Developer Sago Sago's Sago Mini series offers exploration-based game apps (including Forest Flyer, Space Explorer, and Road Trip) for toddlers and early primary users. Explore an ocean full of funny, often fantastical surprises as a cute little fish in Sago Mini Ocean Swimmer (2013).

The app opens with a view of the ocean floor, where the fishie (identified as "Fins" on Sago Sago's website, although the app itself is wordless) lives in a sandcastle. Tap to sound the castle's shell-horn doorbell and Fins comes out to play. Friendly illustrations — with a bright palette and a cut-paper look full of simplified, rounded shapes — portray the under-the-sea setting and its wacky inhabitants.

Guide Fins through depths from the floor up to the surface and discover a wide variety of animated interactive moments. Many of these are incongruous to the ocean setting (for instance, a helium balloon clues Fins into a surprise birthday party), adding to the high silliness.





Characterization and emotion are sometimes communicated just through the animals' Klassen-esque eye movements; other vignettes (an opera-singing sea monster) call for over-the-top expression.



Throughout, the humor is perfectly pitched to the preschool through early elementary audience (poop and burp jokes!).

Pulsing yellow starburst-shaped dots hint where to place Fins to initiate some of the more complex animations (e.g., a whole starfish song-and-dance routine); others (such as a row of ducks quacking in sequence) are more subtle, triggered by his swimming by. Sound effects, including upbeat music, giggles, gasps, burps, farts, etc., enhance the animations. Navigation is straightforward (just taps and swipes) and there are no in-app purchases or parent-locked sections.

There are enough surprises to discover to keep kids entertained for a long time — and they're still funny many times though.

Available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (free) and Android devices ($2.99). Recommended for preschool and primary users.