the screen, the word blow appears, a puff of air pictured to its left, pulsing in and out as a blowing sound is heard. Obviously, it’s time to blow. Gently blow into the microphone and you’ll see the balloon magically inflate with air. The sound of stretching rubber completes the mirage, and a high-pitched ding! is heard when the balloon is at maximum volume. It’s animal twisting time.

The app will prompt you to shake, the word itself shaking and rattling, so go ahead and shake. The image will blur, mimicking, apparently, your suppressed rage at balloons, and the balloon will magically take on the initial shape of what it shall become. It’s kind of fun, the first time, trying to figure out what these impossibly convoluted shapes may be. Shake three or four times and the balloon will then take on its final form – a T-rex, crab, fish, snake and unicorn are only but a few of the animals included in this app. Play with your finished balloon creations by touching them in different spots. Each animal has 2-3 different play animations that are sure to delight kids. Young girls with a predilection for ponies will be charmed by the unicorn spewing golden fairy radiance from its horn, and mischievous boys will laugh at the crab scuttling from side, its pinchers clacking loudly. Anytime you want to skip ahead to a balloon animal you want to make, just swipe in a downward motion – after awhile you’ll memorize which color is for what animal, making it easier. If for any reason this app is at all confusing to the parent (really?), touch the lower left of the screen, next to the commanding word, and you’ll be taken to a screen telling you to Blow, Shake, Play, and Pop. Because, you know, it was so hard.

What’s particularly great about these balloon creatures is they look bloody amazing. The animations are so smooth and the balloon texture is so lifelike, with just the right amount of highlights and shininess that the balloon animals seem to just – pardon the pun – pop out at you. While kids may not care about graphics one way or another, they sure will appreciate the realism. It’s only too bad there are only a handful of creatures to make – I think with their last update they brought the amount up to 10. The developers should hustle back soon to their Toy Lab and make another updated version with more creatures. I know I’ll be one of the firsts to download it.