Make way for Babyz! Adopt an adorable virtual kid in this amazing, playful CD-ROM simulation of child rearing from the company that brought you Catz and Dogz. Each Babyz (that's singular, too) is darling and unique-choose one of 15 to adopt or, if none of them is just right, check out their Web site with plenty more to pick from, changing every day. You can have up to three in one house, and then the fun begins. Name your Babyz, clothe them, give them toys, feed them, watch them play in the backyard, or just give them a tickle when they look bored. The software runs both like a normally selected program and as a screensaver-if you're not careful, the Babyz will take over your screen when you're not looking! The graphics are playful and imaginative, the costumes are cute, and the house itself is full of stuff for the Babyz to explore. The package comes with voice-recognition software so you can even talk to your Babyz-or teach them to speak. Short, simple words will start yammering back at you before long, and you'll wonder how you ever lived without a babbling Babyz in your computer. -Rob Lightner.

After a brutal storm wrecks his ship, a bedraggled Robinson Crusoe successfully manages to drag himself ashore-he's the sole survivor and it's your task to help him escape in this animated story CD-ROM. From the start Robinson Crusoe is a gripping game, brilliantly narrated by Martin Jarvis. It opens with stirring dramatic music as Crusoe talks of his desire to travel the oceans of the world despite the strong opposition of his father. Unfortunately lightening strikes his ship and from the moment you see Crusoe arrive alone on the beach, you have to take on his role. Stranded alone on the Island of Despair, you have to keep your spirits up and carry out various tasks to prevent yourself from starving or becoming the victim of a savage wild animal. Your first task is to get on board the shipwreck. Using your mouse button you have to collect all the pieces you need to build a raft that will then hopefully take you and the remaining food and water ashore. The scenes are very atmospheric and well illustrated and you even have to wait for a low tide before you head for the wreck. This game comes with clear instructions on how to navigate your way through the adventure. By clicking on a book icon, you can find tools or objects to make life on the island easier. [+]

If you laughed your way through Monsters, Inc. the movie, then enhance your street cred one step further and treat your little monsters to Monstropolis Mission. The great thing about this CD-ROM is that, while it plays like a video game, it has all the educational qualities of a top-class software package. All games are goal-based, and each step follows on logically from the last. Everyone starts at the bottom, in the mail room, but multi-level gameplay tied to award systems (earn an Employee of the Day, Month or even Year award) offers an incentive for progression. Once you've sorted the mail correctly, you'll earn a promotion to the Parking Lot, where you must park the company cars. (Surprisingly, this is one of the highlights of the game!) While all the activities involved are entertaining, each one stretches the brain and must be completed before the next can begin. The graphics are fine, and while they won't get a PS2 player hot under the collar, they reflect the mood of the film and support the game well. Controls are responsive, and generally the package has a finish and refinement you would expect of the Disney name. It's good family fun. [+]

Another day, another world-dominating villain to crush. Spy Fox is back, and this time he must stop Napoleon LeRoach before the cretinous cockroach can unleash a giant robotic dog on the unsuspecting world. The nefarious commander of SMELLY (Society for Meaningless Evil, Larceny, Lying, and Yelling) has hidden the dog at the World's Fair, and every innocent tourist who visits the event helps wind up the dogbot's engine simply by passing through the fair gate's turnstiles. Combining puzzles, animations, and a loony cast of animal characters straight from a James Bond film, Spy Fox 2: Some Assembly Required equips players with fiendishly clever gadgets and the means to make fake identities for themselves. Thus armed, they can roam the World's Fair, searching for the critical off switch and deactivation codes to shut down the dogbot before it's too late. Some Assembly Required has the usual virtues of a Spy Fox game: vivid and interesting visuals, great sound, intriguing puzzles, humor, and a lot of creativity. The gadgets are a particular delight, and the emphasis on mechanics will interest players who are keen to understand how things work. Parents will be pleased to see that values such as cooperation and teamwork are stressed, as Spy Fox relies heavily on scientists and other spies to help him complete his mission. Though the game has many animated sequences-which may frustrate task-oriented players-they are more entertaining than most segments in similar games. Whether you're a fan of Spy Fox or you're just looking to solve some brainteasers that pack a humorous punch, Some Assembly Required will definitely deliver. [+]

The Ramayana is a story CD-ROM that tells the epic Indian story of Rama and Sita. Children can listen to the adventures of Rama in the forest, and of how he defeats the 10-headed demon Raavanna and rescues Sita with the help of the monkey king. This is a very easy-to-use CD-ROM with very clear instructions. Children can listen to the exciting story, which is told in chapters, and can follow the text. They can use the bookmark function to save their place in the story and come back to it at a later date. There is also an excellent function that highlights difficult words and allows children to hear an explanation of their meaning should they need to. By clicking on the treasure pot children can learn more about the story and the characters. There is also an opportunity for them to go on two adventures of their own. One involves helping the princes of Adodhya who need magic herbs to save them. These can be found on medicine mountain. [+]

If you're a budding Sherlock Holmes or fancy yourself as a top police inspector, here's your chance to start practising your crime-busting skills. Identikit tests your ability to remember faces and lets you create your own police sketches. Using the computer-based assembly kit, you can quickly click on key features like ears, noses and beards and put together your own images of people-just as if you were working on a major case at Scotland Yard. What does the suspect's hair look like? What kind of eyes did the woman have? What was the shape of the person's lips? By simply clicking and dragging with your mouse button you can complete identikits of all kinds of people. You can also create sketches of animals. So if your pet dog or cat goes missing, you could easily put together a wanted poster and add in your telephone details. You can also create fun identikit images and e-mail them on to your friends. Aimed at anyone from eight years up, this is a clearly laid out and attractively designed CD-ROM. Installation is practically effortless and it is easy-to-use. There are also links to Web sites where you can find lots of other eyebrows and noses to work with. [+]

