Shopkins Happy Places – Turning Any Space into a Happy Place

Erin is a huge Shopkins fan, and has been for quite some time. There is something strangely addictive about those small collectible plastic toys that makes Erin go a little bit giddy inside. Having collected a fairly extensive range of food and household items during the last few years, her obsession doesn’t appear to be coming to an end any time soon.

When we heard that there was a new Shopkins app coming out, we were pretty confident that Erin would love it, and were keen to put it through it’s paces!

About The App

Moose Enterprises and Kuato Studios have recently announced the first official game for the hugely successful Shopkins Happy Places brand. 

The app is called Happy Places and is aimed at children 5 years and above, and helps encourage creativity, habit building, collection and story telling. It is completely free of charge to download in the App Store (it’s not currently available on Android) but In App Purchases are available. For peace of mind, any In App Purchases need to be approved by an adult, so there is no risk of your child going on a shopping spree when your back is turned.

The Shopkins Happy Places app is set in a fictional town called Happyville. The game begins on the day that Lil’ Shoppie Jessicake moves into her new home. She is a cool looking character with a pink outfit and blue hair. Erin particularly loved her Sweet Dreams Eye mask, having got one similar in her bedroom! 🙂

Once Jessicake has moved in and her first parcel has been opened, children can help decorate the house with furniture and accessories (known as petkins) from a number of different themes, arranging them as they wish by dragging them around the house and between the higher and lower floors. Erin found this really easy to do, simply by moving her finger across the screen. I personally wish you could change the direction in which the petkins face, but perhaps I am being a little OCD – it didn’t seem to concern Erin at all!

As the Lil’ Shoppie moves around her house, children can see what she is thinking by a little thought bubble which appears by her head. This will advise whether she wants to sleep (and therefore may want to go to bed), whether she may want to apply some make up (she’s a keen lipstick fan!) or whether she fancies having a bit of a dance to some music.

By following her thoughts, the game recommends actions for the children to complete. Each complete task earns you a Happy Places Voucher and once you have 25, you can trade these in to claim a new delivery – at which point a special Shopkins van arrives with a surprise box inside!

Erin got really excited when the new boxes needed opening, as in the same way as the traditional shopkins, the items inside can be common, rare or ultra rare. She has managed to find a few super rare items so far, and got herself ever so excited when the words appeared on screen! She also managed to blend the word Ultra on screen all by herself (so another added bonus!)

As well as following the Lil’ Shoppie’s thoughts, you are also set occasional House Goal challenges which involve slightly more complex tasks and number of tasks to complete in a specified sequence to earn a specified prize – this could be cooking a particular meal or setting up a room for a particular event like a party or gathering.

As the child plays, the app’s unique TalesMaker technology records key moments from the play session and then presents these to the child as a record of their day. Older children (Erin is perhaps a little young for this part) can then explore putting the images from their day into a sequence and add their own words to create their very own Shopkins story / comic, which can be saved and shared with their friends.

As game play progresses, children can also earn more Petkins, Happy Places and Lil’ Shoppies, allowing them to build out a whole HappyVille town with different homes for different characters.

The game offers in-app purchases, accessible only via a PIN-code (your year of birth, so not something that a young child would know!), which can be used to try and find some of the more elusive petkins or to try and avoid duplicates (the other box deliveries are allocated at random). As a parent, I loved the fact that the in app purchases aren’t as essential part of game play, and were more of an enhancement. We did treat Erin to a couple of additional boxes at £1.99 each, and she did get a few rares as a result.

The Grown Up’s Corner is also a great feature. It’s the kind of game that has the potential to emmerse Erin for hours given the opportunity, so the limits you can set on game play are a real benefit. By popping into the settings before passing the game over to your child, you can limit gameplay to 10, 20, or 30 minutes, after which the game will be locked for a period of 1 hour. The only way of the child getting back in the app then is if the parent approves it. If you prefer to leave play open ended (handy for long car journeys!) you can however leave as unlimited, The music and sound effects are relatively non offensive but can be turned off or the volume reduced if required.

By logging in daily, children also get a daily reward, which pops up immediately as you open the app.

Overall the app has unsurprisingly been a big hit. The fact that it retains the collectible element of the traditional toys is a real positive, as it is really gets Erin excited to discover what surprise is next in store. She was able to play without assistance, although did like to show me which petkins she had received on a fairly regular basis! The game play is straightforward and calm, with no long winded instructions required and is free to download. I can imagine the app will continue to be a hit going forward, as Erin is now keen to add even more Lil’ Shoppies to her collection!

You can download the Shopkins Happy Places app here in the App Store. To learn more about the app and see some of the gameplay in action check out the video below! Shopkins Happy Places is just one of a number of apps available by the award winning Kuato Studios.

 

*Disclosure – We were given a number of in app purchases on Shopkins Happy Places free of charge and compensated for our time in writing this review, however, as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.*