App review: Magic Forest

Here's a creature-based app that is as addictive as the Angry Birds franchise but so much more Zen -- the mystical Magic Forest (99 cents from the iTunes app store).

The artfully designed game is a puzzle with 80 levels where the player figures out which glass blocks to smash and where to allow owl-like characters to fall into their nests. There are all kinds of obstacles as well as treats, coins and gems to amass.

Developer Ola Games touts the app's "physics-based gameplay," which perked up my ears as a mother. But as I got my 8-year-old son to test it, I realized the problem-solving  provided the educational value.

I'm not an app addict, but this is one I'd highly recommend for both of us.