It’s Curious George meets Rube Goldberg in Knowledge Adventure’s newest title for preschoolers. Based on the hugely popular children’s book character created by H.A. Rey, Curious George Downtown Adventure has been created to help kids ages 3-6 develop critical thinking skills. The publisher has announced that the game is now shipping.
Curious George is in mischief, and it’s up to gamers to build contraptions that will help keep him from one predicament after another. Solving a puzzle awards the player “curiosity tools” like trampolines, balloons, ladders and bowling balls, which can be used to help get George out of his jams.
Curious George and the Man with the Yellow Hat are in the city for a day, but George’s curiosity gets the better of him, of course. While waiting for the Man with the Yellow Hat to buy new shoes, George gets distracted by a unique sight: Construction workers are placing a gold ball on top of a nearby building. To find out how the ball got so high, George goes on a series of misadventures that players must help George extricate himself from.
The game contains more than 60 progressively challenging puzzles in four locations: the circus, the candy factory, the park and downtown. The first several puzzles are offered up as tutorials, for all intents and purposes: each of the first five puzzles introduces kids to ideas that will be used in the rest of the game. Kids can also use a “hint” button to avoid frustration.
Innovative and creative solutions make the “curiosity meter” spike, rewarding kids with banana points. Progress is automatically saved and kids can replay puzzles they’ve already solved. Also, a puzzle editor is provided which enables kids to come up with their own contraptions.
Knowledge Adventure noted that Curious George Downtown Adventure ships on a hybrid CD-ROM compatible with both Mac and Windows — but fell short of specifying system requirements. You should be able to find it on store shelves for US$19.99, however, and it should soon be available for order from the Knowledge Adventure e-store as well.
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