Review: Wii love to Play and Learn with Jump Start Pet Rescue
Written: Aug 27 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Customized Jumpees, fun theming, as fun as Jump Start World, great for preschoolers
Cons: No 2 player mode, could use the wii remote better, can't name your jumpee/profiles
The Bottom Line: Kids love Jump Start World - online and now on the Wii. Pet Rescue is a hit!
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| marytara's Full Review: Jumpstart Pet Rescue for Wii |
My 8 year old son is a huge video and computer game player - and he is good at them. His little sister (4 years old), wanting to be like her brother - tries to play games and often gets frustrated because they are beyond her skill-set or too difficult for her. However, one game/website that both kids love to play on is Jump Start World on-line (www.jumpstart.com). Being a "Jump Start Mom" I was very excited to learn that they had made a Wii version of Jump Start World called Pet Rescue.
By Knowledge Adventure the Wii Jump Start Pet Rescue game has an ESRB rating of Early Childhood. It is priced at $39.99 with a release date of 9/1/2009.
A few Notable issues from the get-go:
*The game can have up to 3 player profiles that are simply called Player1, Player2 and Player3. My kids both attempted to try to put their names on their Jumpee at setup and didn't like that you couldn't.
*This is only a one player game. My kids would have liked it to be a 2 player game and when they saw Player1 and Player2 they thought it was the option of picking 1 or 2 players and got upset that they couldn't play together.
Game Play
You begin the game by creating your own Jumpee, which is Knowledge Adventure's version of the mii. You can make your jumpee look like a boy or a girl or even an animal. Customization includes some fun hats, outfits and offbeat skin and hair color. My daughter was not real creative and made hers a little girl dressed all in pink complete with hot pink hair. My son made his more creative and it looks somewhat like a hybrid between a boy and cat. At any point you can take your Jumpee into a little circus tent and change their appearance without losing your game profile.
The game has 2 modes of play:
In Story mode, you navigate your way through 5 different "Jump Start Discovery Worlds" completing missions (educational games) and finding lost pets. As each world is completed the next is unlocked. The levels are Neighborhood, Petland, Town Square, Beach, and Jungle. You start in neighborhood and go from there - as you complete activities you are given a "piece" of a storybook icon - when the icon is filled up you can go to the Library in The Neighborhood world to read your book (have it read to you) and then granted access into the next world. At any point you can click on a map icon to change worlds from which you have access to. There is also a "?" icon in the lower right-hand corner that functions as a help mode.
Explore mode gives your child open access to the games and activities in discovery worlds of their choosing.
According to Knowledge Adventure there are 30+ games and adventures, 50+ learning lessons, and 75+ fundamental skills "taught" in this game. Reading skills are not required to play and a big part of this game includes listening to instructions and character interaction with your Jumpee.
There are so many activities in the Discovery Worlds & Activities that revolve around houses/stations in each of the worlds. In The Neighborhood there is a learning house that gives gifts for completing games. These gifts can then be placed on small podiums throughout the different world for decoration. You can also earn CDs to load into a music player that is on each level. The music for the game is catchy though repetitive. The learning house has about a dozen different Pre-K games in it. My kids like the bug catcher game and the monkey drop the best.
The Neighborhood also houses the dressing tent (where you can mix up your Jumpee's style a bit) and your very own house that you can customize every bit of the exterior and then some. For example, you can pick a roof that makes the house look a dog or a cat, even. Other activities in this world include a movie house (watch short sing along movie clips) and billboards (also found in other worlds) that have hidden pictures on them. My kids enjoy swiping the wii remote back and forth to reveal the billboard images. Of course, they also love the water-slide and waterfall on this level.
Pet Land is the world my kids like the most and the one that my 4 year old daughter could play in endlessly. In this realm your child can adopt a lost pet at the Pet Tent and then give it a name. The pet can follow your Jumpee around throughout the game just like a shadow. Activities in the world include bathing and dressing it at the grooming station, feeding it at the diner, teaching it tricks at the pet show, and playing ball with it at the park. As your pet follows you around it physically gets dirty (my kids are quick to point it out) and then take it back to the grooming station to get clean again.
