I grew up with games like Populous and Powermonger: strategy games that involved shaping the landscape of a virtual world. More recently, games like Godus have run with the idea on mobile devices. Now Toca Boca is using the idea for a children’s app.

It’s called Toca Nature, and was released today for iPhone and iPad. It is – and I’m aware it’s a bit of a broken-record to say this about Toca Boca apps – marvellous fun, for children and frankly for parents too.

As the name makes clear, it’s all about the natural world. “Shape nature and watch it develop. Plant trees and grow a forest. Raise a mountain and enjoy the view. Collect berries, mushrooms or nuts, and feed the different animals,” explains its App Store listing.

“Learn who eats what and discover how much it takes to winkle a bear out. Walk through different landscapes and become friends with a fox. Capture the moment of woodpeckers zigzagging between trees, and watch the day turn into night.”

So yes, the app involves shaping a self-contained world, building the land up to form mountains, or squashing it down to make plains, or even lakes. Children can also plant a variety of trees, each of which attracts a different animal: rabbits, foxes, deer, bears and woodpeckers. Mountains attract wolves, meanwhile, and lakes attract fish and beavers.

It’s a wonderful sandbox for children to experiment with, and then to watch the animals they’ve attracted wander around – complete with a magnifying glass feature to get close up to them.

As with previous Toca Boca apps, storytelling is left to kids: if my five year-old son is any guide, they’ll soon be inventing names for the animals, and letting you know exactly what they’re up to, from their imagination. Although the imagination of a five year-old boy being what it is, this meant “The fox wants to have a poo behind that tree, daddy, but he’s worried the bear will see him…”

:o/

Anyway, it’s a resounding seal of approval from us. Toca Nature costs £1.99 for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store.