Review: Pingu - A Barrel of Fun
Fun for even the youngest of children
| Product | Pingu - A Barrel of Fun |
|---|---|
| Company | BBC Interactive |
| Web | www.bbcinteractive.com |
| Price | £19.99 |
| We like | |
| We don't like | |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements | Windows 98/2000/ME/XP |
Pingu is a firm favourite with the younger kids and as such is an ideal choice for the target audience of 3 to 6 year olds. It can be bought on its own for a tenner or as part of a three pack with Bob the Builder and the Teletubbies. Pingu offers 5 puzzles, 5 games and 5 screen savers and adheres to Key Stage One of the National Curriculum.
The puzzles cover the full range of numbers, letters, shapes, colours and sounds. Each has different skill levels allowing the tasks to remain challenging through the full target age range. As an example the numbers puzzle starts off with numbers up to 9 where Pingu and his chum push objects on to the screen and the child has to select how many they can see. Switching skills causes higher numbers to be shown in to the mid teens. The spelling puzzle starts off with just the first letter of a word being needed but on harder settings requires the full word to be spelt out.
On the down side, the voice-overs can be very repetitive and you'll soon tire of hearing "hooray!" after every selection even if junior doesn't.
The games include simple mazes, a tennis game and a music maker which is probably only usable by the older children. We particularly liked Ice-Flow for being simple yet requiring good timing but in such a way as to have that "just one more go" appeal.
For the grownups however the highlight has to be the Pingu Dance screen where you can make him stamp his feet, jump and twirl to the Pingu theme music.
