My Town: Best Friends’ House games for kids - My Town Games Ltd

App Review

This review of My Town: Best Friends’ House games for kids was completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 16 March 2021.

About the app

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

ACCM review

This review of My Town: Best Friends’ House games for kids 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

Explored all rooms over several days.

App description

An open-ended App where the player explores and interacts with items around a house. Tasks include playing mini golf, washing clothes, cooking, etc. Hearts can be collected around rooms. For every 7 hearts a gift/prize box appears and when selected, the player can choose one out of 3 gift boxes that appear on the screen (at the time of this review, the ‘gift’ was a doll for the house). Additional characters, clothing and hearts are available by watching ads.

Reviewers comments

The player explores the rooms of this house, with different characters available.  There is a pictorial recipe for cupcakes, which can be easily followed. Characters can take a shower or bath, and use the toilet, with sound effects. Each character in the house can be double clicked to change facial expression, there are 6 expressions with accompanying sound, this could be useful if teaching about emotions.

The App, on Android tablet, asks permission to access Photos/Media/Files in order to save and share progress, on Android phone it states, “In order for the application to work properly, you must allow all permissions”. The App is frustrating as so many ads appear, they require manual turn off and if clicked on, you are taken to the Google Play Store or advertiser websites.

Ads appear every few room changes, whilst the reviewer did not view any offensive ads, they were not always age appropriate. A shopping trolley button has a parental control with a simple maths sum, and 3 multiple choice answers. A child could easily access this, so make sure your device has sufficient password protection for payment options, the same applies for some of the additional characters from the selection bar. Players can be prompted to write a review of the App.

When 7 Hearts are collected from around each room and the player selects the ‘prize’ out of the 3 ‘gift’ boxes which, at the time of this review, were all ‘dolls’ for the App, there is a short “star” style sound and some stars on the screen. There are rewards, such as hearts and dolls for the App for daily check-in. A pop-up offers more hearts for watching an ad.

The App can be played offline or paid versions will remove advertising.

In App purchasing

There is In-App purchasing in this game, examples include:

• Pro Version, unlock all characters. No Ads. – $4.99
• Full Version, get everything! No Ads. – $11.99
• Single character – $1.39

Online information

Please note that clicking on ads may take you out of the App.

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.

Please note: After 7 hearts are collected a gift box bounces in the corner of the screen. When selected, 3 ‘blind’ prize/gift boxes appear on the screen, one to be selected. As of this review, each box contained a ‘doll’ for the App. When selecting the prize there is a short “star” style sound and some stars on the screen.

Advertising and product placement

There is advertising in this game, including:

• Pop-up ads that play automatically when you enter other rooms (not all the time). These ads vary and may not be age appropriate.
• “Shopping Trolley” button for link to paid versions of the App.
• New Characters require watching video ads or link to upgrading the App.
• Additional Clothing requires watching ads.
• Further collection of hearts for watching ads.
• Opening Screen has an ad/link for ‘more games’ by the developer.

Gender stereotypes and sexual references

None noted.

Coarse language

None noted.

Game playing behaviour which may be of concern to some parents

None noted.

Other

N/A.

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