I bought this game for my daughter when she was about 2 and 1/2, after she had been using the computer for a few months and had the hang of the mouse. I found it out of the box, wrapped, for $10. She loves the board game, so we thought we'd give it a whirl.

This is mostly a decent game with learning disguised as fun. When I first started the game for my daughter, I was disappointed, initially not paying enough attention to see the learning value of some of the "adventures". The game is set up much like the board game: there are six different lands (one for each piece of candy), and in each land the "evil" Lord Licorice has wreaked some kind of havoc. The object is to collect six pieces of candy, feed them to "Gloppy" (who is really a molasses swamp), so you can reach the castle and free King Kandy.

The child is guided through the game by a somewhat annoying gingerbread boy in a shuttle type thing. As you move throughout the lands, the candy rewards collect on the shuttle until you go back to feed Gloppy.

In each land waits a character, who needs help with something. Here's where some learning might be done! The different exercises include counting, alphabet, letter recognition, a puzzle, putting things in order by height, shape recognition, and memory. These exercises are cleverly disguised as fun ways to help out the loveable characters.

When the child goes back to feed Gloppy, each piece of candy he eats causes him to "grow" from a swamp-like mass to a more human form. When he has eaten all six candies, he forms a bridge for the shuttle to cross into the castle. There is a little more game play as the child uses mouse clicks to rescue King Kandy.

Here are my complaints about the game: I am pretty big on "please" and "thank you" with my daughter, and in my opinion, there could be a few more of those in the game. The "evil" Lord Licorice could be left out, as far as I'm concerned, but I guess there always has to be a villian. I just think it is unnecessary, especially for the age group. (My daughter thinks he's hilarious though!) Also, the biggest complaint I have is that Gloppy "grows" when he is fed candy! NOT a great thing for young children to get an idea of. I tried explaining this crucial difference to my daughter - "you are not a Gloppy!".

All in all, I think this is a good game. It gives fairly wholesome entertainment, and has surprisingly good learning games to boot.

Recommended: Yes