The Adventures of King Arthur and his Knights is a story CD-ROM that tells children the well-known tales of the Round Table. The story unfolds over 21 chapters, which children can leave and return to at any time using the bookmark function. Children can listen to the story and follow the text as they hear about brave knights and tales of magic. There is a very good glossary function that children can use if they want to have a word explained to them. The portrait gallery gives more information about the characters in the story. By clicking on the book icon, children can find out more about the Middle Ages. Information is given on Merlin, Stonehenge, language and literacy, knighthoods, Christianity, food and health and myths. Children can also choose to go on an adventure by selecting either Arthur's England or Knight Errant. Children have to move squares to the correct places to form pictures to progress through the adventure. The pictures get increasing more complex as they progress. [+]

A classic and much-loved children's story is given a vivid interactive finish in The Little Prince, a CD-ROM that will thrill young readers and their parents. With elegant animations and a low-key, whimsical delivery, this CD-ROM tells the tale of a stranded pilot and his friendship with a strange young man who lives alone on a small asteroid with only a rose for company. As an interactive storybook, The Little Prince is absolutely gorgeous. Antoine de Saint Exupéry's story is ideal for a multimedia format, since much of the tale centres around the act of drawing pictures. Kenneth Branagh's cheerful and appealing reading of the text is enhanced with sketches that not only appear on narrative cue, but interact with users-changing colours at the click of a mouse or sweeping the book's text aside to highlight the simple, but beautiful illustrations. The Little Prince offers an intriguing mix of the simple and the sophisticated. While the humour in the story will be more appealing to older players, the games and activities in the program are extremely simple; for the most part, they are composed of animations that come alive at a single click. One game involves maintaining the ecosphere of the Little Prince's home, asteroid B-612, by destroying young baobab plants and watering his rose. Another involves making regular visits to see a wild fox, which will eventually become tame enough to play hide-and-seek with players. Little is required in either of these games except diligence and patience. [+]

The New Way Things Work is a CD-ROM packed full of information about machines and the scientific principles behind them. Children can learn all about the latest technology and take a look back in history to find out how things work. Children will enjoy, for example, navigating their way around the warehouse or choosing from the A-z of machines to extend their understanding of how things work and discover the science behind some great inventions. They can look at information screens with excellent text, diagrams, animation and video clips. They can also find out about some of the great inventors who created these amazing machines. There is a useful progress tracker to show children which screens they have visited and which screens are left for them to look at. Children can also use their new-found knowledge to face the challenge of the science test and try to win a master, an expert or a genius certificate. Children can look back at information screens or take a look at the research answers if they are struggling. The New Way Things Work would be a good buy for inquisitive children of 8 years and over who love to know how things work. It's particularly useful for helping children who are struggling with homework or doing a project, as it covers a huge range of scientific principles. [+]

If you liked the film then you are guaranteed to find something to entertain you in Scare Island Action Game, this PC game based on the adventures of Sulley and Mike the lovable fiends from Monsters Inc. There is actually quite a lot to this game, rather than just adapting the film, this is essentially a prequel. Players can choose to train as either Sulley or Mike (switching easily between the two at any point in the game), with each character having distinct scare tactics appropriate to their personality. Each Monster also has his own special moves-Sulley is the master of the Tailspin Slap Attack, the Monster Fur Flop Aerial Pounce and the Somersault Jump, while Mike spreads terror with the help of the Spinning Ball Attack, the Bouncing Eyeball Aerial Pounce and the Double Hover Jump. Sulley and Mike are helped along the way by a team of professional "Scare Trainers", including the speed trainer Randall (who must be beaten in special challenges to unlock some of the game's levels), orientation trainer Roz and Mr. Waternoose-the big boss at Monsters, Inc. and acting Dean of Scare Island. The action takes place on Terror Isle, which incorporates three main training grounds-Urban, Desert and Arctic-with each ground housing new scare targets appropriate to their setting. As children are so dangerous to the Monster world, Scare Island's scare targets come in the form of "Nerves", a docile branch of the Monster family tree which exists solely to train Scarers. When a Nerve is successfully terrorised, a scream canister is filled and the Nerve is temporarily turned white. [+]

Scooby-Doo Phantom of the Knight Can you help Fred, Velma, and the gang solve the mystery behind the Phantom Knight and his dragon? Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight offers laughs, pretty good animation, and a series of challenging puzzles to entertain young children for hours. Since the villain and clues change with each new adventure, replay is just as much fun as the very first game. Set up much like an episode of the classic television series, the program puts players in an old, castle-themed amusement park to explore for clues to its haunting. Some of the scarier areas will require feeding Scooby or Shaggy to coax them in; snacks can be obtained by several tests of skill along the way. Once enough clues have been collected, players decide who's to blame, then check to see if the guess is right in an action sequence that closes play. Three levels of difficulty are available, and each offers increasing pressure in the form of red-herring clues and harder challenges to acquire Scooby Snacks. Installation is very simple, and the CD-ROM comes with several Scooby-related goodies like a printable poster and online previews of upcoming movies. (Ages 5 to 10) -Rob Lightner Scooby Doo: Showdown in Ghost Town Scooby Doo: Showdown in Ghost Town pits Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Greatest-of-all-Danes Scooby against the Faceless Rider, a mysterious spirit (or is it?) haunting the town of Los Burritos. Thankfully, they're all back with the same groovy clothes, lingo and music-plus the goofy humour-that made their 70s TV show so much fun to watch. To get to the bottom of what's spooking Los Burritos, the group must explore the town and talk to everyone who crosses their path, all the while looking out for clues to help them solve the mystery at hand. [+]