Busy Town Best Activity Center Ever

Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Simon & Schuster Interactive

Age Group: Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8
Type: Thinking Games
Price: $25.00 US

PC version requires:
Windows 95, Pentium 90, 16M RAM, CDx4

Mac version requires:
Power Macintosh, System 7, 16M RAM, CDx4

Description:

Unlike most of the other Busy Town titles, this program seems lack the spark of innovation and imagination we've come to expect. It offers activites that are too often seen in children's software such as a matching game, coloring book and cartoon clips; unfortunately, the charm of these beloved characters aren't enough to salvage it.

Features:

  • Eight activities with 3 levels of difficulty.
  • Familiar Busy Town characters.
  • Puzzles and games.

Technical Aspects:

We didn't have any problems with this title. The graphics closely match the cartoon show, the actor's voices are the same as the cartoon, and the clips played without audio or video any choppiness.

Report and Conclusions:

Out of the eight activities, only two were ones we hadn't seen done in other software packages. These two were "Mazes in the A-Maze-ing Hedge Garden" where an accidental mowing leaves a huge maze to be maneuvered and the spelling game at the Ski Chalet. Even the latter one is a bit odd, as the child is presented with the word, it is spoken, then they are to click on the letters in the alphabet above.

The activities that have been done to death are: a Memory matching game, Jigsaw puzzles, Connect the dots, watching clips from the show, a coloring book and a sticker page. Chances are that unless you're new to multimedia computing, you already have these programs, perhaps with different characters.




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