Lola’s Magic Cube is designed with one purpose in mind - children.  The ‘Magic Cube’ consists of six slider puzzles spread across three levels of difficulty.   Parents may remember sliders from childhood as puzzles that consist of a larger picture broken down into a number of small squares or panels with one piece missing (so you can slide).  The advantage of presenting sliders on the iPad is that every panel can remain part of the puzzle.  When you move a panel, it simply switches places with the current panel.  In addition to sliding the panels, you also may need to rotate each one in order to finish the puzzle.  This may sound complicated, but in practice it is simple and it works well. 

When you first open the App, you are given a brief introduction through nicely-drawn cartoon characters.  The main menu screen then appears with Easy, Medium and Hard difficulties.  I was happy to see that you cannot move to the later difficulties until after you completed the easier ones first.  There is also an icon in the upper left corner for Parents.  In previous games I’ve reviewed I noticed this interface and I really think it’s an important part of games that are targeted for younger children. 

Once you choose your level of difficulty, you see Lola and her Magic Cube. You can rotate the cube by dragging your finger across the screen and when you want to solve a puzzle you just push on a side of the cube.  You then get an unlimited amount of time to solve the puzzle by rotating and moving panels.   In order to move the panels, you press your finger on the panel you want to move and let go when the panel is in place.  Because of this, the controls are very simple and appropriate for a wide range of children.   To help you solve the puzzle, Lola is on the right side of the screen with the completed puzzle that you can click on at any time.  This is a great method to help younger children who may not remember what the completed picture or goal looks like.  After you solve the puzzle, it takes you back to the cube and the side you completed is a different shade.  After you finish all six sides, you can then play the more difficult levels.  What makes the levels more difficult is the number of panels in the slider puzzle.  The easy levels only contain four, which is the perfect amount for getting accustomed to the controls. 

While Lola’s Magic Cube is a great way to engage your child in solving puzzles in a fun way, there are a few things that we think could really improve the functionality.  Most important is that content of the parents section could really be improved.  There doesn’t seem to be enough of a tutorial in this game to understand the basic controls and the overall goal.  The developers include a book icon and white glove that points every so often, but we could see some children and parents getting a little confused at first.  We would have preferred if there was some text to go along with the hand just to make things clear.  The music can get a little monotonous, but there is the option of muting it.  In terms of content, with only three levels of difficulty, there are only 18 total puzzles.  Despite these drawbacks, Lola’s Magic Cube provides a good way for parents and young children to work through puzzles together.  

- MICHAEL STROUD