Meal Monsters - Meal Monsters Ltd

This review of Meal Monsters was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 November 2018.

About the app

This section contains details about the app provided by an ACCM Reviewer.

ACCM review

This review of Meal Monsters contains the following information:

• The level to which the game was reviewed
• App description
• Reviewers comments
• In App purchasing
• Online information
• Gambling
• Advertising and product placement
• Gender stereotypes and sexual references
• Coarse language
• Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents
• Other

The level to which the game was reviewed

All sections played.

App description

Meal Monsters is an animated lifestyle app which teaches children to cook. Sal, Gor and Pom are the meal monsters who’ve come to planet Earth from planet Yum, to see what children are eating. They like to grow and cook their own food and want to show children how to do the same. The app consists of six parts. 1) Recipes; 2) a short movie about Planet Yum; 3) a family album about the meal monsters; 4) Make a Monsie, which allows children to take photos of themselves as a meal monster and save it to their device; 5) Monster Match which is a classic matching game; 6) the shop which has lots of merchandise for sale.

There are eight recipes but only three are available for free. The rest can be purchased within the app. Each recipe includes nutritional information, step by step procedures listing what equipment is needed, the food that is needed and then how to cook the recipe in simple steps. The shop is protected by an adult password.

Reviewers comments

Meal Monsters is a fun app for children which could encourage them to learn how to cook. It is simple enough for very young children to understand and the recipes are very easy to follow. Although the actual cooking is done by the characters in the app, a voice over and text within the app does stipulate that a grown up is always required to help them with their cooking. This is because it is assumed that they might also follow the recipe in real life. The app is quite easy to negotiate by tapping on the various sections. It is well protected by a password that an adult must supply to prevent children accessing the app store on their own.

Monsie photos can be uploaded by AirDrop to other apps such as Facebook and Twitter but can be blocked if the devices WI-FI is turned off. Photos can also be saved to the device. The matching game comes in three levels: 8 cards; 12 cards and 16 cards so it is suitable for a wide range of ability.

The shop sells stickers, colouring books, reward charts – stars and circles, and T-shirts. Young children would benefit from parental co-play with this app.

In App purchasing

Recipes can be purchased for $1.49 each or 5 for $4.99

Colouring Book $2.99

Reward Charts $1.99

Discount bundle including all of the above for $4.99

T-Shirts which need to be bought on Amazon

Online information

N/A.

Gambling

At the time of review, the reviewer found no simulated gambling content. If you discover simulated gambling content in this app, please contact us with the details so we can update our review.

Advertising and product placement

There are frequent pop up ads for other apps by the same developer.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

None of concern.

Coarse language

None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

See reviewers comments.

Other

N/A.

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