Not up to the Learning Company's usual standard

The most important feature of this software from my perspective is that it entertains and educates my child. Although the software is targeted for 8-11 year olds I bought it for my 5 year old for her birthday because she adores the Cyberchase tv show and pbskids.org website.

I suppose I expected this game to be of the same caliber of the aforementioned website. The online website at pbskids for Cyberchase is fun, challenging, and absorbing. This software however is counterintuitive, mildly frustrating, and sort of cheesy too. It plays more like a mid-90's styled game than one that was produced in 2003(as it apparently was).

Nonetheless, my daughter quickly became proficient at navigating through the game and with my help she has mastered all of the "carnival games" in the program to progress to the final task of retrieving the "mega bolt" and foiling the evil Hacker in his plans to take over "R-Fair City". The game uses different math and logical thinking games that are fun while being educational. My biggest argument with the games and the whole program is that the instructions are poorly articulated with no written directions to assist the child during play. I mean this is still primarily an educational software and it does a very poor job of actually teaching the concepts it is promoting. This is most surprising when you realize that the Learning Company is the same company that produces the exceptional Reader Rabbit series.

I do like the different levels of play in the game and the automated adjustments that it makes to individual players as they progress through the game. Overall, we got our money's worth from this game but I probably won't buy another Cyberchase software title. I'll stick to the website instead.