children's software review

Blue's Room: Blue Talks!

Ages: 3-5   Subject: Early Learning   Brand: ValuSoft (THQ)

Review Sections: Product Overview  Technically Speaking  Educational Value  Entertainment Value  Design  Replayability  Dollar Value    

Blue's Room: Blue Talks! - Product Overview
The stunning graphics in Blue's Room: Blue Talks! are not the only thing going for this game designed for preschoolers. Unique activities that help develop early learning skills are featured, and preschoolers love them. Based on the Blue's Clues television series spin-off, Blue's Room, this game for the PC is a distinctive computer game offering for fans of the show, and other preschoolers as well.

Children are treated to a warm greeting from talking (!) Blue, the fuzzy spotted blue dog that has already won the hearts of preschoolers across the country. She asks players to enter their birthday, and to choose their favorite color, food, and story. During gameplay, references to children's favorites are made for a personalized, warm and fuzzy feeling - not unlike Blue herself! 

As children explore Blue's Room, they discover six activities. Doodleboard is a stand-out game that involves guessing what Doodle is drawing, based on visual clues (partial doodles) and audio clues. In I Spot, kids play I Spy with PolkaDots, Blue's stuffed doll friend. PolkaDots might ask kids to find a farm animal, something with wings, or something round, and children click on one of the images on the board. When they identify the correct image, they can select a color to fill the image with.

Boogie Woogie with Roar E. Saurus involves clicking the dancing dinosaur to make him freeze, only after Boogie Woogie the jukebox has said the magic word--"Woogie". Pretend-Along Stories involves selecting items to complete a story.

We love Frederica's Birthday Search, an activity that introduces kids to new vocabulary words, such as "delectable", "festive", and "gigantic". After selecting an image that best depicts the vocabulary word, children search for an object that fits that word. A cupcake, for example, is a good choice for the word "delectable", and a party horn fits the description "festive".

Finally, PolkaDots' Puzzles is an activity that kids play after participating in an activity, and mimics the television show's regular activity of the same name. Kids click on places where PolkaDots might be hiding. When they find him, they earn a puzzle piece. There are a number of different puzzles to complete.

The program asks players open-ended questions, effectively encouraging participation and thought. Printables are included, and the ones offered here are cute. They include coloring pages, projects, a joke book, and flip-books.

Technically Speaking
Minimum system requirements are Windows 98/Me/XP or newer, Pentium II 350 MHz or higher, 128 MB RAM, 600 MB hard drive space, and a 4MB video card.

Educational Value
Thinking skills are developed as kids search for items based on both audio and visual clues. The addition of an activity that developed alphabet or number recognition skills might have been a bonus. However, some preschoolers are not ready for (or interested in) these types of activities. This program focuses on thinking skills and concepts, as well as vocabulary development, and does a good job of it.

Entertainment Value
Very impressive graphics, inviting characters, and a friendly interface draw children in.

Design
Children can access the activities by exploring Blue's Room or by clicking on a special icon. After selecting an activity on the special icon, they are asked if they want to leave the current activity, which is redundant. Besides this minor issue, the program is designed well with the target audience in mind.

Replayability
Although one or two more activities would have been ideal, the title is interesting enough to hold the interest of its target audience for repeat play.

Dollar Value
This program carries a suggested retail price of approximately $20 US.

Score: 8.9 out of 10

Buy: Blue's Room: Blue Talks

 
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