Jump Start - Animal Adventure

Facts

Publisher: Knowledge Adventure, USA
Target Group: 4 +
Price: 15 Euro
Distribution: CD-ROM
Type of game: Adventure

Story

Frankie, the presenter of the game, is announcing that Habitat Magazine is looking for curious kids, who love to explore, to sign up for a habitat contest. To join in, the player hops in the “All-Over-Rover” which brings her to four different habitats all over the world: the Temperate Forest, the Savannah Grasslands, the Tide Pools and the Tropical Rain Forest. The player has to explore different animals in each habitat to be able to fill out the four contest sheets. After the final Animal Smarts Game, the player will become an Official Explorer.

Elements of the game

The starting basis for all discoveries is the All-Over-Rover. This vehicle can go on land, in the water and even high up in the air and brings the player to all habitats. The All-Over-Rover contains a world map to choose a destination, a progress report, level buttons (the player can choose between three different levels) and control panels.

Each of the four habitats spans multiple screens and is home of many animals. The player has to click on an animal to learn about it – some of them teach facts about the animal, while others let her play simple but affectionate arcade games.

The player’s actual challenge is to complete the four contest sheets. Therefore the player has to play the arcade games (three to five in each habitat) and to make photos of special animals (e.g. “carnivore”, “gregarious animal”, “reptiles”). Within the scope of these exercises, the player has to recapitulate the information she gathered during exploring the animals. In addition to that, she gets more information during the games.

Furthermore, there are two gratifications for successful players: Each time the player completes one of the contest sheets, the reward is a page for the player’s “Arts & Crafts book”. Each page includes instructions for a fun activity, craft or game about animals such as a construction manual for an ant’s farm or a Giraffe Growth Chart to measure the player’s height. The second gratification is the sticker book: The player can trade the points she has earned while playing the arcade games for animal stickers—each sticker requires points, depending on its size. The chosen stickers appear in the stickers’ book and can be print out.

After finishing all four habitats, the player (or players, the whole game is playable with up to four persons) has to play the Animal Smarts Game, a quiz game to recapitulate all the information she has learnt. Further nice features are the funny animated music video clips, starring some of the presented animals—for example one love song from a rhinoceros and a bird singing about symbiosis.

How biodiversity is presented

The aim of the game is the presentation of the variety of animals and habitats around the world. The player gets a lot of information both about living, feeding and general behaviour of animals and the character of habitats. All this information is presented in a friendly, amusing and suitable way. After playing this game, children know about biodiversity and got stimuli to explore the real nature on their own.

Best practice because: