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Kiddie Games

January 16th, 2008

My daughter is now sitting in our laps while we play the various games associated with her favorite shows. She’s not ready for driving the controls yet, but she enjoys watching and helping by pointing at what we should do. It turns out that some of these games are actually quite fun.

Take, for example, this game at pbskids.org. It’s a rather simple platformer. George jumps on a pogo stick, you add or remove crates to help him reach items that are floating in the game space. There are limited physics — if he hits something instead of clearing it, he jumps in the opposite direction until he hits something or reaches the edge. At the end of each round, you can see the items you collected filling a shelf.

For some reason, this is really addictive. I’ve even found myself playing it when she’s not awake, just to get better at guiding the damn monkey through the board without having to backtrack to get a missed object. It’s almost like the game is trying to teach kids some of the triggers of video games at large.

1. Gain skill at moving about

This game involves control over the terrain as opposed to the character, but really, that terrain control is how you steer George on his item-collecting mission. I can see how this would be frustrating for a really young child, and quite honestly, there are times when it angers me too. However, hearing the monkey laugh when he grabs an item is enough reward to make it acceptable.

2. Collect stuff

Let’s face it, filling your shelves is a great goal. It really replicates the loot-centric attitude of most diku-based MMOs. This particular game is buggy, however, once you add items to each shelf, you cannot fill the holes between those items with subsequent run-throughs.

3. Casual play is ok, but hardcore play == teh win.

Ok, not really. But damn, I can see how this would drive you to master moving the monkey around. The slight “bump” sound that plays when he collides with an obstacle is just enough to make my inner achiever cringe. I can proudly say that I can now run through all six of the initial stages on one pass with no backtracking. I am 99% sure that’s sad.

At any rate, this is the first kiddie game that is really compelling to me. WTG, pbskids.org

Entry Filed under: Games