Let’s Explore the Jungle

It’s A Jungle Out There!

A Review of Let’s Explore the Jungle

Tina Velgos

This is the friendliest jungle your kids (ages 3 – will ever find.Even the insects are helpful! In particular, one Buzzy the Knowledge Bug,that is.

“Let’s Explore the Jungle” is one of the software titles in the JuniorField Trip series from the makers of “Putt-Putt”, “Freddi Fish” and “FattyBear”. No insect repellent is needed for this virtual learning safari.Buzzy the Knowledge Bug guides kids in an animated jungle excursion thatthe whole family might enjoy.

Installing the software (Win/Mac CD-ROM) on our Mac Quadra was a breezewhile the software ran smoothly. A touch of imagination makes thisinteractive exploration a delight for curious kids with a sense ofadventure and for parents looking for reasonably priced software.

Timmy, my 4-year-old safari tester, got down to business as he typed in hisname on the Player Sign-In Page. After entering his name, he pressed theGO button to open the main game menu. There are five different activitiesto play in “Let’s Explore the Jungle”: Anteater Feeder, Find It, JungleJumble, Trivia and Coloring Book. All of the games are easy to use andoffer wonderful instructions to kids who have questions about how to playthe games.

Anteater Feeder is an amazing game with over 100 levels! Ever wonder whatits like to be an anteater who must suck up its prey? Kids learn that ananimated anteater needs to find ants, termites, flies and grasshoppers forits daily diet. A tongue meter shows the number of shots you haveleft–each time you capture food for the anteater (by clicking on runningants, dodging rocks, flying insects and hopping grasshoppers), the anteaterbecomes fatter! His face changes expressions as he eats different “foods”– watch fire come out of the anteater’s ears as he chomps on a jalapenopepper!! Don’t worry, it’s not as gross as it sounds!

The first time I played Anteater Feeder I spent over an hour clicking awayat this challenging game, only reaching to Level 44!!! When will this gameend? By that time, I was hooked. A counter keeps your score and if youneed to take a break, you can continue the game at the level in which youleft off.This is a MARATHON game and it is sure to capture the hearts (andtime) of click-happy kids and their parents!! If this is the only game youand your kids like in “Let’s Explore the Jungle”, you’ll have made yourmoney’s worth buying it!

The Find It game has three difficulty levels. Buzzy challenges kids toremember and find things from each of the Jungles. The goal is to find 10items which flash on the screen. There are over 120 different jungle itemsto find between the three levels. Timmy was not challenged by the Easylevel, and quickly skipped to the Medium level, which gives out less clues.Buzzy is always on hand for other hints, so the game was lots of fun forTimmy. When kids find an item, Buzzy is always there to praise the kids ona job well done. In the Hard level, kids are on their own with no helpfrom the bug!

Jungle Jumble is an adventurous word scramble game. Kids unscramble theletter blocks to spell out the name of the jungle object on the screen.Sometimes, the picture of the object is scrambled too! This activity wouldbe more fun for older kids. Tim didn’t care for this game.

Think you’re an expert on jungles? Play the trivia game, which contains 100multiple-choice questions on the jungles of Asia, Africa and the Amazon andtheir plants and animals. Pre-readers can select an option to have thequestions and answer options read to them. Buzzy also gives kids helpfulhints to guide them to the right answer.

The Coloring Book section provides kids with 15 different pages to paintand print out. The Color Tools were lots of fun for Timmy. An Eye Dropperlets kids mix their own custom colors, while using the sponge removes thecolor from the picture. Of course, there is an Oops Face button to erasethe entire masterpiece, if they choose to.

If your kids get tired of the games (something I can’t imagine), they canlearn all they’ve ever wanted to know about the jungles of Asia, Africa andthe Amazon. Explore the jungle, click on an animal and the animation willcome to life and zoom in for a closer look. Click on the animation again,and kids will read or listen (depending on whether they click the readoption) to the name of the animal and a short description of it and itshabitat. The animation is more realistic than cartoon-like which makes fora great teaching tool.

An alphabetical list of all the jungle objects can be found in the Index.Here, you can click on the highlighted word and find the correspondingInformation Page. The “What Is This?” button can be clicked over an objectat any time, as it gives kids the name of the object, and a shortdescription.

Included with the software is a wonderful activity coloring book for kids(the “Junior Field Trip Handbook”) and crayons! Your young monkeys (Imean, kids!!) will go bananas for “Let’s Explore the Jungle”. What anadventure!

School House Scorecard

Product:	Let’s Explore the Jungle
Company:	Humongous Entertainment 13110 NE 177th Place, Suite 180 Woodinville, WA 98072-9965 Phone: 1-800-499-8386 Internet: www.humongous.com/
Cost:	Not Available

System Requirements:

Windows
386/33 MHz PC system or faster
4 MB RAM
Windows 3.1 or higher (Windows 95)
SVGA color monitor, 256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution
Mouse or other Windows-compatible pointing device
PC-compatible double speed CD-ROM drive
Sound card

Macintosh
Apple Macintosh 68040 or better
System 7.0 or later
8 MB RAM
13″ or larger monitor, 256 colors at 640 x 480 resolution or higher
Double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive

Breakdown:

Ease of Use 4
Learning Value 3
Entertainment Value 4
Graphics 3
Sound 3

Overall Score: