Disney's Beauty and the Beast Magical Ballroom

Reviewed by Christine Webster
Published by Disney interactive

Age Group: Age 4 to 8
Type: Art/Creativity, Thinking Games
Price: $20

PC version requires:
Windows 95/98, P 166 MHz, 32MB RAM, 60MB HD, 8x CD-ROM drive, 16-bit DirectX-compatible sound,16-bit DirectX-compatible 2MB video

Mac version requires:
System 8.1 thru 9.x, iMac or G3 processor, 233MHz or faster, 32MB RAM, 60MB HD, 8xCD-ROM, Thousands/Millions colors

Description:

Disney Interactive Beauty and the Beast Magical Ballroom is a bright and colorful game of creativity lead by the favorite characters of Beauty and the Beast. The player gets to help the characters get the castle ready for a party. You can help Belle select her beautiful dress, design the invitations, prepare the dinner, decorate the ballroom and even create a dance just for Belle and the Beast. These activities are a lot of fun, yet you have to use your thinking skills to perform some of them. For example, dinner must be set on a spinning table, and to enter the West Wing, you must help Cogsworth and Lumiere find the hidden key.

Features:

  • Create your own invitations, artwork or stained glass creations to print out or color by hand
  • Choose Belle's beautiful dress, the musical instruments, decorations and design a magical dance for Belle and the Beast
  • Solve mysteries to find your way through hidden passages to more activities
  • Help Mrs. Potts and Chip set the table for dinner as fast as you can while the table spins!
  • Various levels of difficulty

Technical Aspects:

Installation was auto-run, making it quite simple to answer the questions as you went along. It even played soft background music to listen to during installation! I had to install the latest version of Quicktime 4.1 to run but the CD does it automatically upon confirmation from the user. Once fully installed the CD will start automatically each time when put in the drive.

Report and Conclusions:

Beauty and the Beast Magical Ballroom is an absolutely delightful CD-ROM that girls will love. The colors are vibrant and engaging (they had me mesmerized) and the characters explain everything clearly and slowly to the user. There are many different rooms to visit and many levels of difficulty for when the user becomes more skilled. The only tricky part of the game was helping Mrs. Potts set the dinner table. The table is constantly spinning and the player must choose the correct order of the dishes but also click and drop them at the right time onto this moving table. This is really hard as my four-year old, eight-year old and myself had trouble getting it to land at the right time. A keen eye and practice will improve coordination.

Solving the various mysteries set out by Cogsworth and Lumiere are a lot of fun and incorporate the process of elimination. This can be quite challenging but with each solved mystery, a portion of the West Wing key is uncovered.

Both my four-year old daughter and eight-year old son helped with this review. My active son proved that it isn't just a 'girls' game and can offer challenges and creativity to either gender. Disney's Interactive Beauty and the Beast Magical Ballroom can't help but make a child feel like they really are a part of the elaborate planning of a magical party!





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