Mermaid Games: Princess Salon

Review by eFreeware

If you are looking for a gentle, free play space for a young child who likes mermaids, dress-up and make-believe, Mermaid Games: Princess Salon is worth a closer look. The developer, Princess Town, has built an undersea world where kids move between locations, meet characters and pets, and shape their own small stories. It has been installed more than 10 million times and holds a 3.8 average from 13,298 ratings, so it clearly reaches a lot of families, though the score suggests it does not delight every one of them equally.

What you get is an open-ended role-playing toy rather than a game with levels to beat. The developer describes free exploration through places like a royal palace, a Youth Spring, a witch's house, a salon room and an undersea restaurant, with characters including a mermaid princess, a dolphin prince, a jellyfish pet, an octopus queen and a koi fish princess. A child can pick a role, care for a character or a pet, and invent a story as they go.

It costs nothing to play, though ads appear and some features may need real-money purchases. The content rating is Everyone, and the whole pitch leans toward younger children rather than older kids or adults. If your child already enjoys salon and pet-care games, this one adds an underwater setting and a fairly large cast to that familiar formula.

An undersea town built for open-ended play

The setting is the main draw for me. Rather than one room or one character, there is a small undersea town to explore, with the royal palace, the Youth Spring, the witch's house, the salon and the undersea restaurant among the places named. Each location comes with its own flavor, so a child can move from caring for a pet to dancing in a palace without the app pushing them toward a goal.

The cast is broader than the mermaid theme alone would suggest, so the game can serve a child who wants a mermaid one day and a pony the next, which is a sensible way to hold attention across sessions.

Twelve scenes and more than 500 interactive items give the world a decent amount of surface to explore. The items include care salon tools as well as the animals, so the play moves between grooming, dressing and simply poking at things to see what happens. For a young child, that variety is often more valuable than a structured challenge.

Dress-up and character care

Customization is where the app puts much of its weight. The developer lists hundreds of faces, clothes, makeup options and small accessories, which is a lot of combinations to work through. A child can build a character piece by piece, changing the face, adding makeup and choosing an outfit, then take that character into the salon for care.

The salon framing runs through the whole app, not just one room. Care tools sit alongside the animals and dolls as interactive items, so grooming and dressing are part of the same loop as exploring. I would expect this to be the part younger players return to most, because it is immediate and visual: pick an item, see it change the character.

Expressions and movement add a second layer. Characters can be given different expressions and can move and dance, which turns a dressed-up figure into something a child can direct. The developer frames the range of possibilities as limited only by imagination, which is the kind of claim that depends entirely on how a child chooses to play rather than on anything the app enforces.

Making up stories as you go

The game's other half is story creation. The developer encourages players to craft new stories and shape a fairytale world beneath the waves, interacting with every item along the way. There is no script to follow, so the app works more like a digital toy box than a narrative with a beginning and an end.

Hidden plots and secrets give a child a reason to revisit scenes rather than treating each one as finished after a single visit.

The freedom extends to roles. Players step into different parts and try out other lives through open-ended play, so the mermaid princess is a starting point rather than a fixed identity. For a child who likes to swap between characters, that flexibility is the point; for one who wants clear direction, the lack of goals may be less engaging.

How it is paid for

The app costs nothing to download or play, and ads support the content. Some features may also call for real-money purchases, so ads and optional spending are both part of the experience. That combination is common in this category, but it is the main thing a parent should weigh before handing over a device.

Third-party services may be included for limited legally permissible purposes, and a privacy policy applies on download. The studio describes itself as an educational game studio that aims to bring fun, safe and exciting educational gaming experiences to users.

The most recent update, from December 4, 2025, was a bug fix, with the developer inviting feedback and reviews. That tells you the app is being maintained, but it does not promise new content with each release. The game first arrived on January 7, 2024, so it has had time to settle into its current shape.

Where a young player gets the most from it

This is a game for young children, and the Everyone rating fits that. The controls and the play loop are built around tapping items, dressing characters and moving between scenes, which suits a child who is comfortable with a touchscreen but not yet ready for rules, timers or competition. Parents looking for a calm, self-directed activity will find the structure here matches that need.

It suits children who already enjoy mermaids, pets and salon play, because those three threads run through everything the app offers. A child who likes one of them will likely find something to do in the other two as well, given the size of the item catalog and the number of scenes. The app does not push a child forward, so the experience depends on how much they enjoy inventing their own games.

The 3.8 average across 13,298 ratings is a reminder that this kind of open-ended play does not land the same way for everyone. Some children take to it immediately and keep returning to the salon and the animals; others may want more direction than the app provides. Reading it as a toy rather than a challenge is the fairest way to judge whether it fits your household.

The ads and the possibility of in-game purchases are the practical considerations for a parent. The developer is upfront that content is free with ads and that some features may cost real money, so it is worth deciding in advance how you want to handle that on a shared device.

A free undersea toy box for younger kids

It does not set goals or keep score, and that is deliberate rather than a gap.

I would point it toward parents of younger children who like mermaids, animals and salon games, and who are comfortable with a free app that carries ads and offers in-game purchases. The breadth of characters and locations gives it more staying power than a single-room dress-up app, and the story-creation angle rewards a child who likes to invent rather than follow.

If your child prefers clear objectives or competitive play, the open-ended format here will not give them much to hold on to. For everyone else in that younger age range, it is a generous free play space with a lot to poke at, and the 10 million-plus installs suggest plenty of families have already made that call.

What's new in version 2.5.0

Hi there, We updated the app to fix some bugs. Thanks for your feedbacks and reviews. If you have any idea or comment, please give us a review :)