Quite some time ago I took the kids shopping for some new computer games, well to be more specific, I took my 5 year old shopping for more computer games since he seems to be the one addicted to the computer. On our shopping trip, he picked out the Knowledge Adventure Games for Kids simply because the cover of the box showed a castle with animated monsters and the back of the box showed Franklin the Turtle. Since it was on sale at Staples for around 5 bucks, I threw it into the cart without even looking at the rest of the information provided on the box.

The Knowledge Adventure Games for Kids comes with 4 different games for kids between the ages of 3 - 7 years old. Each game has its own disk and each game offers something different than the other games. The games included in this package are: Fisher Price Toyland, Franklin the Turtles Clubhouse Adventure, Adiboo Magical Playland and 3-D Ultra Pinball Thrillride.

Franklin the Turtle: Clubhouse Adventures
4 out of 5 stars

With the Franklin game, the first thing you notice after installation is the music. Yes, it's the same exact song from the television show and it will keep playing and playing until you finally decide to get off the main screen in the game. As much as I think Franklin is a cutie, his theme song is for the birds!

In this game, the concept is to earn badges while going on different adventures with Franklin and his friends. But in order to do anything, the player must first enter his or her name and then learn the secret handshake from Franklin in order to gain access inside the clubhouse. I did not like the fact that the game demands something from you before you can even start playing, but after a few attempts my son finally got the handshake right and off he went. Franklin will appear on the screen as his cartoon character and show you the secret handshake. Then 3 boxes will appear each with a different part of the handshake. You then have to put the 3 boxes in order correctly. Once this is achieved, you can go on your merry way and have some fun.

Once inside, there are different activities and games to choose from. Once inside you can pretend to be a pirate with Beaver and play a game that resembles frogger where you steer a boat across the pond to the matching flag of the color of the boat while avoiding frogs, snakes and water funnels. For every 5 flags/boats matched up, you earn 1 treasure chest. After 10 treasure chests, you earn the cooperation badge.

There are other games that include each of Franklins friends and just like the imitation frogger game, after each game is completed 10 times, more badges are earned. In short, some of the other games include making friendship bracelets where Bear gives you a completed bracelet and you have to make the match of it, dig for dinosaurs with Snail where you explore a sandbox finding dinosaur bones and you have to put the bones back together in a picture, play detective with Rabbit where Rabbit gives you 2 pictures and you have to make changes to one of the pictures to make it look exactly like the other picture, play hide and seek with Sir Fox in the forest, and help Franklin make posters for the clubhouse.

What I really like about this game is the badges you earn are saved in an album and the child can print them out. There are also other things that you can print out and color from the game such as paper frienship bracelets, paper masks and hats, cardboard submarines, dinosaur cards and other fun posters.

Adiboo Magical Playland
1 out of 5 stars

After playing the Franklin the game, Adiboo doesn't stand a chance in our house. My little guy has played it only a handfull of times but always goes back to Franklin. In this game the idea behind it is supposed to be learning about science. You can make your own character to start off with by picking and choosing different hair and eye color, different facial features, etc. You can plant seeds and water them and watch them grow into flowers, or you can watch them die if you don't water them. Theres also other things to see like watching day turn to night, baby birds hatch from eggs, watch things cook and of course paint and make your own pictures.

I'm not sure where Adiboo came from, but I hope he goes back home quick and brings his game with him. My son enjoyed planting seeds but would get very frustrated when they would die, even if he was watering them.

Fisher Price Learn in Toyland
4 out of 5 stars

My son will play this game but he does lose interest in it after awhile. Not because its a bad game or anything, but simply because it's geared towards the younger kids. What I thought was different with this game is the fact that they take real Fisher Price Toys and incorporate them into the game.

Much like the Franklin game, there are different games to choose from in Toyland. Theres the Fisher Price workshop where you can build dinosaurs, cars, boats or make your own creation using Fisher Price tools. The directions are fairly easy to follow such as use the drill for criss cross holes, use the screwdriver for blue holes, etc. When you put the mouse over the object, it will tell you whether its a blue hole, or whatever color shape it is so that the child will learn from it.

Theres also the Fisher Price 3 in 1 Activity Table where you can draw using different colored blocks, paints, or do crafts. Crafts include using cool things like feathers, beads, or buttons and the child can make valentines, finger puppets, masks, or boxes. Each of these things can be printed out and the directions will be there to show the parent how to turn that piece of paper into a box or a mask.

If the child chooses to use the blocks at the center, different Fisher Price pictures will pop up such as the Knights Castle, the FP school bus, the garage or the train. You then take the blocks and put them into the picture to make the picture come to life.

Theres the Fisher Price Town Square that offers different things to learn about such as the telephone and telephone numbers, a pet shop, a clock to learn time, a music shop that features piano keys where you can make your own song or follow the simple directions to play a real song.

And finally theres the Fisher Price All in One Kitchen Center where you can bake with a bug or bake on your own. It gives you recipe cards and you have to follow the directions of how many eggs to put in, how many cups of sugar or how many sticks of butter to put in. You can choose from different shapes to cut your cookies out with and once they are finished 'baking' you can decorate your cookies.

3-D Ultra Pinball Thrillride
4 out of 5 stars for Mom and the 8 year old, 3 out of 5 stars for the 5 year old

This is the game that my 8 year old and I happen to enjoy. My youngest son isn't too thrilled with this game because to him the pinball isn't as exciting as Franklin or the Fisher Price toys.

In Ultra Pinball Thrillride, you have, what else, a pinball machine. You get your basic pinball and you have your basic knockers, and there are different things set up on the machine so that you earn points and extra balls for hitting certain items. The scene of this game is an amusement park, complete with the over priced snack area. When certain items are hit or a certain number of items are collected, you get a chance to ride up to 15 different amusement park rides like a roller coaster, a log flume or bumper cars and there are also extreme rides offered when you light up certain areas in the game. The extreme rides are more fun to play than the regular rides, but you have to earn it in order to play them, which makes it more of a challenge.

What I like about this game first of all, is it can be played with more than one player. You can play up to 4 players. The only downside to that is you have to wait for each player to complete his turn before you are able to take a turn, and sometimes you can end up waiting a long time. There are also different levels from easy to hard to choose from, or you can make your own custom level. I am still mastering the easy level so I see no need to try and make my own custom level. You can also add a time limit to the game if you want to make it more interesting.

The game is just as fast as a regular pinball machine, but theres no tilting. The scores can get pretty high which makes it more exciting for my 8 year old son to play. He thinks seeing a score of 10 million plus is awesome.

The animation and graphics with this game is pretty cool and every time you play the game you end up seeing something new that you didn't see the last time you played. The ball is very easy to follow since its silver color sticks out from the rest of the game.

In my opinion, this game could be fun for the kids younger than 7 years old if there weren't so many things to do in the game. At 20 something years old, it still takes me a good hour of non stop playing before I am even able to see all the different rides/games offered and I'm playing the easy level!

Overall Recommendations

Despite that Adiboo game, I still highly recommend the Knowledge Adventure Games for Kids because theres so much that can be learned from all the games. With the different games, a child can learn simple things like colors and shapes and learn more advanced things like what a cup of sugar measures, or how to make a friendship bracelet.

What I also like with the first 3 games, is there is a voice that helps the child along. If he/she has to follow instructions in the game and doesn't know what color blue is when they are supposed to use a screwdriver on the blue hole, the game will tell them. Each of the 3 games are also very positive when a task is done correctly and none of them are negative in any way when the task is done wrong.

The pinball game doesn't really teach anything except help with hand - eye coordination. After all you have to watch the ball and hit it or you lose your turn.

And for those of you who have problems installing games, these games install in a cinch. My 8 year old installed 2 of the games for my 5 year old and my computer can still run. If he didn't have a problem, then most people shouldn't have a problem at all.




Recommended: Yes