Your Sinclair


Fun School 4 For 5-7 Year Olds

Author: Dave Golder
Publisher: Europress
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #74

Fun School 4 for 5-7 Year Olds

Fun School for the more mature little Spec-chum. The linking character here is Freddy the Frog - I mean, at five you re just too old for Teddies, aren't you? (Unless you're James, of course.)

Best of the six games here is Typing which features a dopey-looking crocodile who's hot on Freddy's tail. You can save Freddy by typing in certain letters, words or sentences. Type them correctly and Freddy hops hurriedly out of the range of the crocodile's teeth. Finally he reaches an island where someone has left a hefty-looking mallet. And guess what you use that for? All the crocodile-bashing happens off screen, but the great graphics and wicked sense of humour make this an excellent little game.

In Opposites Freddy and his wife want to go swimming, but the farmer who owns the pool will only let them if they answers questions about opposites. The pool is covered with lily pads, some of which have words on. The computer gives you another word, small for example, and you have to guide Freddy to the lily pad that says tall. When you've got a certain amount right Mrs Frog leaps into the pool. The nifty graphics liven things up and the whole thing's pretty spiffy.

Fun School 4: For 5-7 Year Olds

Shopkeeper is all about working out how much things cost, whether you've got the right money and what the change should be. Freddy starts out going down the shops and ends up as the manager of a supermarket. Verdict? Okay, if a little static.

In Log Cabin Freddy has to build a log cabin before he can have his dinner. There's a few multiple choice maths problems that you have to answer correctly to get a log. Freddy picks up the log and, like a champion caber tosser, hurls it into position.

Basketball has you filling in the gaps in a series of number or letters. You know the son of thing - A, B, C, ?, E. Get it right and Freddy throws a ball through a basket ball hoop. The animation is spiffy, but it's all a bit slow.

Library is just a case of putting books in alphabetical order. Nice graphical presentation but the actual game is about as exciting as counting how many time the letter z crops up in the end credits of Neighbours.

Again, the manual is presented in the form of a story and the idea just about comes off. Despite some irritating niggles, this disk still beats Play Bus anyday.

Learning has never been so much fun.

Dave Golder

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