I was skeptical when I first saw Osmo. Everything about it seemed over designed and pretentious, the sort of toy you might find Woody Allen commenting derisively about in one of his commentary films about life on New York's Upper East Side. The boxes are beautiful, more like fine art books than toys. They are held together one to the other by unseen magnets. Everything seems to say: if Steve Jobs designed toys, this is what they would look like.
After testing, however, I am duly impressed. The hardware works and the apps are a cut above the pack. They are beautiful, well designed, and thoughtful. They aren't flashy; but they are engaging, mentally stimulating, and creative.
The hardware consists of a plastic stand that holds your device more or less upright. A red piece holding a small mirror clips onto the top center of the iPad reflecting what is on the table in front of it.
There are three apps in the set. The first, "Tangram" is a computerized version of the familiar geometric puzzle game where a collection of wooden pieces are rearranged into various shapes. Osmo presents the image of what is to be created on the screen and then watches as the child recreates it. There are different levels, ranging from matching the picture to figuring out how to recreate the overall shape just with hints.
Word Game is a hangman puzzle game in which you have to spell a word based upon visual clues in photos that show on the screen. The computer "reads" the tiles kids put down as they guess the word, and keeps score. As the puzzles get harder, the clues get less unambiguous. what might look like a picture of a boy in clown makeup might not be the clue for the word "clown" but for the word "funny". The better you get at solving the puzzles that harder the clues become.
The third game, Newton, is a physics puzzle game where virtual objects interact with real world objects placed in view of the Osmo mirror.
The three apps don't have any shooting, kicking, or violence. They have a calm presence that gently brings kids along on experiences different from the ordinary video game fare.
