D.W. the Picky Eater and Rugrats Adventure Game from Broderbund Software and Fisher-Price Great Adventures Castle from Knowledge Adventure
D.W. the Picky Eater from Marc Brown and Broderbund Software
Kids ages 3 to 7 (and even adults) will find D.W. the Picky Eater, a charming and entertaining new Living Books animated adventure, from Marc Brown and Broderbund Software. They'll love to learn with the help of their favorite characters from Arthur, the popular animated kid's show aired daily on PBS. This time it's D.W., Arthur's outgoing younger sister, sharing the limelight with Arthur and the world of kids cartoons. She now has a place in history with her own interactive educational adventure CD offering lots of activities with great graphics, music and sound effects.
You start this Living Books adventure in D.W.'s bedroom where you can read the story, play the activities, get D.W. to help and more. The activities include decorating The Playhouse, Story Maker, chase gophers in Save the Garden, Family Picnic and Sticker Fun, playable from within the story. My kids quickly found their way to the printing activities, which always makes them happy. In Story Maker, you create a story with pictures and phrases, and then print it. You can also print stickers from within Sticker Fun.
D.W. the Picky Eater sells for a $29.95 and run on any multimedia PC, 486/66 MHz or faster and a Power Macintosh. Both computers require 8 to 16 megabytes of RAM and a double-speed CD-ROM drive. For more information contact Broderbund Software at 1-800-521-6263, or visit their Web site at broderbund.com.
Rugrats Adventure Game from Broderbund Software
The Rugrats adventure game is an interactive journey into the wild, but often true-to-life world of Nickelodeon's cartoon clan, the Rugrats. This is an interactive 3D adventure game for kids ages 6 to 10, but adults who follow those lovable mischievous kids, will find this CD lots of fun as well.
Your goal is to save the Rugrats world from the "aliuns" (aliens) and their terrible Queen Angeleeka (Angelica). Kids will find all their favorite characters alive and well in this cartoon adventure from Broderbund Software. Now, you're probably thinking that this isn't an educational CD. But, you're wrong. It offers more than 30 activities including puzzles to solve (problem solving) and many fun games. If you still don't think it's educational, it doesn't matter. Kids and adults will have some challenging fun while interacting with their favorite cartoon characters including those amazing talking babies, Phil and Lil, Tommy who's one, Chuckie who's two, and of course, that often nasty, Angelica who's three going on thirty. In fact, I had a chance to try it while Sarah, my 7-year-old daughter, took a break, and I didn't want to give up the computer. It's like living in an episode, except you are in control.
If you and your kids love the Rugrats, accept the challenge and play the adventure to save the world from those menacing "aliuns." And as Tommy would say, "A baby's got to do what a baby's got to do." So, you should do what you have to do and try the Rugrats Adventure Game. You'll love it.
Rugrats Adventure Game sells for a $29.95 and will run on any multimedia Pentium PC or Macintosh, 120MHz or faster with 16 megabytes of RAM and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. For more information contact Broderbund Software at 1-800-521-6263, or visit their Web site at broderbund.com/rugrats.
Fisher-Price Great Adventures Castle from Knowledge Adventure
Fisher-Price Great Adventures Castle is a new version of this enchanted adventure game for kids ages 4 to 7. In their quest for the hidden Knights of the Fisher-Price Round Table, kids will participate in lots of activities inside and outside this medieval castle with great graphics and sound, and lots of interactive fun.
You can build a castle in the Architect's Room, create a coat of arms, feed Cornelius Crocodile (Becky, my 4-year-old daughter, said this was her favorite activity), sing medieval songs in the Banquet Room, shoot the Royal Cannon, fight off Vigor the Viking and create Castle Comics. This is another great adventure with many fun activities to keep your kids learning.
Fisher-Price Great Adventures Castle sells for a street price of $20 and runs on any multimedia PC, 486/66 MHz or faster and a Power Macintosh. Both computers require 16 megabytes of RAM and a 4x CD-ROM drive. For more information contact Knowledge Adventure at 1-800-545-7677, or visit their Web site at knowledgeadventure.com.
Howard Berenbon