Grandma Ollie's Morphabet Soup
Reviewed by Ty Brewer
Published by KinderActive
|
Age Group: Age 4 to 8
Type: More Fun
Price: $45 US |
PC version requires:
486-66 8 MB RAM, none 2x CD-ROM, Windows 95, also on Windows 3.1, 640x480x256
Mac version requires:
Version is available.
Description:
The first product in KinderActive's Reading Recipes series, Grandma Ollie's Morphabet Soup aims to teach early reading skills to children ages 4-7. The title offers a familiar early multimedia design - kids click on items to watch and listen to action on-screen. Morphabet Soup takes advantage of a fascinating technology by Apple Computer, QuickTime VR (QTVR). QTVR allows for simple navigation through a virtual 3D world - in this case, a kitchen. The Virtual Kitchen The Madness: Children experience 6 activities to gain exposure to concepts such as anagrams, blends, spelling, and sounds. Notice I wrote "children experience" in the passive sense. Most of this program consists of clicking on the activity, waiting for a cute message and explanation from Grandma Ollie, then clicking a couple of times and waiting for a cute explanation from Grandma who by now is getting on your nerves and you just want her to go away so you can finish spelling "KNOT" without her interference. Click, listen, click, listen, click, listen... It took a while, but I eventually figured out that pressing the spacebar while Grandma goes on and on and on you can skip most of her ramblings. Still, for a curious child not exposed to the meaning of such words as "bear" and "flower," the definition of these words might prove valuable... OK, enough bashing the program. The Method: Yes, this title does teach children important concepts and does so in an almost entertaining manner. This is not a game that slips in education, but it is more of education that attempts to slip in activities. The Magical Morphabet Cereal Letters was almost pleasant and I found myself wanting to spell every possible word with the available letters. See, I spelled KNOT The Gimmick The angle used to separate this title from the crowd is morphing and the virtual 3D kitchen. The Kitchen is "cool" for about 5 minutes for those who have never seen QTVR. On the other hand, kids aren't easily impressed "haven't we always had virtual worlds on computer?" The other gimmick is the one or two places where letters morph into pictures. You click on a "W" and it morphs into a waterfall. You can then replay the morph over and over (but you'll get bored after 2 times). The morph doesn't really add value to the program and it isn't all that neat. They include a feature to shuffle between the frames of the morph. Unfortunately, on a fast PC (P133) it goes SO INCREDIBLY fast that you can't really shuffle at all. A real let down. Worse, there is only one morph per letter for a total of 26 (there are more morphs in a different activity). It seems like the gimmick was planted in the game without adding value. If they had left out the morphing, I don't think anybody would miss it. The QTVR, however, does add an interactive element to the interface.
Features:
- * 7 activities from beginning to advanced * 3D virtual kitchen * Morphing letters * Hosted by Jean Stapleton (well, about 2 minutes of Jean) * Earn a Certificate Reactions: It is difficult to love or hate this program. It had some really annoying interface design problems but does deliver on education. Kids may enjoy this more than adults. Longevity is an issue as the advanced topics are beyond the abilities of a 4 year old, and I doubt this title has 3-year "sticking power."
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