Nosy Crow's Jack and the Beanstalk review

For storybooks, I may give out some spoilers but I will try not to give away the ending. Jack and the Beanstalk is an interactive storybook for iOS tablets. I must say that I was eager to learn of the ending once the story progressed.

It starts out with Jack and his beautiful mother living in near extreme poverty and struggling for them ends meat. They must sell the family cow Daisy to do so but Jack trades Daisy for 10 magic beans. Mother is upset and Jack discovers a giant beanstalk which will take him to a castle in the sky. The castle would be fit for a giant and Jack would collect some items such as golden coins, a golden egg, and a golden ball. Jack also uses keys to open doors. There are mini-games to be played but you can opt not to do them and instead skip through the story map. There are some parts of the stories that tell you to drag the character but many feel like they're never ending. Unless the arrow flashes, you may not know whether to advance. I don't understand the arrows being shaded. I just don't. Also, on the map the scenes outside the castle are shaded black and white, making you think they could be locked.

I did like the visuals of the storybook and the interactions are great. You can choose to complete all nine activities or skip through the story. The one I got frustrated on was when Jack was running from the giant and jumping over barrels. I then realized it was just part of interactive storytelling and Jack will neither get away nor be caught by the giant so if you grow tired of it, just go to the map or press the arrow. Yes, you can just skip to the ending if you want and see how Jack and mom made their exodus from extreme poverty to comfortable living. I don't want to give away the exact ending but you will understand.

If there was something else I found annoying was that sometimes the dialog unnecessarily used names more than once in a conversation. I know this is supposed to be an interactive storybook but couldn't you make a linear loop instead of making it generic? Story making has been around since Adam and Eve in 4004 BC and it appears Nosy Crow made a mistake in making dialog sound like a run on. Stories don't run like run on and repeating the same thing. This story does however make the dialog understandable and i can understand the conversations. Also, why do the voices sound like one person recorded them?

How do I view Jack and the Beanstalk? I view it to be be of good standing and would recommend this for children and even adults as well. Nosy Crow overall is an amazing publisher of children's books and apps.