Amazon.com Product Description

Four colorful and creative learning titles bring favorite characters to your child's desktop. Designed for toddlers 1 1/2 to 3 years of age, All Aboard Toddler Adventure's four interactive titles include Disney's Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too Animated Storybook, Blue's Clues: Blue's Reading Time Activities, Little Bear: Rainy Day Favorites, and Playhouse Disney's Rolie Polie Olie: The Search for Spot. Kids listen to stories and music with Pooh and Tigger, help Blue and friends write and produce the Big News Gazette, adventure through 40 printable activities with Little Bear, and create a robotic musical score with Disney's Rolie Polie Olie. Along the way, fun friends--like Tigger, Mr. Pepper and Mrs. Salt, and Spot--join the fun, as kids build age-appropriate vocabulary, word-recognition, reading, and memory skills. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

just ok software
After my daughter fell in love with the computer using reader rabbit toddler, this software package is disappointing. It is slow moving and requires skills for the advanced toddler or preschooler...ie reading words. I am hoping she can grow into in and then get some use out of it. We have only tried the Blues clues ( that one is where they need to read words), and the winnie the pooh which is really slow moving, not much in the way of a game...more like a story telling. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Kids can learn, grow, and play with their best friends from Sesame Street. Sesame Street Preschool helps with fundamental skills critical for every preschooler's development. Your child can play with Elmo, Zoe, and Bert and Ernie, while you sing songs and enjoy 20 activities created by child-education experts. Sing along to 6 different songs and develop 14 skills. The software features all-new, innovative content. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Waste of time and money.
Does not work on Windows 2000 or XP although their website says it works on 2000. Their support is TERRIBLE only offering a simple "we're sorry". I wish I had seen these reviews . . . Don't waste your money on any of Encore's stuff - it's junk. Buy the Jump Start Series instead.

Doesn't Encore know that Windows 98 is like 6 years old??? And they still sell this product???

not for xp
IF YOU HAVE XP FORGET IT! MY 3 YR OLD WAS QUITE UPSET WHEN IT DIDN'T WORK. THEY SHOULD HAVE IT STATED IT DIDN'T WORK FOR XP

Yeah, no sound for me too
The software is pretty much useless if you got XP at home. Since there is no sound nor manual, the only way your kid learns how to play is from the speech.

No Sound Under Windows XP and No Fix
Encore claims that the software was written prior to Windows XP yet the software was released as a new title well after Windows XP was available. If you visit the company website they only apologize but do not offer a fix.

Great Activities, Poor Usability
I love the activities, but the poor usability makes it agonizing to play. Transitions, humor sequences, explanations, etc. are all very long (30-60 seconds), and you can't click through them. You don't even get a cursor until the sequence is done, and you can't Esc to exit the game. A minute is a very long time to go between clicks! ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The brightly structured world of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friendswill appeal to the orderly side of preschoolers as they help rescue a derailedengine, put it back on the tracks, spiff it up, and get it back to work. If yourolder toddler glows when told he or she is helpful or a hard worker, this CD-ROMwill put them in junior train-engineer heaven.

The story begins with an engine named James eagerly heading out to get more coalfor the other engines, but things don't go quite as planned; James has anaccident on a sharp corner because he's being too hasty. Kids get to help rescueJames and restore him to his shiny, bright-red self by completing eightactivities that will test their problem-solving skills, spatial abilities, anddeductive reasoning. They must find James, properly assemble crane gears to gethim lifted back onto the track, collect coal, find the proper parts, and installthem on James by listening to whistles, looking at train parts, and then puttingeverything in its place. Once James has a full tank of water and a full bin ofcoal, kids get to drive the repaired engine. This is the best part of thisfriendly CD-ROM, as it demonstrates to little locomotive fans how steam engineswork, from shoveling coal to goosing the throttle.

Each activity has three levels, and Trouble on the Track also hasclickable surprises interspersed throughout each activity, something thatearlier Thomas offerings lacked. Kids can visit Sir Topham Hatt's office to seeand print their certificates (they get one for every level of each activity theycomplete) or various pictures that they can color, turn into puzzles, or simplyhang on their walls. Everyone from the Horrid Lorry to the Troublesome Trucks ishere, and Thomas the Tank Engine fans will enjoy this program as it gently chugsalong. (Ages 3 and older) --Anne Erickson ... Read more

Reviews (19)

Pleasantly Surprised!
When I found this software I was excited because my son LOVES Thomas, but then I read all of the bad reviews and was scared to order it for him. I took a chance and ordered it anyway and LUCKILY we have had no problems with it so far. My son will sit and play it for hours without needing much assistance. I have noticed when you go to Sir Topham Hatts Office and print things out you have to kind of let it do it's thing and not get ahead of it. It will minimize the Thomas screen and return to the desktop while printing but you just have to click on the icon at the bottom of the page to return to the game. The graphics have been very smooth, not choppy at all. When I installed it there was an option for "minimum", "normal", or "maximum" installation. It told me we had enough memory to do the maximum so that's what I chose. I don't know what others used so I don't know if that could be the reason why it runs ok for us. We have a 128MB, 100MHZ computer with a video card that supports up to 2X AGP. I hope other Thomas fans find this helpful to them!

Thomas the Tank Engine: Trouble on the Tracks
I highly recommend this for any young Thomas the Tank Engine fan. My 2.5 year old loves this. The graphics are very nice and detailed. As your child completes an activity, he can click on Thomas and go to the next stage of the journey. This is especially for the child who loves James. The activities on the island are: Search for James (James fell off the tracks and the user needs to guide Harold the Helicopter over the island to find James); Collect the Coal; Fix the Breakdown Train; Find James' Whistle; Load the Freight; Locate James' Lamp; Repair James; Prepare James for his Run. It hs 3 levels of difficulty and certificates are kept in the Controller's Office. Beware of the minimum system requirements though - the software states you need at least a Pentium 166 and 32 MB RAM and we have a Pentium 233 and 64 MB RAM and it still runs a bit choppy. And it wouldn't let us do a maximum install which would allow us to play without the CD installed.

WARNING - Windows Killer!
I bought this game last night for my two-year-old, and installed it right away. Installation seemed to go smoothly, until it reached the point where it had to restart the system.

I wish I hadn't clicked on "OK" so quickly. It would have been nice to say goodbye to a lifetime's worth of data and work.

Yup, "Thomas the Tank Engine: Trouble On The Tracks" killed my computer dead. Windows is utterly corrupted, and I am now the proud owner of a $2,000.00 paperweight.

"Windows must be reinstalled"..."Kernal32 corrupted"...and then nothing. I've never seen Windows deader than this, and I can't even reinstall. I've got a boot disk and will try again tonight, but at this point I have no way of knowing if ANY of my data has survived.

The game cost $9.96 at Wal-Mart. It wasn't worth it.

Short shelf life
My 3 1/2 year old son loved this CD for exactly 2 days, then became bored with it and hasn't picked it up since. The games on it are one-dimensional and not geared for long-term play.

A So-So game.
My 4 year-old played with it for about 2 weeks and then she has never asked me to play it again. It's just not that interesting and challenging. You have to go at the software's pace of things, which is annoying since you may already be familiar with the instructions. So because the longevity factor doesn't last too long and the challenge factor is not there, I cannot recommend this game. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

Dora the Explorer has lost her teddy bear! Osito is truly missing, and Dora and her friend Boots believe he has ended up--like all mislaid things--in the mysterious Lost City. Planning an expedition to find Osito becomes complicated, though, when it turns out that Dora is far from the only one missing a personal treasure. Mami Bugga Bugga has lost her children's baby blankets, for one thing, while Pirate Pig has misplaced his hat!

Despite these revelations Dora is on her way soon enough, headed to the Lost City in search of a handful of wayward items. The path is not smooth, however. Obstacles like the Big Pond (where Pirate Pig's minions must be sorted into variously colored boats) and the Number Pyramid (a place for elementary math skills to get a workout) crop up along the route. These and other puzzles cry out to be solved... preferably before Dora continues on her way.

Aimed solidly at players ages 3 and older, Dora the Explorer: Lost City Adventure is a simple game with a straightforward storyline and no unpleasant surprises. The flow of its educational subject matter is frequently broken with animations and songs, making it easier for young gamers to maintain a focus on learning. Its activities are the most basic of skill builders, easily mastered even at their highest levels of difficulty. Lost City Adventure also stimulates user interest by doling out a sprinkling of Spanish vocabulary through its animations, exposing players to a handful of easily learned words from Dora's mother tongue.

As for Dora herself, her good-natured encouragement and enthusiasm for the quest to the Lost City are infectious, and children are certain to respond eagerly to every task she puts before them on the way to rescue Osito. --Alyx Dellamonica ... Read more

Reviews (60)

My 2 year old LOVES it. Great fun!
My oldest daughter loves Dora and took to this game immediately. She loves to sit on my lap and play and our father-daughter time is often spent on the computer. She can't get enough.

The 3 levels offer a nice change for children that are getting bored with the game. Some puzzles she plays at level 1 where some puzzles she plays at level 3.

The game is VERY educational and fun and it follows the same format as the cartoon does. She'll turn 3 soon and she still loves it.

I'd also recommend Dora's Backpack Adventure (they make a trip to the library), Little People Discovery Airport, Winnie the Pooh (where Pooh gathers all the friends for Eyores birthday party) and Mickey Mouse (where Mickey and Minnie stop off at Goofy's gas station / Daisey's diner).

Average at best game; Dora only redeeming feature.
Do not buy this game if you are used to the better quality games Humongous software has produced for NickJR characters in the past: Humongous was sold to Infogames, and well, if this title is indicative, much was lost.

This game is saved only by the appearance of Dora. I really feel the two star rating is generous. My daughter is Dora crazy, and even she shows little to no interest in this game (and she loves edutainment computer games).

The program is not well executed, and there is little asttention to detail. One my daughter noticed was that at the begining of the game Dora collects 5 books to return to the liebrary. When she returns the books at the end of the journey, the colors of the books which come out of the backpack don't match the ones put in, prompting my daughter to ask "what happened to the books we put in Dora's backpack...

Dora the Explorer takes you a short and boring journey
My 4 year-old daughter completed this game in less than a half-hour. The short-length of the game actually caused her too cry! I was shocked at the lack of depth in the game given that it weighed in at over 250MB for the install.

She's crying as I type this. "I don't like this game!"

Atari must really hate paying customers!!
Well I would give this more stars if Atari support weren't so terrible!! The only reason I give it 2 stars is because my daughter loves Dora and likes playing this game because there are plenty of activities to try and places to go. HOWEVER, Atari seems to want to force you (due to their prehistoric copy-protection scheme) to keep the CD-ROM in the drive at all times in order to play the game! How ridiculous! Even though I paid good money for this game and it installed on my hard drive, it does not let you run it from your hard drive. Atari told me that you need to have the CD-ROM in to play it and they "cannot help me get around the copy protection". Well I don't know about anyone else's toddlers, but my 2 year old just loves to open the CD-ROM and take discs out to play with. So this leaves me out of luck if the disc becomes scratched after she's done with it! I think Atari should trust their paying customers a little more and allow them to install the game FULLY to their hard drive... if for nothing else to protect their investment! I will never buy another game by Atari because of this. They have no regards for their paying customers.

Boring!
I have a 3 year old, and after a week, she is already bored with this game. For $20, there should be more to do. It constantly repeats itself, and has no real direction. Very limited number of activities available, and really no variety. I would not recommend this game at all. I am currently reading reviews to find something much more interesting. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Explore the world of letters, sounds, and words with Blue and her friends in this activity pack filled with multilevel learning games. Identify letters, build vocabulary, practice phonics, and create rhymes as you collect words to help Blue build silly stories in her Word Book. The more words you collect, the more stories you can create and print out! (Ages 3-6) ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Magical Ballroom captures the magic, romance, and humor of the animated feature film. Kids join Belle, Beast, Chip, Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, and Cogsworth in four exciting interactive activities: Belle of the Ball, Cogsworth's Library Mystery, Mrs. Potts's Tea Time Table, and Belle's Writing Desk. Filled with music, dancing, and mystery fun, kids develop creativity, coordination, and logic skills in Beauty and the Beast-themed environments.

Return to the magical world of the Beast's castle. Prepare for Beast's surprise birthday ball by decorating the great ballroom, choosing the music, creating special dances, and more. Help Cogsworth and Lumiere search for the key that will unlock the West Wing's secret passages. Then help Mrs. Potts and Chip ready dishes and food for teatime in a fast-paced arcade game. While at Belle's writing desk, a world of printable activities awaits. Kids create ball invitations, storybooks, greeting cards, and even stained-glass illustrations with characters, images, and props from the Disney movie. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Poorly Written
This program has lots of potential however it is lacking in several areas. The first is that there are clitches and if an area is clicked on erroneously then the program freezes. I had to shut down the computer each time and reboot. Also the instructions and some of the games are too complicated for my soon to be 5 year old. Others were really fun for her. The most frustrating however is that I never did figure out what I had to do in Belle's Writing Room to complete this section in preparation for the Surprise Ball (and I have a medical degree). If anyone knows please email me so we can at least see the dress we picked out and the music and dance we created.

Entertaining for a while..
My girls are 3 and 5 and had a hard time with this game.
There are several areas that require skills above them.
They did enjoy the other parts of the game, but once they finished they didn't really want to play again. ... Read more

Features

• Kids will play with Caillou as they find and collect hidden treasures in every room
• Fun printable activities - Print out pages to color, connect the dots or make popsicle puppets
• Teaches early spelling, phonics, colors, pattern recognition, memory and listening skills
• Ages 2 to 6

Amazon.com Product Description

Active Play, A Bug's Life lets you explore the world of Flik and his friends. Help them ward off the evil grasshoppers bent on invading Ant Island. Build a special contraption, of Flik's invention, and rid the ants of the grasshoppers' terror. Travel to the game's six locations, build a board game or puppet theater, and gather facts about real-life bugs. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Educational, fun, but a little boring
The Bug's Life game is good and appropriate for younger kids. Flik has to find 6 pieces in order to create a contraption with which to get rid of the grass hoppers. In order to get each of the six objects, Flik and you kid have to complete a task--sort through berries, arrange pictures in order etc. In addition as the kid plays, she/she can learn about bugs, by clicking on a little camera button.

In addition to entertainment, the game also provides tyhe kid with some basic computer skills, which are (surprise) necessary today.

My only problem with the game is that it is quite repretitive. After a few times, my son got bored.

My son really liked it at first, but

Fun and Learning Game
I purchased this game for my 4 year old grandson. He has spent many hours playing the game. Since I am a former preschool teacher, I am please with the many learning skills that are included. ... Read more

Features

• Before Clifford's birthday celebration can start, Emily Elizabeth has to plan out 18 different activities -- everything from taking Clifford to the Dog Groomers to going to the Post Office
• They'll have fun helping Emily find her missing jewelry while sorting, counting and matching
• They'll also get to bake a cake, play a soccer game, and much more
• Adjustable skill levels
• Ages 4-8

Features

• Children gain: Confidence, Creativity, Inspiration

Features

• Kids will become reporters for the Pennsylvania Gazette and witness the birth of a nation
• Gather facts and interview historical figures like Ben Franklin, Paul Revere and George Washington
• Test your abilities to listen, observe, and separate fact from opinion
• Challenge yourself even further with a set of printable puzzles, games, and quizzes
• Watch history unfold, from the Boston Tea Party to the surrender at Yorktown!

Features

• In Tarzan, kid will become the jungle hero, as they swing & fight through 13 levels of exciting arcade-style action
• In A Bug's Life, you'll explore and solve puzzles in 15 levels of anthills and fields to help Flik find his queen
• Toy Story lets kids become Woody and rescue the good toys while fighting the bad ones
• Ages 4-8

Amazon.com Product Description

There's a new friend in school: Winnie the Pooh! And he's ready to learnand play with kindergartners in Disney's Winnie the Pooh KindergartenPlus. This title has been newly enhanced with an introduction toSpanish and French. Through storytelling, games, and activities, children will build fundamental skills in reading, spelling, simple arithmetic, problem solving, and more. Once all the lessons are completed, kindergartners will be rewarded with a diploma and graduation ceremony. Through positive reinforcement and gentle encouragement, Disney's Winnie the Pooh Kindergarten Plus teaches children fundamental learning skills while fueling their creativity and imagination. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Don't buy it
I have never seen a worse product for children, of any age.

First of all -- it has bugs! That's a total no-no.

The instructions are obtuse, at best. Sometimes they are downright misleading.

Some screens don't have the exit arrow at all and you have to stumble through the program to get out.

The modules are unimaginative, unvaried and downright boring. In addition, they are really not rated right by age -- they are much too easy for my pre-schooler, let alone a kindergartner!

VERY Disappointing
This software is so ridiculously easy that I can't fathom how Disney came up with the age designation. Having purchased Disney learning cd's in the past which were labeled for the age groups of "Preschool" and "Ages 3-6", we naturally thought that software labeled for "Ages 4-6" would be at least at the same level as the "Ages 3-6", and hopefully a little more challenging. This wasn't the case at all. Their idea of "Simple Arithmetic" is to have the child click on the number that is said and then the game counts that number of balloons for them. This is nothing more than number identification for the child. The "Early Reading and Spelling" consists of matching a word to a picture, or finding a picture that starts with a featured letter. "Language and Verbs" doesn't teach anything at all. The child just clicks on one of three words, all verbs, and watches Tigger perform that action. Someone tell me, how does choosing between "sit", "dance", and "bounce" teach a person anything about language or verbs! I won't even get started on the lazy way in which the foreign language is incorporated.

The only redeeming section of this software is the part where Tigger is helped in following a treasure map. This was a nice way of teaching compass directions.

This game was cheaply done in every way - content to graphics. Such a shame. Two other Disney learning software titles that we thought were decent, Ready for Math and Ready to Read, were much better. ...

Tsk tsk....
Shame on Disney Interactive! In less than 18 months the re-release games with very little additions for the same price as the original! No discounts for owners of the original. This is as bad as buying a DVD and a special edition comes out soon after. If this is their new strategy, you might as well wait a year for the next addition! By the way: what's with the skimpy amount of content? There used to be more activities on your CD roms! Orig. title 2 1/2 stars, little value added version: 1 star!

Good, but maybe a little easy for 5 & 6 year olds
We just got our computer, and my son loves Pooh. He is almost 5 years old, so we purchased this game for him. In the game each section has 3 levels in which you get a gold star for each one completed. It has eight different areas which your child can go into. When you are done getting all the gold stars for each level, there is a graduation with Pooh and the other characters. Most areas he had no problem with. A couple areas took him a little longer. We have had this came for 2 weeks now and he has already graduated about 7 times. However, he still loves to play it. (Although, it could be because it's the only one he has). All in all, he has learned a few things he didn't know before and he has fun with it. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Disney's Phonics Quest challenges kids to enhance and master their phonics skills while taking a magical journey with Mickey and his friends.Using state-of-the-art voice recognition technology, kids will actually beable to speak their answers out loud as they master a variety ofphonics-based, multilevel learning activities. Kids will join Mickey on aquest as the sorcerer's apprentice to uncover the magic of phonics fun.Mickey's quest begins as he opens the sorcerer's magic book and loses sixof the Sorcerer's belongings. As each challenge is mastered, Mickey regainsone of the Sorcerer's belongings so he can eventually return in triumph tothe castle. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Not Very Rewarding
In a word, disappointing. We purchased this game thinking it was representative of Disney interactive products. At first, our five year old son enjoyed playing it but quickly bored of it. Kids have to repeat the phonics exercises over and over and over again - sometimes more than 10 times - to receive any kind of fan-fare or reward in retrieving the Sorcerer's lost items. Excellent graphics and great activities but there certainly should be more verbal or graphic reward as incentives to make the child want to further pursue the game. Kids of this age react much better to more frequent reward...and this game just disappoints for computer active, advanced children. Other Disney products have been better received.

