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"I
spy two hooks, GHOST, a star,
A wooden handle, a bug in a jar"
I Spy Spooky
Mansion Deluxe is a revamped product, packaged as a deluxe
version, with two new adventures added to the game. Children
solve picture riddles, I Spy-style, as they try to make
their way out of a haunted mansion.
Kids are
prompted to enter the mansion...if they dare. Once inside,
they are told they cannot get out where they came in. In
order to find a secret way out of the house, they will need
to solve a puzzle found behind a picture frame. The fifteen
puzzle pieces can be earned by finding hidden I Spy games
throughout the house.
All but two of
the activities are classic I Spy picture spreads, with an
interactive twist, of course. The riddles appear at the
bottom of the graphic-rich screens, and as children find
objects, the words are highlighted. Sometimes the objects
are as straightforward as "a cat". Other times,
kids look for a "trunk" (so children might wonder
if it's a trunk of a car, a hinged trunk, or even an
elephant's trunk!) or "three horns" in which the
objects include a musical instrument as well as an animal's
horns. "A face with no eyes" can be a stumper.
Answer: a clock face! Sometimes kids must move an object
found in the scene to another area, such as when they are
looking for "an eye back in place", and they need
to find a teddy bear's missing eye and move it back into
place. Two
other activities include a sorting game called "Mystery
Bins" in which children play a classic matching game
with a twist; and "Creepy Collections" in which
players fill shelves with like objects. Once
the fifteen pieces of the puzzle are earned, children need
to solve the puzzle's riddle in order to get out of the
mansion. Once outside, they are asked to come back in for a
new adventure. The second time through, there are mostly the
same puzzle screens with different riddles, as well as a new
puzzle screen. This time around, they need to earn
ingredients for the skeleton's "shrinking soup".
Once fifteen ingredients are earned, players make the soup
with, for example, a green egg, and an item that answers the
riddle "Before the soup gets too cold, Add a pinch of
something OLD". The finished soup leads them to another
way out of the mansion. A
third adventure awaits kids once the second round ends. This
time, players need to earn missing parts for the skeleton's
ghost machine.
Kids had fun
with the game. There were assorted riddles that were
difficult to solve (example: they needed to find a
"brown bottle cap" and the cap was cleverly
disguised to look like a cloth covering a table stand). This
was a good thing, because most of the objects are rather
easy to find. More
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Pros: |
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- Exercises logical
thinking, problem-solving, and language arts skills.
- Intriguing to play.
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Cons: |
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- Once the three adventures are
completed, replay value is low.
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[For more information, user
reviews, or to buy: I Spy: Spooky Mansion Deluxe] |
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| Reviewed August 2004 |
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