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Kid's game reviews
By ROBERT KING, SARAH KLEIN, SHERRY ROBINSON and CRAIG PITTMAN Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania
For those not yet addicted, Zoo Tycoon is the habit-forming computer game that allows you to design and manage your own zoo. You pick the animals you want, design their exhibits, hire their caretakers and erect zoo amenities such as restaurants and gift shops that help pay the bills. Now comes Marine Mania, an expansion pack. Beyond giraffes and lions, Marine Mania offers a broad array of aquatic animals -- dolphins, sharks, whales and others that are not part of the Zoo Tycoon menagerie. Instead of erecting fences, you build water exhibits where the animals live and where they perform. (Think all things SeaWorld.) While it perhaps does not rise to the life-consuming addictiveness of the original zoo version, there is considerable fun in Marine Mania. What's more, the game comes with Dinosaur Digs, which allows you to build a Jurassic Park-style attraction, electric fences and all. Beware, though, dinosaurs seem more restless in captivity than typical zoo creatures. Keeping them happy is tough. And heaven forbid they escape. (Helpful hint: Don't skimp on electric fencing.) This is a nice game for kids 8 and older. Those younger might find it a bit complicated, which is part of the beauty for anyone who has ever wanted to craft his own zoo. Remember, though, it works only if you have installed the original Zoo Tycoon. -- ROBERT KING, Times staff writer Nancy Drew, Secret of the Scarlet Hand
This game takes you through a mystery that Nancy Drew has to solve. Someone has been stealing monuments and hieroglyphic writings from museums around the world. You have to find out who and why. To do this, you must go to different places. You might end up in a garden that you learn about in the beginning of the game. There you will find clues and, if you play your cards right, you will be directed to yet another place. Along the way, you might visit a secret laboratory, where you will get a to-do list to follow. Much of the game was fun. I enjoyed talking to Nancy's friends, Bess and Georgia. They don't give you much information. But if you forget key information about the case, they will help you remember. The game also can be frustrating. At one point, you have to reassemble a broken monument, and you must put the pieces together in the right order. I needed help with that part. This is a good game for fans of Nancy Drew or anyone who likes mysteries. -- SARAH KLEIN, Times correspondent Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys
Mickey, Donald and friends are locked in a haunted house complete with secret passageways, portraits with shifting eyes on the wall and three ghosts who pop in and out to offer some tutorial help. To get out of the haunted house, you have to help Mickey and the boys find six keys. And the only way to get the keys is to complete a set of problems that involve math, reading, music and critical thinking, among other things. My 5-year-old found the game a bit spooky at first. But she got used to the ghosts. The graphics and music are great. And there are some good math and phonics tasks. But at times the game was a little too challenging for my daughter. And I consider her pretty sharp. She says she likes it. But after we played it the first couple of times, she hasn't asked to play it again. While it might be too much for 5-year-olds, I could see how this game would help kids a little older to practice some of the fundamentals of learning. And it has some fun aspects: suits of armor that have to be pieced together, grandfather clocks that need fixing and leaky pipes that need repair. But it takes some doing to complete the task and get the keys. -- ROBERT KING, Times staff writer Stanley: Wild for Sharks
With only the briefest reference to Jaws, this CD-ROM game teaches kids a lot about sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures, and even more about solving problems with imagination. But it's got one big problem that requires a little parental ingenuity to get around. The game is based on the Disney Channel's animated TV show about Stanley Griff, a wildlife-loving kid with the roundest head since Charlie Brown. Stanley's best friend is a fish named Dennis, who has a plummy British accent and somehow knows more about natural history than the Crocodile Hunter and Marlin Perkins put together. Stanley also owns a cat and a dog who periodically burst into song about their favorite reference work, the Great Big Book of Everything. As on the show, Stanley jumps into the GBBOE to find out more about animals, sometimes by turning into one himself. He becomes an octopus to thread his tentacle through a maze or a flying fish to win a race. The game has excellent graphics and many fun popups. The plot, involving a search for parts for Stanley's shark model for show-and-tell at school, is sufficiently engaging to keep young minds interested. Once our 4-year-old solved the game the first time, he was ready to play it again. But when he tried to go through it a second time, the game had automatically increased the difficulty beyond his abilities, and he became frustrated. We searched the e-manual and even looked online for some way to take it back to the beginner's level, but no luck. Finally we came up with a solution: log in under a new name. So far our son has played it under his first name, his last name and his initials. We weren't wild about the subterfuge, but it's a way to keep him from feeling lost at sea. -- SHERRY ROBINSON and CRAIG PITTMAN, Times staff writers
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