Playskool Puzzles
Reviewed by Cynthia A. Sorrels
Published by Hasbro Interactive

Age Group: Age 2 to 5 Type: Art & Creativity Price: 29.95

Description:

Playskool Puzzles can be set to three levels of play - Easy, Medium, or Hard. The level of play can be changed in any of the activities by choosing the Level menu at the top of the screen. Whichever level you choose applies to all of the activities, and the setting is saved.

Easy puzzles have fewer pieces to assemble, fewer dots to connect, and show a thumbnail of the picture in the upper-right corner. This level is suitible for toddlers who haven't used a mouse often.

The Medium level produces more puzzle pieces, and still shows the thumbnail sketch for the child to refer to.

The Hard level has puzzles with 10-15 puzzle pieces and miniature images do not appear. Also, at this level, the puzzle piece rotates until you choose the correct location and orientation for it.

Activities

Lots of activities here...

Explore It! puzzles work in layers. Choose one of the four options and complete the puzzle. Then click on an image in the puzzle, watch it expand and become another full-sized puzzle! This goes on for several levels, until there is only one object. The name of the object appears on the screen and is spoken aloud while an animated sequence plays. The toolbox then appears on the screen (see the Toolbox section below for instructions.)

Mix 'n Match allows the creation of silly creatures, which can then be painted, expanded by using stickers and made into puzzles. An animated party breaks out when the puzzle is completed.

Connect the Dots offers choices for connections - a needle, hammer or wrench. The hammer was really fun, the animated hammering and sound effects were great. Next, select a style for the dot labels and click OK. Then click the dots one at a time, in the appropriate order. As they are clicked, lines appear, revealing the image. These completed puzzles can be saved, printed or moved to Puzzle Maker for further work.

In the Jigsaw activity, assemble jigsaw puzzles and color them. Once the puzzle is complete, the name of the object appears and is spoken, then a short animation is played.

In the Puzzle Maker, choose from stickers, paint and types of jigsaw cuts. This activity was designed to develop shape recognition skills and creativity. The picture most recently used in another activity automatically appears here. After the puzzle is cut, a whirlwind blows it apart. It animates upon completion.

The Toolbox

There are eight different coloring tools in the toolbox: a lightening bolt, which restores the original picture, an eraser that removes everything in its path, a pencil, a fill bucket, printer icon to print the current page, a vacuum to remove color, a magic brush to restore original colors, and a paint brush to paint in the color you select. There are also 15 different colors, including a rainbow bucket.

Printing

The print screen presents choices for how you want your image to appear: in color or black-and white, and with or without puzzle lines.

Sound and Graphics

The music in this title changes from activity to activity and is actually enjoyable instead of being overwhelming, as some children's software titles tend to be. Also, the volume can be adjusted from the tool bar at the top of the page. Note that even though the machine used for this review wasn't quite up to the requirements, the audio ran very smoothly.

The colorful graphics were especially designed to appeal to younger children. They aren't fancy or glitzy, by any means, they're...um...cute. The animations ran without problems as well and were all cleverly done.

Installation and Technical Notes

Playskool Puzzles works nicely with Windows '95 Autoplay, so no installation is required. Once your child figures out how to click the Play button, you won't be bothered with getting it up and running. The manual included has several pages full of troubleshooting information.

In Comparison,

This title is quite similar to Gryphon Software's Colorform series, except it is designed for younger children. Both programs include stickers and sound effects, along with coloring book or color printing options, as well as a toolbox. If you have an older child who's playing the Colorforms programs, your smaller child will enjoy being able to play Playskool Puzzles without help or interference from the older sibs!

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