Unfortunately, both Busytown and its iPad-optimized version turn out to be the biggest disappointment to a beloved childhood institution since I learned I could never be a part of the live studio audience for . Clumsy navigation, regrettable production decisions, and game challenges that prove to be anything but challenging make for a lackluster offering for kids, no matter which iOS device you're using to play it.

In Busytown, you must find specific objects in a variety of different settings. Select the Kitchen scene, for example, and you might be told to find a cake pan amid other scattered kitchen paraphernalia. Tap the wrong object, and Busytown simply states what you've tapped instead--a "cutting board," say, or a "rolling pin." But tap the right object, and amid a fanfare, the game congratulates you on completing the task. Some of the objects have animations that you trigger by tapping--tap the faucet in the Bathroom scene and water will start coming out. On the surface, it seems like an ideal way to keep preschoolers and kindergarteners entertained.

But before you begin hunting objects, Busytown has you pick out, name, and dress a Richard Scarry character. It's here that you get the first hint of the navigational issues that plague the game. Busytown shows three animals on the Pick A Character screen. The five-year-old with whom I tested the game thought those were her only three options. She didn't realize there were other options available with a swipe in either directions. The same lack of navigational cues occurs when it's time to dress and name your animal as well. (Speaking of names, you can only pick from the dozen options that Busytown provides; you can't supply your own name, which made my five-year-old tester very cross.)

The navigational problems don't end there. After you've found the object you're looking for, it's unclear how to move on to a new screen--the arrows at the bottom are unlabeled, and the places they take you to when tapped are not all that intuitive, especially for kids. If you want to replay the same scene you've just finished--find another object at the Firehouse, for example--it takes two taps to get back to the scene. That doesn't seem like an efficient way to navigate around Busytown, and I imagine it will frustrate many kids.

The five-year-old testing the game for me seemed to enjoy hunting down objects, though it's worth noting that she didn't exactly clamor to continue to playing Busytown. (In fact, after a while, she asked if she could stop.) The problem may be that Busytown doesn't really vary up its scenes to a great degree--some objects may be in a different place, but it's pretty easy to spot that swing on the Playground. Also, if you replay the same scene, you're likely to get asked to find the same object over and over again. I selected the Bathroom setting four consecutive times; three of those times, Busytown wanted me to find the soap dish. Finally, as much as children will enjoy the fanfare that happens when they find an object, I can't help but feel that they might enjoy unlocking achievements and earning badges more. Busytown doesn't really seem to keep a running tally of your object-finding prowess.