Download/HomepageThis programme is designed to teach spelling,
logic, memory skills and general knowledge to children aged 8 to
11. The bright, colourful opening screen offers a choice of three
games, hangman - with a walk the plank theme complete with shark
- matching the hidden pairs, and wordsearch. Every time you
succeed in one of these puzzles, you earn coins in the bank,
which can be used to play one of three games, a Tetris variant,
an infuriating little rocket landing sim, and a space blaster.
(The rocket landing is only infuriating because mine kept
crashing, my 8 year old tester had no problem with it.) The whole
concept is very simple and very effective, both the puzzles and
the games are absorbing and fun to play, and teach something
useful as an added bonus. The programme installs easily, runs
without a hitch under Win 95, looks good and is very intuitive to
use.
In fact I have only one fault to find with it. Why should 8 to 11
year olds have all the fun? Now where is that red triangle....?
Arcadia is shareware, fully functioning but with a limited number
of puzzles and game levels.
(Dreadful tinny little thing - but you can turn it off)
