Build A Word, WordWorld’s word creation learning tool for pre-schoolers, has been released in the app store. Featuring many of the characters from the hit PBS Kids show, this app is sure to delight your little ones as they explore new technology and the wonderful world of reading.

This app is simple enough to use that it requires no instructions of any kind. When you open the app, colored letters swirl about the screen. In the background, there is an outline of the first letter in a word. When a matching letter can be found floating across the screen, simply drag it to the outline. When correctly placed, another letter outline appears. Repeat until you spell one of the 10 available animal character’s names. When you complete the name, the swirling letters disappear. Swipe across the finished word to combine the letters and the corresponding character image appears as the “We Just Built A Word” song plays in the background. After a short animation, shake the device to clear it and begin a new word/character.

The graphics are straight from the TV show and are a huge appeal to the kids. The songs and voices are right from the show, as well. Any fans of the series will enjoy this game. Controls, as explained before, are simple and can be figured out by a 3-year-old with no adult direction.

There are really only 2 drawbacks that we can see with this game. The first is the lack of content. The only words are the 10 character names, which simply repeat when completed and are not randomized. The other is its price. At $2.99, it’s a bit steep for the amount of content available. If there were 100 words, I could see this as a fair price. As it stands, we’d like to see a significant amount of content added to justify the price tag. In its current state, it feels like a solid $0.99 app. Replayability, therefore, is limited. Due to these conditions, we can only give Build A Word, which is a solid, enjoyable learning experience, a 4-Dimple score.

Build A Word gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: