Comparison

Puppet Pals 2 vs Pattern Shapes, by MLC

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Puppet Pals 2

Unleash creativity by making animated cartoons with interactive puppets. Children and teachers can easily create high-quality animated stories, presentations, and educational content. Share finished projects via email, social media, or direct file transfer.

Highlights
  • Create animated cartoons
  • Interactive puppet show
  • Star in shows with built-in characters
  • Share finished projects easily
  • Engage students in learning
  • Create instructional videos
Read full description

• “Puppet Pals is an amazing app that lets you create animated cartoons.” -David Pogue (NewYork Times) Children unlock creativity with this easy to use (but hard to put down) interactive puppet show! Even young children can create high quality cartoons from their imaginations. Kids can even star in the show along side the built-in characters! Teachers: Engage students by allowing them to act out historical events, practice language skills, or deliver a killer book report. The cartoons that kids are making have delighted thousands of teachers and parents around the world - let yours be next to experience this award-winning digital addition to your classroom. The finished projects are easily shared to be watched by others (share via email, Facebook, or simply copy the video file to your computer and distribute how you see fit - Hint: students love to see their work displayed on a classroom blog). • Create short instructional videos (in any learning area) • Storytelling, Reports, Historic Retells • Help reluctant public speakers present to the class • Help foreign language or ESL students practice their fluency & language skills • Brainstorming or storyboarding ideas and presentations Characters chosen from standard curriculum allow kids to fully engage with content - not even realizing they are actually learning valuable lessons that will stay with them for years to come!

About

Pattern Shapes, by MLC

This app allows students to explore geometry and fractions through interactive shape manipulation. Users can create designs, fill outlines, measure angles, and annotate their work. It's an open-ended educational tool for learning mathematical concepts.

Highlights
  • Explore geometry and fractions
  • Create custom designs
  • Measure angles with protractor
  • Duplicate, resize, and recolor shapes
  • Fill built-in outlines
  • Annotate work with drawing tools
  • Share creations via image or code
Features
Read full description

Students use Pattern Shapes to explore geometry and fractions, creating their own designs, or filling in outlines. As they work with the shapes students explore geometric relationships, think about angles, investigate symmetry, and compose and decompose larger shapes. Many of these explorations lead naturally to thinking about fractions as parts of a whole. This virtual version of pattern blocks is an open-ended educational tool, ideal for elementary classrooms and other learning environments that use iPads. Pattern blocks are a key model used in Bridges in Mathematics, second edition. Online preview available at: www.mathlearningcenter.org/bridges FEATURES • Rotate shapes in increments of 15 degrees. • Measure angles with the protractor tool. • Duplicate and change the color and size of shapes. • Fill the built-in outlines with shapes or create your own to share with others. • Choose between a triangular or square grid, or a blank background. • Hide and reveal work with resizable covers to create your own problems and model strategies. • Use the drawing tools to annotate work and show understanding. • Add equations, expressions, and descriptions with the math text and writing tools. • Share your work by saving an image or providing a share code to others. ABOUT US This resource is brought to you by The Math Learning Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to K-12 education since 1976. Our mission is to inspire and enable individuals to discover and develop their mathematical confidence and ability. www.mathlearningcenter.org This app was crafted by Clarity Innovations. We help improve teaching and learning by creating solutions that match promising technologies with the needs of education. Visit us: www.clarity-innovations.com

Screenshots

Puppet Pals 24 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Pattern Shapes, by MLC at none against Puppet Pals 2's 10. Puppet Pals 2's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 26 months) and ratings volume (123 vs 17). On price, rating, review sentiment and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Puppet Pals 2 sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Pattern Shapes, by MLC asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.1 for Puppet Pals 2 against 4.2 for Pattern Shapes, by MLC. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Puppet Pals 2 has 123 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of Puppet Pals 2's written reviews are positive against 70% of Pattern Shapes, by MLC's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Puppet Pals 2 ships an update every 2 months, Pattern Shapes, by MLC every 26 months. The most recent releases landed on August 23, 2026 and June 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Puppet Pals 2 versus Pattern Shapes, by MLC: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPuppet Pals 2Pattern Shapes, by MLC
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (123 ratings)4.2 (17 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.4% of reviews70.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings123 — better17
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 26 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better14.7
Further details — not scored
Size359 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPolished Play, LLCThe Math Learning Center

Customer experience

Puppet Pals 2

All ratings123 ratings
Positive76.4%
Neutral7.3%
Negative16.3%
Written reviews216 reviews
Positive63.4%
Neutral10.2%
Negative26.4%

Pattern Shapes, by MLC

All ratings17 ratings
Positive82.4%
Neutral5.9%
Negative11.8%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative10.0%

Bugs and requests

Puppet Pals 2

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Saving issues causing loss of progress
  • Freezing and crashing when trying to access certain features
  • Audio and visual glitches during playback
  • Compatibility problems on newer devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more free characters and backgrounds
  • Implement better saving and autosave functionality
  • Allow for custom character creation and customization
  • Add more diverse themes and settings
  • Improve overall stability and reduce crashes

Pattern Shapes, by MLC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Puppet Pals 2

One-time10
  • North Pole Pack$0.99
  • Royal Hall Pack$0.99
  • Time & Tech Pack$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Saddle Up Pack$0.99
  • Vroom Vroom Pack$0.99
  • Civil Rights$0.99
  • Ptolemaic$0.99
  • Under The Sea$0.99
  • Custom Heads$1.99
  • All Access Pass$5.99
None

Pattern Shapes, by MLC

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Puppet Pals 2 free?
Puppet Pals 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pattern Shapes, by MLC free?
Pattern Shapes, by MLC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Puppet Pals 2 or Pattern Shapes, by MLC?
Pattern Shapes, by MLC is rated higher. Puppet Pals 2 averages 4.1 out of 5 from 123 ratings, while Pattern Shapes, by MLC averages 4.2 from 17 ratings.
Do Puppet Pals 2 or Pattern Shapes, by MLC have ads?
Neither Puppet Pals 2 nor Pattern Shapes, by MLC shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Puppet Pals 2 or Pattern Shapes, by MLC?
Puppet Pals 2 ships an update every 2 months, and Pattern Shapes, by MLC every 26 months. Most recently, Puppet Pals 2 was updated on August 23, 2026 and Pattern Shapes, by MLC on June 2, 2026.

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