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Strawberry
Shortcake has made a comeback. This new computer game
starring the adorable doll and friends features gorgeous eye
"candy" and some clever activities, but it suffers
from a lack of variety and some confusing elements.
Strawberry Shortcake and
some of her friends are having a tea party. The only
things missing are enough cookies for all the other friends
Strawberry wants to invite. They plan an amazing cookie
party, and both Strawberry Shortcake and her cat Custard set
off on a search for ingredients to make all the cookies they
need for the party.
There are three main
activities that allow children to earn ingredients for
cookies, as well as a cookie-making activity. One game
involves surfing on a graham cracker surfboard through Fudge
River, collecting cookie ingredients. Another game is a
rather clever logic activity. Kids need to collect oranges
from the tree branches. In order to do so, they use tools,
such as peppermint sticks and marshmallows, to guide the
rolling oranges into a basket. This activity is somewhat
difficult to master, but kids that don't get frustrated by
the activity will use their brains to get their
"contraption" working properly.
Another activity involves
creating "cake houses". This very simple (in fact,
too simple) creativity game grows somewhat monotonous over
time.
Finally, at the cookie
factory, kids make different varieties of cookies by paying
attention to recipes and using the ingredients they have
collected in the other activities. Kids need to follow
directions and use some trial and error skills to put the
ingredients in the correct tubes.
As pretty as the graphics
are, there simply isn't enough variety of activities to
sustain children's interest in the game. Two of the
activities are very basic, while the other two require
thinking skills that will challenge many young children.
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