Young Buccaneers Search For Buried Treasure
A Review of Fisher-Price Great Adventures: Pirate Ship
Judy Pozar
Laughs and adventures galore await young buccaneers as they experience life aboard a pirate ship and search for buried treasure in Fisher-Price Great Adventures: Pirate Ship. This multimedia fantasy role-playing adventure is based on the popular Fisher-Price toy and is aimed at the same age group: 3-8 years. The goal of the game is to find the pieces of a treasure map, hidden throughout the ship. Once all the pieces are found, children travel to Pirate Island and dig up the treasure chest.
As they explore the ship, children can participate in several fun activities to express their creativity, role-play or just laugh. The young swashbucklers can design their own pirate flag or build a whimsical ship in a bottle, both of which can be printed. They can help Gunner John fire the ship's cannon, launching everything from pigs to pirates, with a variety of silly outcomes. They can also practice target shooting with Mr. Pym on the Shark Raft. Kids can climb up to the Crow's Nest and look through the telescope to get a closer view of distant objects and watch the zany antics of pirates. For more laughs, they can watch the reactions of Pongolo Pete, the captain's parrot, when they feed him all sorts of food and objects.In the Mess Hall, children will encounter pirates and can join their boisterous sing-along. Lyrics are highlighted when the songs play, giving children the opportunity to develop vocabulary and early reading skills.
A unique feature of this program is a scrapbook for "collector cards." Children collect a card from each pirate they click on. These cards can be printed and colored.All directions are spoken, making this a very easy program for young children to play without assistance. The characters, graphics, sounds, and music are all appealing.
Ten different treasure maps and two sets of pirate characters provide a slightly different experience each time a child plays the game. There is not a great deal of variety in each adventure, however, and the jokes get old quickly. Some of the activities, while fun, will soon lose their novelty and will not likely be repeated often. Others, like creating flags and ships, might hold interest for longer than a few weeks.
While one of the main goals of the program is to collect the pieces of a treasure map, children do not actually have to do any of the activities to be rewarded with a piece. Just moving the cursor around in a room is enough to reveal the piece. On the other hand, sometimes it is very hard to complete the map. You might go over the entire ship and surrounding islands with a fine-toothed comb and still not find that last elusive piece, which can be very frustrating.
Don't expect hundreds of hours of use from this title. But for a reasonable price, it can provide your child with some rollicking fun and adventure on the high seas.
School House Scorecard
| Product: |
Fisher-Price Great Adventures: Pirate Ship |
| Company: |
Davidson & Associates, Inc.
|
| Cost: |
$20.00 |
System Requirements:
Windows:
486/33MHz or faster DOS-compatible computer; 8MB of RAM; hard disk with 1 MB free disk space; Sound Blaster or compatible sound card; Windows 3.1 or higher; double-speed CD-ROM drive; Mouse; 256 colors, 640x480 display.
Macintosh:
Centris, Performa, or better, 68040 recommended; System 7.1 or higher; 3500K unused block of memory; double-speed CD-ROM drive; QuickTime PowerPlug (for PowerMac); 256-color monitor.
Breakdown:
Ease of Use 3
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 3
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Overall Score:
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