If you happened to read my recent review on
Look Alikes Christmas, you know that I have some problems with the
I Spy series of books by Jean Marzollo (text) and Walter Wick (photographs.) While my son enjoys the I Spy concept, at his age (5 years) he needs assistance to find all of the items in the I Spy book riddles. With the scenes being extremely detailed and cluttered with random objects, this means excessive eye strain for the parent that is "reading" the book to Ryan----that would be me! However, Ryan succeeds very well at his I Spy Junior computer software, so I was excited when he received
I Spy Fantasy Scholastic software for Win/Mac for Christmas from his Aunt Jen. I had also looked at this software at Ryan's school book fair earlier this year, and almost purchased it for him then.
When one looks at the inviting software box cover, it is easy to see why children would be interested in this game. The cover shows an imagined segment of a child's bedroom, with items like a telescope, an aquarium, a microscope, a sand castle, posters of a pirate ship and a fire-breathing dragon, and plastic alien figures. Open the cover flap of the software box and one sees three main images, with represent the three "worlds" one can explore in
I Spy Fantasy: a sand castle (wizards and dragons, a princess that needs saving), a rocket ship (meet aliens and conduct experiments before starting up the rocket), and underwater (search for lost treasure and follow a mermaid's clues to solve a mystery.)
Within each world, there are six I Spy riddle scenes in which the user must find numerous items. Once the user finds and clicks on all of the items, he earns a reward for solving the riddle. In a space/rocket ship scene, he earns a fuel crystal. In the underwater world, he earns pages missing from a mermaid's book. In the sand castle environment, he earns a key. Once all 6 of the riddles from a world have been solved, the user has a few last riddles to solve in order to start the rocket, solve the mystery of where the lost treasure is, or defeat the dragon and rescue the princess. Once the player has done this, he can still enjoy each
I Spy Fantasy world as a new experience; they can explore each of the 6 scenes within each world again, with different things to find, and the play becomes more challenging. So, in essence, there are nine adventures.
When solving the riddles, the riddle is read aloud to the user once, when the scene is selected, and the user can also click on the riddle words to have them repeated. As my 5 year old reads very well for his age, this is not often necessary for him, but it has proven useful on some occasions when he needs to "sound out" a word. There is very little help available to the user if he cannot locate an item in a riddle; the software does not provide any hints, so if a child gets stuck, he will need another pair of eyes to help look for the item. But the player can leave a riddle scene and go to another, and the program will keep his place. When he returns to that scene (provided he is signed in with the same name as used previously) he does not have to start over to find all of the items in the scene; he just needs to find items he did not yet find. The software keeps track of the items he has already located.
Even though the software seems pretty simplistic in the idea that you are simply finding and clicking on items, there is educational value to
I Spy Fantasy. As the packaging points out, the software puts the following skills to use: problem solving, reading, rhyming, visual memory, logic and reasoning, vocabulary, listening, and cause and effect. For example, once the user solves the 6 riddles to collect the missing pages from the mermaid book, the mermaid tells him to go back to various places/scenes (such as "go back to the shark") and the user must try to recall which scene the shark is in (visual memory.) Also, in certain scenes the player must use tools, such as a microscope, to locate certain items, and when the player clicks on or moves certain items, interesting things happen (cause and effect.)
I Spy Fantasy is recommended for ages 6-10, but children as young as 4 that are computer-proficient and experienced with the I Spy concept will enjoy it, with some assistance. This software would obviously be best enjoyed by I Spy book fans, and is also good for children who like to solve mysteries, complete puzzles, etc. The worlds are visually striking and full of interesting and often very humorous things to spot. The graphics are best quality; each scene is bright and colorful, and the images are clear. The sound is limited to occasional instruction from a narrator (a child's voice) as the riddles are read, directions given by "characters" (such as the mermaid) and some sound effects as you click on objects and/or solve the riddles.
As a parent, I love the fact that each of the three worlds can be explored with different results at least three times, and that the riddles become more challenging each time. While other software programs for children are very easy to master and have very low replay value,
I Spy Fantasy will keep players entertained for hours.
Our family recommends
I Spy Fantasy! It has a retail price of $19.99, but can be purchased at Amazon.com for $16.99 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009VRG5/qid=1073080082//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl65/002-1717744-4863248?v=glance&s=software&n=507846).
Happy Computing!
~ Maria
