Monsters,
Inc. Scare Island is a fun little action game for kids (aged 8
and up) based on the movie Monsters, Inc. You can play as either
of 2 characters from the movie – James P. Sullivan (Sulley) or a little
green walking eyeball that goes by the name of Mike Wazowski. Having
enjoyed the movie, I predicted that I would enjoy the game as well.
I did.

The object of the
game is to train to become a “Top Scarer” at Monsters, Inc.
by going through training camp. You
start off with orientation that explains, in steps, what actions you
must learn to achieve your goal. You learn how to jump, attack, and
scare during the orientation. This stage was essential for me as an
“action-challenged” gamer. Once you complete this area,
you are ready to move on to the different environments in the game.
These include Urban, Arctic, and Desert Training Grounds.

All the character controls
are on the keyboard. These controls help you collect Primordial Ooze,
Bag O’ Calories, Extra Life Tokens and so on. You will be attacked
by human child toys that will eat away at your life meter
if you do not either run away or smack them (this is what actually
happens – your Sulley or Mike-hand smacks the toys). You will come
across robotic children that you must “scare” by using a
varying set of keys on the keyboard. This changes from robot child
to robot child. I wore my index finger out punching away at the “a”,
“d”, and “f” keys. You character makes lots of
scaring noises during this time that are funny to hear. Once you have
scared enough robot children in an area, you are awarded medals (bronze,
silver, and gold). These medals open up secret areas in the game world.
Some areas are not accessible until you have a certain number of medals.

The graphics are 3D and
you can freely roam the environment. They were pleasant enough to
enjoy the game. “Cartoony” in a way but still looked
3D.

Voices
sounded very close to the movie character voices. Sounds were appropriate
and amusing as in the above mentioned scare mode. There was light
music in the background that did not interfere with game play.

Overall this was a nice
game that doesn’t require any thinking or quest solving but does require
some fast moving fingers.

Grade: B

System Requirements
(PC):
Windows® 95/98/Me/XP
Pentium II 266 MHz or faster
DirectX 8.0a(included)
32 MB RAM or greater
30 MB free uncompressed HD space – min, 250 MB Recommended
8X CD-ROM drive
16-bit DirectX compatible sound card
8 MB video card with 3D acceleration, 16 bit color depth, DirectX-compatible

Little
Critter and The Great Race is a game for ages 4 and up. Your goal
is to locate all the parts you need to make your very own soap box
racer for the Great Race soap box derby. Your map leads you to many
places in Critterville where car parts can hide. During your travels,
you will be required to run errands for citizens in order to acquire
wrenches and other items you’ll need to build your racer.

Almost
everything in the game is “clickable” and starts a cute
little animation of some sort. Clicking a window may cause the curtains
to close, clicking a flower may cause a bee to fly out, and so on.

Graphics are 2D, cartoon
style. I’ve always liked the Little Critter style of illustration.
Voices are very good as in
the other Little Critter games I have played. This is nice as you
speak with many Critters in Critterville. Lots of background sound
effects, too. Birds, bees, water noises, etc. The interface is point-n-click.

It
is a fun inventory-finding game with a Great Race at the end as your
reward.

Grade: B

System Requirements:
Windows® 95/98
Pentium® 100 MHz (166 MHz recommended)
8 MB RAM (16 MB recommended)
1 MB free hard disk space
4X Speed CD-ROM drive (8X Speed recommended)
Super VGA (640 x 480, 256-color) video display
SoundBlaster 16 or 100% compatible sound card

MACINTOSH
System 7.1 or higher
68040 33 MHz or higher
8 MB RAM (5 MB available free RAM)
1 MB free hard disk space
2X Speed or faster CD-ROM drive
640 x 480, 256-color video display

The
Mummy Mystery starring Mercer Mayer’s Little Monster Private
Eye is a very traditional inventory-based mystery-solving, complete-with-puzzles
adventure game for ages 4 years and up. Out of all three of these
games, The Mummy Mystery was my favorite.

In the intro scene, you
learn that Professor Pickles has become trapped in Monster Egypt inside
the Tomb of Thanxfurnuthen. It is up to Little Monster Private Eye
and his sidekick Detective Kerploppus to find the 5 magic
rings that will open the tomb. During your adventure you will travel
to exotic parts of Monster Egypt such as the Tomb of Pharaoh Phaucett,
the Tomb of Tootafroota, and the Pyramid City Marketplace and interact
with many a silly character. These little humorous names were scattered
throughout the game as was plenty of dry humor. There were 11 puzzles
in the separate locations in Monster Egypt. All of them fun and none
frustrating for my 5 and 6 year old sons. To solve some of the puzzles
you must buy items with the local form of currency, tiny golden scarabs.
These scarabs are plentiful in almost every screen of the game. Professor
Pickles journal comes in very hand for clues.

Graphics
are 2D, cartoon style and very colorful. Voices were great, convincing,
and funny. Music was appropriate and didn’t detract from your adventuring.
Interface is point-n-click.

I thoroughly enjoyed this
game and would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to introduce
a child to the wonderful world of adventure games.

Grade: A

System Requirements:
WINDOWS
Windows® 95/98/Me/2000
Pentium® 100 MHz (166 MHz recommended)
16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended)
5 MB free hard disk space
4X Speed CD-ROM drive (8X Speed recommended)
Super VGA (640 x 480, 256-color) video display
SoundBlaster 16 or 100% compatible sound card

MACINTOSH
System 7.1 or higher
68040 33 MHz or higher
8 MB RAM (5 MB available free RAM)
5 MB free hard disk space
2X Speed or faster CD-ROM drive
640 x 480, 256-color video display