Other activities throughout the worlds are:
Town Square: Grocery Store, Music House, Musical Caverns, Truck Parades. The level deals with list making, following instructions, making music and patterns. There is a really cool slide in this world!
The Beach: Submarine, Eleanor's catch game, Pierre's Flute game. This level focuses on recycling, cleanliness and helping out friends.
The Jungle: CJ the Jungle Guide takes your jumpee on a jungle hunt for a storybook. In Kisha's canoe ride you need to navigate a canoe and avoid hitting rocks. When you hit rocks it causes damage so you need to collect tools along the way to make repairs. Games include exploring jungle caverns, going fishing, and playing hide and seek.
Playability & Replayability:
The Jump Start look and feel translates well to the Wii. Essentially, on the Wii, kids are up out of their seat as they are transported into the imaginary Jump Start worlds. Fans of Jump Start will recognize the characters and many of the games but being a Jump Start "member" or player is not a prerequisite for playing this new Wii game. The world is very color rich with lots to explore. There's waterfalls, lakes, and slides and your Jumpee can go just about anywhere. When your jumpee goes in water it wears little arm floaties (but still has its clothes on, not a bathing suit). An absolute favorite part of the game for my kids is taking their Jumpee down slides and water slides over and over. They love to play in Jump Start world.
In Story mode, you need to explore each area and play each game at least one time in order to progress throughout the game. However, there is no limit to how much you can play each section or visit the worlds once they have been unlocked. In 2 weeks my 8 year old (who has Autism) finished the game. He is the type of child who plays games very intuitively and he figured everything out with just a few times needing adult assistance. The games are well below his ability and this game will be too easy for children beyond the age of about 6 (hence the Early Childhood rating).
My 4 year old is the perfect age for Pet Rescue. It has taken her 2 weeks and a lot of adult (and sibling) assistance to get to unlocking the 3rd level (the town square). She might have unlocked level 3 sooner if she hadn't fallen in love with Pet Land (level 2) which appealed to her the most so far. I imagine most of her time playing this game will be in the Pet Land.
Using the Controls:
You can use just the wii remote or the wii remote coupled with the nunchuck controller for game navigation. Younger kids may find it easier to only use the remote, as my 4 year old does. My 8 year old is used to using the nunchuck coupled with the remote and does well with that. Just an observation that I've made is that my daughter tends to move her jumpee with her whole body by walking and turning and really getting into it. My son tends to rely more on the navigational arrows on the wii remote as well as the directional arrows on the TV screen.
My children both had a few very minor navigational issues throughout the game. If you want to move your Jumpee into one of the "buildings" (where the activities are housed) you can walk all the way up to the building but then you must move the pointer arrow to the building (it will turn from an arrow into a hand when it hovers), then and only then you can press the "A" button on the wii remote to gain entry. The kids kept saying that the buildings were locked (as they ran their Jumpee into the front steps over and over) until I figured out that you need to use the arrow and the A button.
This game uses the wii remote like a mouse and the A button like clicking on the mouse which is at times very counter-intuitive and not like the way that the Wii remote functions in a lot of other games. My kids love the Pet Grooming Station where they get to bathe and groom their virtual pets (like at Build A Bear Workshop or in the Webkinz World) but it is extremely simplistic. You click on the soap and then you drag the soap over to the pet and spread it by pressing on the remote buttons. My daughter shakes and moves the remote as if she is really lathering up the pet - but her shaking it all around doesn't control the washing activity like you would expect it to.
Overall
Despite some minor criticisms and areas where I think the game could be improved upon, I am a fan of this game and it gets my picky mom seal of approval.
Who will like this game?
Children ages 3-6 years old - especially Pre-K and K level children.
Parents who are seeking educational games.
Kids who need to practice following directions & honing problem solving skills.
Pet lovers
Music fans
Girls and boys alike.
Jump Start World fans
For more info: www.jumpstart.com
* I received a free pre-release copy of this game from Knowledge Adventure in exchange for my honest review *
Recommended:
Yes
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marytara
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