Well my six-year-old son decided he wanted to write another review. I need some money Dad to buy another computer game. This last sentence should tell you my son loves computer games. I have been under the weather for a week or so and not getting out very much with him so a lot of computer games are being played. The game he chose to write about is the Disney’s Tarzan Activity Center.

We have found this to be fun there are some educational benefits to it, but I think it has a more fun aspect than educational. For educational fun see my review on Disney Kindergarten it is much more educational than the Tarzan game. However, Tarzan can provide hours of fun.

Let me start by describing some of the games and activities on the CD ROM game. I guess I’ll start with my son’s favorite. Terk and Tantor’s Power Lunch this is a slightly different version of break out games. For those not familiar with break out games you have a ball, which you hit up with a paddle, you control the paddle with your mouse more often than not and try to break blocks. In this version you control a ball with the arrow keys and have to hit certain blocks to change the balls color to get rid of the other blocks with various food. The color changing blocks have the animal, which eats the food on the other blocks. For instance the yellow blocks have a monkey, which changes the color of the ball yellow, and you eat the banana blocks. There are 50 levels of increasing difficulty. I couldn’t get past level 25 my son has been able to get up to level 45. I shouldn’t have admitted my six year old can kick my but at a game should have I. It is fairly easy to control and the commentary from Terk and Tantor at times is very humorous.


Another game is the Tarzan’s Jungle Tumble in this game you have 3 different levels and are moving varying ages of Tarzan around pushing objects to where they belong. Of course there are obstacles such as Kerchak and baby leopards to try and impede you from getting to your goal. I will admit this game you need to have apply some logic to get the elephants or furniture into the correct spots they are to be in. Level 1 you move furniture onto a boat this is baby Tarzan and baby leopards are the nemesis. You can stop the leopards by squirting them with a bottle of milk. The second level is a teen age Tarzan and you are too help the elephants get off a cliff that they are stuck in. Here is where Kerchak and the apes get in the way. You have bananas which will distract them so you can get by. The third level, which we have not gotten to yet, you are to move barrels and boxes into the water. Clayton is the blocker hear and you can throw a net over him. I learned about this level by reading the booklet.

Trash the Camp Music Maker is a fun game where the apes invade the camp and bang and strum on different objects such as pots and pans, barrels, and brooms. You can record your songs and after the time is up you will go to a song sheet, which has the musical notes. Hear you can title music and write lyrics. After this is complete you can save the songs. You can hold up to twelve sheets of music (one song is usually a sheet, though if you want you can make it bigger by clicking on the baby monkey.) If you try to save more than twelve you get a message telling you to delete a song. This is loads of fun I enjoy it as much as my son. I guess partly because I love music and this is just great.

The final game to talk about is Fetch-the Sketch this is a matching game. You have to put pomegranates on pictures to unveil them then you try to find its match. If you uncover the picture of the baby monkey your in trouble because he will pop out and rearrange all the pictures. This game also has three levels and also allows two people to play against each other the person who has the most matches is the winner. This is the only game that allows for two people to play at once.

In each of the games once you complete a level you advance the next level. The nest time you play the game you are allowed to choose where to start. Except for the Terk and Tantor’s Power Lunch they have a picture of baby Tarzan, Teen age Tarzan, and Adult Tarzan to choose your level. I thought this was a cute way of showing the different levels.

Now for the activity on this CD ROM it is called the Jungle Journal hear you can either choose stamps and an already colored background or delete the color and color the picture yourself, and write a story about what’s happening. This is my favorite part of the game because it encourages writing and reading in a fun way. You can make your own language or use and animal language or just plain old boring English to keep the journal. The animal languages are Crocodile, Elephant, Gorilla, and Leopard I may say they are rather realistic sounds for these creatures. The programmers did an excellent job with the sound quality on this CD ROM. You can print your journal out or save it to your desktop and email it to someone else. If you choose a language other than our own you need to download and email the decoder for the person also. I feel this is a neat feature my son enjoys sending emails so this is a fun activity to do.

To get around to the different games you go to the map where Professor Porter tells you where the different pictures will bring you. For those also not familiar with the Tarzan movie Professor Porter is Jane’s father. Kerchak is the lead ape and Terk and Tantor are Tarzans ape friends.

All right now that the games and activities have been described let me say as I mentioned on the activity the sounds of the creatures and music are excellent on these games. The animation and graphics are also superb. The production team did a superb job of putting this together for the users ultimate enjoyment. We have had trouble with the sound quality on some other games but certainly not this one.

Now for the boring technical details installation is easy it has an automatic start and all you do is follow the instructions in the installation wizard. They have support 24 hours a day by calling the 1 800 number (1-800-228-0988). I have had no trouble with the CD so I have not used this service. Therefore, I cannot comment on how helpful the service is I can just let you know it is available.

The system requirements are as follows:

Pentium class processor, 133 Mhz or faster

Microsoft windows 95 or later

16MB RAM

20MB free disk space

256 color directX-compatible video card

16-bit DirectX-compatible sound card

Quad-speed (4x) CD-ROM drive

Standard AT_101 keyboard and mouse

The specs where copied directly form the program manual, which is provided with the game.

I would also like to state that you can register the game on-line through the link provided while installing the game I suggest that you register the game. It comes in handy if something goes wrong with the game and also covers the warranty. I make sure I register all of our software.

In conclusion I would say for kids 5 and up (The game specifies 5-8) this game can provide hours of fun. We have enjoyed doing all the games and activities. There is some educational benefit especially with the Jungle Journal starting your kid writing at a young age is certainly beneficial for them. Now of course you probably will need to do the typing and help your younger child with this, but hey that is also beneficial to you and your child. What I am saying is try this one out I don’t think you will be sorry—if you have kids.

Ryan’s final thought is it’s a good birthday present to give to someone.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this helpful.


Recommended: Yes