Fireman Sam: Fire & Rescue Review

 

“When he hears that fire alarm, Sam is always cool and calm!”  If those words mean anything to the little ones in your house, I have an amazing app that your kids are sure to love.

Currently on the Sprout Network in the States, Fireman Sam is a show that appeals to many preschoolers who love watching the kids and adults in the town of PontyPandy, and of course the hero, Fireman Sam! On a personal note, one episode of Fireman Sam, rented on my iPad for a day, kept my 2 year old very happy on a plane trip! Now, Fireman Sam is back in the app store with a brand new app, Fire & Rescue.

My little testers love this app, and the more time I spend with it the more I realize that it is chock-full of features! Guided By Fireman Sam’s reassuring voice, Fire & Rescue consists of 5 games, a sticker book and a video player.  Each game has an easy, hard and 2 player mode.:

Mountain Adventure – Some of the residents are stuck on a mountain!  Help Sam rescue them with the Helicopter.

Neptune’s Mission – Some villagers are stuck in the water.  Use Neptune to help rescue them and bring them back to the dock.

Fire Engine Rescue – This is a two part game.  In the first part players recuse various Pontypandy residents as a fire spreads through the buildings.  Be sure to line up the rescue basket precisely with the people to rescue them!  Once everyone has been rescued, it’s time to put out the fire with the hose.  the trick to aiming is keeping your finger close to the hose to line up the red bulls eye with the windows.

Connect the Hose – Jupiter’s hose needs to be fixed.  Find the right pieces and make sure the water flows correctly.

Quad Bike Training – Drive the teams new quad bike and avoid obstacles on the path.  Steer by touching the screen or dragging your finger on the screen.

Playing games unlocks stickers for the sticker book.  Once you have unlocked stickers, there are four scenes to choose from to decorate your very own Fireman Sam sticker page.  Additionally, with every five games played a video is unlocked, up to a max of ten videos.

Fireman Sam is a great app for all fireman fans from preschool on up (our two year old tester loves it but cannot effectively navigate through the app on his own just yet).  My eight year old walked by while I was writing this up and proclaimed “I love the Fireman Sam app!”  While I think it would be great to be able to control some of the games (helicopter, boat) by tilting the iPad, the use of fingers does not take away from the game.  At $4.99, this is a more expensive app, however it is comparable to other similar quality apps and includes many features.  The graphics and sounds are all well done and our testers had great fun interacting with their favorite Pontypandy residents.  Old and new fans alike will be delighted with this new app!

 

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes