Quirky App Of The Day: Finding Hidden Objects
by Kathryn Zane
May 7, 2012
Finding Hidden Objects is a little like Where's Waldo. While there is a Where's Waldo app, Finding Hidden Objects offers something different. Lately, I've been focusing on whether or not games with similar ideas as previously introduced apps have enough of their own creative foundation to stand on. The way that this app is set up and functions offers its own twist on the old game of virtual hide-and-seek.
Finding Hidden Objects is an iPhone app that incorporates different mediums of art into its backgrounds. While the paid version boasts of 50 different backgrounds, there are nine different backgrounds in the Lite version. The backgrounds consist of photos, cartoon drawings, and collages. Each scene has a specific item to hunt for. While the item itself doesn't change, the location of the object will change each time it's played.
The levels are timed. Basically, you win by finding the object before time runs out. The app doesn't track personal best records though. I checked to see if there was a time difference among the various levels of difficulty. However, I didn't notice any.
The three different levels of difficulty are based on the different backgrounds. The harder levels have busier, more cluttered scenes to hunt through. They are also bigger than the easier levels.
One thing that sets different backgrounds apart was the item that I was looking for. For example, the medium level has a photo of a dirty dorm room, which is the above photo. However, the item to hunt for is an animated pizza slice. On one of the hard levels, the background is a collage of different photos. The object you're looking for is a specific photo. The animated objects are definitely easier to find in the real photos than in the cartoon drawings. They look more out of place in the real photos. Likewise, the real photos would seem rather out of place on the animated backgrounds. My only recommendation would be to have the hidden object better match the background they belong to. Otherwise, it's a really fun game.
Finding Hidden Objects is available in the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!