Shimmer And Shine: Smart Cycle
View the case- Brand
- Fisher Price
- Year
- 2017
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Other
- Mechanic
- Mini-Games
- Platform
- App
- Agency
- Plug-In Media Ltd
Objective
Fisher-Price was relaunching Smart Cycle — its pedal-as-controller exercise toy — on Bluetooth for tablets and TV, and the hardware shipped with only one free app, so it needed paid launch titles to give buying families a reason to keep spending after the box was opened. Nickelodeon's Shimmer and Shine gave Plug-In Media a world kids already knew to wrap around the bike's real teaching job: counting, number recognition, shapes and sequencing for kindergarten readiness. Tying that curriculum to a licensed character was meant to make pedaling itself feel like part of the story, not a chore before the fun starts.
Solution
The child climbs on the Smart Cycle, and pedaling is the only way to move: speed and direction send them flying on a magic carpet over Zahramay Falls, while the handlebar's turn, joystick and buttons steer left and right. They choose between free-roaming the map in Genie Joyride or racing a set course in the Zahramay Falls Championship Race, scooping up genie bottles as they go. Riding through certain spots on the map launches one of three mini-games that quiz counting, numbers and shapes, quietly getting easier or harder depending on how the child is doing. Gems earned along the way can be spent recoloring their magic carpet or Zeta's scooter. A session simply ends when the child stops pedaling and gets off.
- 1
A parent assembles the Think & Learn Smart Cycle exercise bike, mounts a tablet (or casts to a TV) in the handlebar holder, and pairs the bike to the screen over Bluetooth; the companion app then requires both the paired bike and a $4.99 in-app purchase to unlock.
- 2
After a Shimmer and Shine-branded title screen, the player controls the entire menu from the bike itself — a handlebar joystick, two confirm buttons, and a green Nav button — and picks a character to ride as: Shimmer, Shine, Zeta, or Leah.
- 3
In the free-roam Genie Joyride mode, pedaling drives a flying carpet forward through the world of Zahramay Falls while steering the handlebars sets direction and altitude across six named zones; scattered numbered genie bottles are collected by flying into them, with the game counting aloud up to 100 as a counting and number-recognition exercise.
- 4
A separate Zahramay Falls Championship Race mode has the player pedal a three-lap rainbow track against rival genies, grabbing speed boosts and dodging obstacles to climb a place counter shown on screen.
- 5
Both the free-roam and race routes are dotted with minigame triggers: flying through one transitions the player into a self-contained minigame screen, cued by an on-screen icon showing which part of the handlebar controller to use.
- 6
In "Magic Carpet Maker," the player pedals to cycle a conveyor of shapes and presses a handlebar button to slot the correct one into an unfinished carpet pattern, exercising shape-matching and spatial reasoning.
- 7
In "Magic Monkey Bounce," handlebar button presses hop the monkey Tala from floating cushion to cushion in ascending order as the camera climbs with her toward a friend waiting at the top, exercising sequencing and number order.
- 8
Completing a minigame awards one to three gems, with fewer gems given the more mistakes were made along the way.
- 9
In "Zeta's Potion Lair," the player pedals to rotate a ring of colored bottles around a cauldron, uses a handlebar button to measure the right quantity of each into the pot, and matches a three-ingredient recipe by color, shape, and count; completing the recipe triggers a brewing flash and a finished glowing potion.
- 10
Every six gems unlocks a cosmetic change to the player's carpet or scooter, while minigame difficulty and the underlying math curriculum adapt over time to the individual child's performance across 10+ levels.
