Thursday, May 6, 2010

Muppets on Your iPhone: Bert's Bag


Bert's Bag
$3.99 on iTunes


Ryan Dosier - Hi there! I've got a brand new iPhone app to review for you. Care to take a look? Well, today I played the brand new iPhone app from IDEO Toy Labs and Sesame Street, "Bert's Bag" which stars, you guessed it, Bert (Professor Hastings declined the script) and a brown paper bag.

The game is very simple (which turns out is a good idea for games geared at preschoolers), because all you have to do is open Bert's bag, dump it out onto the table, and count the contents with him. There are numerous types of things to count, and all are very Bert-esque. When I played, I counted toy tops, Bert's international coin collection (which consisted of three coins), and keys.

And honestly, that's all there is to the game. I suppose there are tons of different things you could count with Bert, as each bag is different, but after three turns I was bored. In a way, I see this as perfect for Bert; a boring game with a bunch of weird items.

In the Sesame Street iPhone app hierarchy, "Bert's Bag" ranks somewhere below "Elmo's Monster Maker" and somewhere above "Rosita's Jump Count." The app is fun to count a long with and it's always fun to see Bert in new material. Eric Jacobson does a fantastic job here, as he makes Bert enthusiastic about some very lame thing.

So, overall, this app is fun for the novelty of having Bert and his excitement over a new bag. This app will be perfect for antsy preschoolers and every once in awhile I'm sure their parents will get a kick out of it too. Go, Bert!












The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier