Not too many software packages will have you jumping and spinning, but that's what Barbie Gotta Groove is all about. Work with Barbie and her gal-pals Tori, Nichelle, Ana and Chelsie (plus set designer Lara) to make cool clothes, rockin' stages and swinging dance routines, then put them all together for the big show. Get creative on the dance floor with hip-hop, salsa and other styles-once you've got the virtual girls going, you can try the moves out yourself. The interface is supereasy-for the most part, pointing and clicking is all that you need to do. The CD works in stereos, too, so even if you're not around a computer you can practice your jams. Use the Barbie Digital Camera (not included) to put yourself in the action-make CD covers or your own personality page! You can save your favourite outfits and dance pieces and watch them again and again, plus you can challenge yourself by watching a dance and then playing back the moves in just the right order. If you want, you can even compete with your friends to see who's got the right moves. Just imagine-all the lights, colours and glamour of show business without the stress and heartbreak. Barbie and all her Generation Girl friends need a little direction-slide into your choreographer's chair and get busy. -Rob Lightner.

Create a winter wonderland for Barbie lovers with the Barbie Sparkling Ice Show, a creative extravaganza that enhances basic PC skills while entertaining little girls for hours. Join Barbie and friends Christine and Teresa, and visit five exciting venues: the International City Park, Misty Mountain, Island Paradise, Rose Garden and the fifth, mystery location that is only accessed when the other four levels have been completed. Put on impressive performances, (each venue offers more of a challenge than the previous one), learn how to jump, do tricks, and speed skate. A level is deemed to be completed when you have mastered a Practice Session and put on a show. After the first one has been completed, the Exhibition Area will open, and when the other locations have all been visited, extra features-including decorations, music, costumes and more-begin to appear for use in the Exhibition show. Installation is guided and is quick and easy. Accompanying the CD is a multi-lingual instruction pamphlet in black and white that is fully comprehensive and very easy to follow. The program is designed for children aged five years and above, but help will be needed to complete all tasks at the early end of the age range. -Susan Naylor.

The people of Naboo are having a grand celebration, and they want you to join them; follow favourite Star Wars characters Anakin Skywalker, Queen Amidala and Jar-Jar Binks through a host of educational activities in the city of Theed and the underwater kingdom of Otoh Gunga. On land, players may choose between three activities: in Naboo Puppet Theatre, children select a character to star in a puppet drama and then define a story for the puppet to act out; Gungan Sling Painting challenges players to hurl paint at druids, matching the colour of the paint to the surrounding druids; and in Music Droids, participants improvise tunes using a number of different instruments and maps. The undersea component of the game is also divided into three parts: in Otoh Gunga, players can dunk Boss Nass by sorting creatures into colour groups, find hidden seashells with Obi-Wan Kenobi and design a Gungan Deesco Dance for Jar-Jar Binks. While all six activities seem to effortlessly combine educational content and pure fun, Music Droids is especially outstanding. The music maps are designed so carefully that players can skate a mouse over the map surface and come up with a credible-sounding tune; anyone who has tried to create musical combinations with an unfamiliar instrument will know that this is no easy task. Children will delight at the creativity incorporated into this game and the ease of playing it. In spite of a few slow and repetitive sequences, the Star Wars Early Learning Activity Centre offers a high replay factor. It builds vocabulary and the understanding of music concepts, logic and a host of other useful skills without making it seem like a chore. Game instructions are delivered slowly and clearly, with plenty of visual aids; character voices, sound and graphics are vivid and often amusing. Young fans of the Star Wars films are sure to enjoy and learn from this well-crafted programme. [+]

Bounce Down in Balloon Town is another very good interactive story in the popular Reader Rabbit series. Reader Rabbit and Sam the Lion spot two moving islands, which they decide to investigate, only to end up stranded on the islands with their Dreamship bubble-wrapped in the Pointy Palace. The adventure starts by finding their way into the Pointy Palace blocked by a sleeping bull. Reader Rabbit and Sam's challenge is to travel around the islands and collect the instruments, so that the band can play and wake up the bull. They also have to work out which palace guard plays which instrument, so that they can finally get back to the Dreamship. There are nine fun activities that children can undertake in order to help Reader Rabbit and Sam collect the instruments. These activities can be played on three different levels of difficulty. Children will enjoy, for example, filling in the missing words to complete the turtle's raps, collecting oysters by matching letters, numbers and shapes, climbing the phonics slide and having a go at Bounceketball, "dunk'n" the ball when it rhymes with the screen. Successfully making Piggy Plane's wings balance, using addition skills, will allow children to travel between the two islands. The activities consolidate literacy and numeracy skills that are part of the National Curriculum. [+]

The brightly structured world of Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends will appeal to the orderly side of pre-schoolers as they help rescue a derailed engine, put it back on the tracks, spiff it up and get it back to work. If your older toddler glows when told he or she is helpful or a hard worker, this CD-ROM will put them in junior train-engineer heaven. The story begins with an engine named James eagerly heading out to get more coal for the other engines, but things don't go quite as planned; James has an accident on a sharp corner because he's being too hasty. Kids get to help rescue James and restore him to his shiny, bright-red self by completing eight activities that will test their problem-solving skills, spatial abilities and deductive reasoning. They must find James, properly assemble crane gears to get him lifted back onto the track, collect coal, find the proper parts and install them on James by listening to whistles, looking at train parts and then putting everything in its place. Once James has a full tank of water and a full bin of coal, kids get to drive the repaired engine. This is the best part of this friendly CD-ROM, as it demonstrates to little locomotive fans how steam engines work, from shovelling coal to goosing the throttle. Each activity has three levels, and Trouble on the Track also has clickable surprises interspersed throughout each activity, something that earlier Thomas offerings lacked. Kids can visit Sir Topham Hatt's office to see and print their certificates (they get one for every level of each activity they complete) or various pictures that they can colour, turn into puzzles, or simply hang on their walls. Everyone from the Horrid Lorry to the Troublesome Trucks is here, and Thomas the Tank Engine fans will enjoy this program as it gently chugs along. [+]

This CD-ROM may end up being your child's best friend as he or she uses puppy power to devour bones, rescue fellow pups and ultimately defeat the woman dogs love to hate, Cruella De Vil. Cruella is about to go bankrupt because her new line of toys has failed miserably: kids would rather play with their pets than Cruella's creations. So she reprograms her toys, transforming them from heaps of shiny junk into robot pet-nappers. Kids can assume the identity of Domino, a boy pup or Oddball, a spot-free girl Dalmatian puppy, and set out to rescue fellow puppies. The puppies are stashed in crates in 16 locations that are increasingly difficult to navigate: when pups-er, kids-collect enough bones, rescue enough puppies, and stay away from Cruella's minions successfully, they move up a level of play and on to a different location. A toy store, the inside of Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus are just a few of the places that must be thoroughly sniffed around before completing the game's big goal: a battle with Cruella herself. Other critters bearing clues, buried treasures, slick surfaces and additional opportunities to solve problems make Puppies to the Rescue a real tail-wagger. There are mini-games hidden within some levels that can be accessed separately, a sticker book that kids can piece together as they collect stickers on their puppy quest and animated sequences that reward problem solving and move the plot forward. The cute-as-heck puppy actions will please parents who prefer no violence; kids can make the pups run, jump, sniff, dig and tumble, but the most destructive weapon these pups have is their toy-destroying bark. This CD-ROM is Windows only, and movement through the program is by keyboard or game pad; thankfully, the keying is more intuitive than some of Disney's other recent offerings. [+]

Join Frankie and friends in Frankie Pet Friends, which includes lots of activities, all aimed at making learning fun. Intended for use with pre-school children (aged three to five years), the CD-ROM could also be successfully used with older children needing to practice certain skills. Parental help and guidance will obviously be needed for the target age range, and it is strongly recommended that parents read the excellent information contained in the manual on the CD-ROM before beginning—it's straightforward, comprehensive and very easy to follow. There's the opportunity to take part in an assessment test, to predetermine a child's skill level. On completion, a diagram of results is shown, indicating skill levels in letter recognition, phonics, colours and shapes, spatial awareness, sizes and patterns, number recognition, counting and quantities, and prereading rhymes, which are all subsequently practiced in the games with Frankie and his friends. Parents can also adjust volumes, view progress, and set curriculum levels. Children are asked various questions and dependant on the choices made and their learning style, they can be helped to learn using the unique talents of either the Word Smith, the Artist, the Athlete, the Musician, the Maths Whizz, the People Person or the Explorer. Homeless pets have been rounded up-let your child choose the pet he wants to help, then earn rewards for the pets such as food, toys, songs and brushes, as you play. Get the pet all ready for adoption, and when it has been fully cared for, join Frankie on the Hot Air Balloon, and look for a new home for your charge. The games are accessed in the pre-school classroom, and include picking a pet, playing with magic chalk, making bubbles pop, playing at shape tag, taking perfect pictures, making balloon animals and animal masks, making music, hearing rhymes, playing with the pets in their playroom, and playing in the cloud maze. [+]

Introduce little ones to the PC in a fun and entertaining way with Jay Jay the Jet Plane and his fleet of flying friends. Your child can take part in wonderful interactive adventures, enter the land of make-believe, embark on an exciting rescue mission to enable the Sparkleberry Tree on Pangabula Island (which has lost its shimmer) to survive, by hopefully discovering the magic ingredients to nurse it back to health. All the activities encourage children to have fun, to use their imaginations, to discover and learn about nature and ecosystems, and to sing songs. (Some of the activities also include printable sections. ) The package teaches youngsters to acquire knowledge of nature and science; to learn about spelling and phonics; to recognise letters and build words; to practice patterns and sequencing, grasp logical reasoning and the art of following instructions; to develop critical thinking and musical creativity and to practice first PC and mouse skills. The manufacturers recommend that the CD-ROM is suitable for children aged three to seven years, but obviously help will be needed at the lower age level. The program is bright, bold and will introduce pre-schoolers to the PC in a non-threatening way. The accompanying leaflet is comprehensive and simple to follow, and clear installation instructions are included. -Susan Naylor.

Pajama Sam always helps those in need, and in Pajama Sam 3: You Are What You Eat from Your Head to Your Feet, the entire food pyramid requires his aid. Fats and sweets are clashing with more nutritious foods, and an all-out war is looming. A peace conference has been organized, so the various food groups can settle their differences, but clever sabotage by the desserts has trapped the conference delegates! It is up to Sam to locate and free the imprisoned foods before the ultimate food fight breaks out. A third-person role-playing game for children, ages 3 to 8 years, Pajama Sam 3 provides a fun test of players' problem-solving abilities while not so subtly educating them about nutritional balance and proper eating habits. Players take Sam through the terrain of a surreal human body in the search for the missing conference delegates. To liberate them, Sam must gather up clues and tools that litter this body from its brain to its toes. He travels through the circulatory system by riding a friendly chocolate doughnut named Sprinkle, exploring the body's various locales and interacting with chatty foodstuffs. The game also has a small number of arcade sequences, such as a skiing simulation and a race through a library, where you must find a book while simultaneously dodging the librarian's shelving cart. Additionally, players must find hidden box tops in each new locale that they visit. Pajama Sam 3's challenges fall in the medium range of difficulty. [+]

Kidnapped! is an interactive CD-ROM adventure inspired by the ever-popular Famous Five Books, and brings the classic tales to a whole new generation. Designed for 8 to 12 year olds, it follows two previous Famous Five stories (Treasure Island and Silver Tower) in being converted into a multimedia mystery adventure. The Famous Five, namely Julian, Dick, Ann, George and Timmy the dog, are among perennial children's top-sellers with their tales of adventure, escapades and clever children outwitting evil baddies to win the day-it is almost inevitable, then, that they should make it to CD-ROM. The basic plot behind the story is that the Five go for a camping holiday on Kirrin Island where new friend Eddy manages to get himself kidnapped. The obvious thing to do is to rescue him, and that is what you have to make happen. The CD-ROM is very nicely constructed with neat graphics and well presented characters. The point and click style interface is, importantly, easy to get to grips with. You get some practice in gathering materials for the trip, so that by the time Eddy goes missing you should have mastered the way everything works. One of the engaging things about Kidnapped! is the way the story skips between animated sequences and situations in which you have to solve problems. This keeps everything running along at a fair pace, and really draws you into the story-you might find it difficult to break off for a rest. [+]

When you start The Lion King II: Simba's Pride you enter a very atmospheric animated jungle. Paddle Bash and Conga Longa are easy games to pick up but they are difficult to master. In Paddle Bash you grab a paddle and you get yourself ready to send balls flying as you try to knock down as many bricks as you can. As you would expect from Disney, there are plenty of fun, colourful special effects as bricks are successfully broken up. Smart keyboard skills are required as you try to angle your shots and send balls bouncing in every direction. And as you score points, you help Timon or Pumbaa move closer to a tasty bug treat. There are clear printed instructions with each game and your mouse is represented on the screen as a lion paw-print. If you want to break yourself slowly into the game, you can start at the kitten or cub level. The second game, Conga Longa invites you to keep the jungle beat as you join a swinging conga-line of cartoon animals. The aim is to move your cub around and gather up other animals into a conga line. [+]