Almost very good
My daughter is 4 and loves all things Disney. This game has a lot to offer and in the beginning she was very gung-ho about playing. But at this age, there needs to be rewards rather frequently to maintain their interest. In Phonics Quest, there are plenty of choices for her to choose from-which is great. And many of the games are quite educational. There is a game for sorting and listening skills. One for ryhming words. Another for patterns. There is simple spelling-fill in the missing letter, and so on. The problem with it is that the kids have to work for a long time to get each prize-the missing items from the castle for which Mickey is on a quest. By a long time, I mean that they have to answer about 20 or more problems in each of the 6 rounds. Then, there are 6 prizes in all to get. Now, after all of this hard work, one would expect a little fanfare for the kids to make it worth fighting for. But the fan fare is almost non existent and then just rushes you off to do it again. I find its the fan fare that keeps them coming back for more. Jaclynn has stopped coming back for more after about 4 rounds and dubbed the game boring.

Good teaching tool, but not enough magic
We just got back from Disneyworld so my daughter was very eager to play this new "game."

She is still playing it, but keeps asking: "where's Mickey?" The idea is that Mickey travels around trying to retrieve stuff missing from the castle. Each missing item can only be recovered after completing a lengthy phonics drill. During most of the drills Mickey and the recognizable Disney characters are off-screen. And you have to correctly answer a large number of questions before you get a prize. The cute animated graphics only briefly disguise the fact that these are pretty routine exercises.

The software worked very well on our old PC (AMD 500 Mhz, no graphics card). No problems installing or delays in loading etc...

The software automatically adjusts the difficulty level based on the accuracy of the responses. This should allow the software to be used for a long time as a child's skills improve.

The software comes with a microphone and voice recognition software. Unfortunately you have to "train" the voice recognition software to understand a user's speech patterns by reading lengthy texts into the microphone. Do you see the problem here? If my daughter could read those texts then we wouldn't be buying this CD... I can read the texts, but my voice is quite different from my daughters. The end result was that when a "voice recognition" opportunity appeared during the game my daughter would shout answers into the microphone and get no response.

My 5 Year old loves this games ! Excellent product !
We purchased this title yesterday and she has been playing it for two days straight. This is by far the best reaction we have seen out of the 15 or so titles she already owns. The game is easy to interface with for kinds as young as 4 and entertaining enough for kids up to 6. Unless your child has some challenges with learning, I don't think it would be a worthwhile purchase for any child much over the age of 6. ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

There's something suspicious in the dark night sky: flashing lights from an old, abandoned amusement park. Thrills, chills, and problem-solving skills await you in this haunted amusement park adventure. Join the ClueFinders as they venture into a haunted carnival on a mystery-solving quest. You'll need all the nerve, wits, and problem-solving smarts you can muster to crack this creepy case.

Keep the learning excitement alive after the computer's turned off with thereal-world adventure kit, included in the program. You can create cool maps to guide your friends on treasure hunts, and use the logbook and calendar to plan activities, keep on schedule, and record your daily thoughts and achievements. You can also create, encode, and print top-secret messages with the encoder/decoder, and make good dollars-and-cents sense with the money tracker. The sound transformer lets you change the sound of your voice, your dog's bark, or any sound you can record. The club kit has everything you need to help you start your own club, host activities, solve mysteries, and dream up new adventures. (Ages 9 and up) ... Read more

Reviews (3)

It's a great adventure
The game has great skill and its very fun. You get to find find an undergroud cave. I have played this about 30 times cause its so fun. I think you should buy it if you like adventures.

Cool!
This is a really cool game! It raised my math grade to an A!

interesting
I think that this game was very poorly made, but the concept was very innovative, so if you really like this genre of games, then run and order it today! But if you think that graphics and sound effects are an important feature of computer games, then I would not suggest this graphically inferior game. Hope I helped you. ... Read more