Two terrific town-building apps for kids

If your kids are into Legos, the following two city-building apps will be right up their alley.

In Lego Fusion: Town Master, kids construct toy building facades out of real Lego bricks, then use their digital devices' cameras to transport the building into a thriving virtual town. With Hoopa City, the city-building involves clever sleuthing and exploration to uncover the different buildings possible in this blossoming city. Both make kids the city planners and give them control of what their thriving metropolises look like. Here's a closer look at each.

Town Master

From Lego Systems, best for ages 7 to 12, $34.99 for Lego bricks set and free app (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android); 4 stars

Coming in August, Town Master is one of the Lego Fusion series of toy/app combos being launched this fall. With this 256-piece Legos building set, kids build 2-D facades for houses and businesses, using a special Fusion capture plate. By constructing the buildings on this plate, the app can "see" the child's architecture, then recreate it digitally in 3-D.

The app simulates a real city filled with Lego characters who have needs and wishes. As mayor and chief architect, you need to watch the faces of citizens and tap on their thought bubbles to keep them happy. The citizens will send you on missions and have building requests, which include a hospital, school, pizzeria, bike shop and more.

Why it is worth exploring: Town Master melds two of kids' favorite play patterns — building with Legos and playing on smartphones or tablets. It gives kids the tools to design their own town on a granular level, because the app recreates each individual brick size and color when turning your child's 2-D building into a 3-D replica.

Since players watch the little Lego construction workers recreate their buildings in 3-D, their toy play is no longer just in their own imaginations; rather, it is now in a digital world. And it's fascinating to see what a flat front of a building turns out to be when sidewalls and a roof are added. Kids learn about architectural design by experimenting with buttresses, roofs and the placement of windows and doors.

The game has a currency-driven economy, so new building types unlock over time. As mayor, the player goes on lots of missions involving the game's lively inhabitants, something kids will revel in for hours.

Hoopa City

From TribePlay, best for age 5-8, $2.99, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android; 4 stars

Starring Hoopa, a construction-loving hippo, this city-building app starts with a meadow-like, gridded globe with a few squares covered by a road. Hoopa appears and teaches you how to select one of the seven building elements dangling at the top of the screen, then to tap a square to change what appears in it. These elements include bricks, water, electricity, roads, nature, money and a do-good heart. To discover the more than 70 buildings, kids need to combine the seven building elements in different ways.

Why it's worth exploring: Targeting a younger user than Town Master, this city planner excels in encouraging discovery. By sequencing what you build on a grid square, kids can go from building a simple house to an apartment building to an extravagant music hall. Kids can create a lot of hoopla in Hoopa City by experimenting. With just a few taps, they can turn a sweet little town into a sizzling city.

Jinny Gudmundsen is the Editor of www.TechwithKids.com and author of iPad Apps for Kids, a For Dummies book. Contact her at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her @JinnyGudmundsen.