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Chemical
X is what gives these girls super powers, and heart is what
gives them the desire to do good.
Princess Morbucks wants to
be a Powerpuff Girl too, but she is too spoiled and greedy
to do anything more than wreak havoc on Townsville. This
second "Learning Challenge" CD-ROM follows the
adventures of Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles after they
accept a music box gift from what seems like the mayor.
After falling asleep to its music, the girls begin to have
nightmares. It's Princess Morbucks' wish to keep the
Powerpuff Girls trapped in their nightmares, but players can
help! All they need to do is enter the girls' dreams, play
educational activities to win "musical wake-ups",
and disable the music box. And, one more thing...once freed
from the nightmares, the Powerpuff Girls must clean up the
mess the greedy Princess Morbucks has created while they
slept.
It's
refreshing to find clever learning activities in a software
starring the Powerpuff Girls. No surprise this time
aroundwe've already seen it in the excellent Powerpuff
Girls Learning Challenge #1: Mojo Jojo's Clone Zone.
Kids are lightheartedly told they can "do it in their
sleep".
Bubbles is
dreaming of hungry squirrels who can't reach their acorns.
The acorns are stuffed inside piñatas by the nasty Gangreen
Gang. Bubbles can help, however, by hitting piñatas that
match given Spanish words (for example, "cinco" is
both spoken and appears in text form, and must be matched
with the piñata shaped as a numeral 5).
The more aggressive
Buttercup is not so enamored with flowers. Fittingly, her
nightmare involves replanting Bubbles' garden! So that she
won't have to hear Bubbles cry, Buttercup plants different
kinds of flowers according to given fractions. She must
divide the individual flower beds into sections and then
plant the correct portions of flowers in each bed. On higher
levels, kids work with common denominators, and they must
contend with Fuzzy Lumpkins who sneaks onscreen to try to
mess up the flowerbeds from time to time.
In Blossom's nightmare, the pages of
her diary have been infested with roaches!
Children help her piece together sentences in logical order
as they earn more musical wake-ups. When sentences are
arranged properly, Blossom reads her diary to players.
A music box activity
involves completing musical patterns that will disable the
nasty box and free the girls from Princess Morbucks'
control. This is a cute activity that involves adding
musical notes to music sheets.
Once the music box is
disabled, the Powerpuff Girls wake up, but the nightmare
isn't over! They must go to the streets of Townsville to
defeat monsters and clean up the damage. This activity
involves use of keyboard controls and requires children to
draw upon the unique powers of each Powerpuff Girl. At red
lights, kids must answer questions that review concepts
learned in the activities of the game!
This multi-level adventure
is exciting and fresh. As kids play, they learn Spanish
vocabulary, gain a better understanding of fractions,
complete musical patterns, and work with sentences. Although
none of the educational concepts are explored in depth, the
game requires children to think as they play.
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