Star Darlings

Though the colorful characters are delightful and the music fabulous, the actual play involved falls flat. For an interactive story, there’s very little interaction. The characters don’t move, and there’s no interaction with the environment. For a choose-your-own-adventure story, kids’ input doesn’t have much of an impact on the action. Stars appear after any answer, but those don’t do anything either. Compound all that with the in-app purchases involved, and these wishes become both frustrating and boring. Aside from the actual gameplay -- which is more of a promotional venture for other products -- the message is potentially muddled, as wishes are nice but don't do much to foster the real skills it takes to make things happen. It could be, however, that the story will address effort and persistence as it develops.