Download is a good preview, though useless for playing.

Pros: This game has wonderful graphics in bright, solid, colors that kids love. The songs and speech are entertaining and catchy, so that adults can stand to be near the computer while a child is playing this game. Colors, shapes, animals, and music are major focuses in this game which is appropriate for even very young toddlers, so long as they have some grown up help with the mouse.

This game is comparitively VERY inexpensive to buy the full version. It is approximately one third of the price of other bigger name games like Sesame Street and Reader Rabbit, and I happen to like it much more anyway.

The characters in this game speak English, but with a French accent. There are interesting pronounciations of words which encourage young (American) children to learn how to make sounds which aren't especially prevelant in English. Also, the game is available in UK English or US English.

Cons: While the free demo of this game gives a great preview of the graphics and music in the game, it is virtually unplayable and has an awkward sort of "buy me!" interface when you click on something that is not enabled in the demo (which is virtually everything). It would be nice to actually be able to test out the game before shelling out the (though measly) $11 to buy it.

The developers of this game UpToTen have a website (UpToTen.com) which hosts HUNDREDS of similar games featuring the same characters as this game. About 600 of these games are free to play online while a subscription will give you access to another 150, all without any ads. With this site available, buying this game is hardly necessary.

As metioned in the 'pros' section, the characters in this game speak English with a French accent. While this is at times charming, it may be difficult for very young children to understand what the characters are saying. While learning to understand the way other people speak is a natural barrier of language, some children may be frustrated by not being able to understand.

Posted: 10-Jun-2005 09:56:11 AM