Disney's Preschool Adventures (UK Version)

Reviewed by Joy Geizer
Published by Disney Interactive

Age Group: Age 2 to 5
Type: Art/Creativity, Puzzles/Memory, Thinking Games
Price: Unavailable

PC version requires:
Win 95/98, P133, 32MB RAM, 30MB HD, 4X cd rom 16 bit direct x compatible sound, 256 color

Mac version requires:
Mac system 8.1+, Imac, G3 or better, 32MB RAM, 3MB HD, 4x cd rom, 256 color display

Description:

Mickey and Minnie are in their car and stop for petrol (gas). At this stop there is a diner, auto garage, and several other activites which address just about every skill a preschooler would need to work on for school preparation, from colors, sizes, comparing, cause and effect, letters, numbers, etc.

Features:

  • Develops over 40 essential skills
  • Printable worksheets
  • Automatically adjusting skill level

Technical Aspects:

It would have been nice if the print button was consistent between each activity and most children's software. In this software the print button is displayed as several different things, none of which is a printer. Also we found out that clicking on the printer button (a pencil?) in the Daisy's Diner actually prints out the ENTIRE activity workbook for that activity, not just the activity you are working on. Although you can disable the print feature entirely, it must be done in the Sign-in screen only.

I found that my task bar never went away like it is supposed to (which turned out okay when I had to stop my son from printing everything because he did not realize the camera was the printer button). I got out and selected the Autohide feature for the task bar so that it would not be visible during the game. This isn't a big deal at all, except that the less I have to change on my desktop for my children, the better.

The animation in Disney's Preschool Adventures is in true Disney fashion and looked just like the cartoons.

Report and Conclusions:

My 4 1/2 year old loved the entire program, with his favorite activity being the car-building and painting in Goofy's Auto Body Shop. There are also areas to work on colors, shapes, letters, numbers, matching, sounds and music, and cause and effect when they get to play inside an old car. I loved how the skill level automatically adjusted and became easier when he made some incorrect choices, and then began to become more challenging when he was getting them correct.

This is a great cross-curriculum piece for children who like Mickey and his friends. It has fairly good replayability, because my son keeps asking for it. I would rank this program with the popular Jumpstart series.




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