Thanks to Bonni Georgi, MamarazziKnowsBest.com partner and video game expert, for this wonderful review! Readers, make sure you take note of the promo code for a nice discount on this game just in time for the gift-giving season!
Sesame Street’s Elmo has certainly endured time long enough to still be a marketing icon for children. Sesame Street and Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment have teamed up to bring Elmo’s A to Zoo the Videogame. I reviewed this game on the PC and it is rated EC for early childhood aged children.
Early childhood aged children love to play on the computer and this game attempts to give those 3 – 6 year olds some educational time. This game has several mini games for children reinforcing letter identification, letter matching, shape identification, alliteration, letter sounds, word families, rhyming and color identification. Some of the games are easier than others for children to complete because the answers do not require the mouse cursor to be exactly on the target letter/word in order to select it. This makes the Wii version of this game easier to play for this age group as well. The eye hand coordination for clicking target icons with the mouse can be challenging for early childhood age children if they’ve never played games before and many of these games have accounted for that by making clicking the answer not so exact. Some games do require exact mouse tracking and this is good for the older end of the spectrum. The game has entry level activities and progressively more advanced level activities. The age spectrum is well covered by this game’s activities.
The games are cute, of course, and familiar Sesame Street characters and voices will delight children. Right answers are positively reinforced and incorrect answers are gently helped along by showing children what the correct answer looks like and giving them almost unlimited chances to get the correct answer. Each level is completed with no more than 3 activities which gives quick positive feedback and accomplishments. The game uses both visual and auditory signals to guide children along in the activity. I did find it heavy on the auditory signal side, but all in all children should be entertained by playing the cute zoo animal games.
The game has parental settings for session play time, number of games to be played in a session in increments of 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes. The parental area also has an area for profiles where you can view the child’s statistics based on the game’s curriculum objectives. It is curious to me that one of the first words a child learns to recognize is their name and yet the child’s profile can be only 3 letters. In any case, this game will require parental supervision at least at the start to assist younger children in how to play. Children are smart and quick learners, especially when it comes to electronics so they should be able to play their games on their own fairly quickly.
The Sesame Street video games are available for Wii running $39.99, and $29.99 for Nintendo DS and PC versions.
Here is a 10% coupon code of any Sesame Street Video Game for MKB readers:
Go to www.sesamestreet.org/videogames and enter promo code MOMMY at checkout.
Coupon Details:
End Date: December 20
Type of Discount: 10% off any SS Video Game
Promo Code: MOMMY
URL: Go to www.sesamestreet.org/videogames
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