Toca Kitchen Monsters (app) by Bonnier Digital (iPhone / iPad)

Let's kick off this week's app reviews with a look at something fun, that's designed to improve your child's dexterity rather than tax their brain with phonics and number puzzles. Toca Kitchen Monsters is ridiculous fun. Set in a messy kitchen that is visited by hungry monsters, with a well stocked fridge and lots of kitchen gadgetry to cook up a storm with.

The main appeal of the Toca apps is the superb production values. Silky-smooth animation on the monster characters is complimented by all sorts of crazy and funny sound effects (kids just seem to automatically self-destruct with laughter whenever they hear a fart noise but TKM is thankfully a little more subtle than that, most of the time!)

Ingredients are fetched from the fridge and either fed raw to the monsters, or processed in a variety of amusing ways. Fried broccoli? Well why not! Liquidized steak? Heck yes!

The reactions from the monsters when you feed them something yummy (or yucky) is quite amusing. In fact it's eerily like the reaction you get when you dish up a curry to your youngster after realising that one of your key ingredients (curry powder) wasn't on the weekly shop. Oops! Sorry Charlotte!

Charlotte's best bit: The liquidizer. Everything goes in it!

Daddy's favourite bit: The superb production values on this, and the fact that you get quite a good laugh from the free version without needing to pay for the full app.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - App of the Week

iTunes Link: Toca Kitchen Monsters (Free)