The games in this package are based on the popular Roger Hargreaves 'Mr Men' characters, which are very appealing to young children and are ideal for use in conjunction with the many books available in the series.
The educational aim of this program, as stated in the 'Notes for Parents' is: "... to lead children in an amusing and stimulating way from 'Go that way' (pointing), to ' Move to your right' (my left). . . There are four different games in the package. In the first one, 'Mr Tickle's Jigsaw Puzzle', the player has to complete a simple jigsaw using the arrow keys; the other games are of increasing levels of difficulty, and build up to the point where the child has to be able to distinguish between left and right.
The games make a worthy attempt at teaching the concepts of up, down, right and left, and are certainly an enjoyable way of teaching and reinforcing them. Although they are aimed at children from 4 years upwards, younger children would also enjoy working on them with the help of a parent. It is doubtful, however, whether children of 7 or 8 would be very receptive to the games, as some of them are not particularly difficult. Daniel, (my Chief Tester) particularly enjoyed the 'Mr Tickle and Mr Grumpy' game in which the player can make the task as difficult (interesting) as he wishes by inputting commands which determines the complexity and length of the route taken by Mr Tickle.
Daniel, however, who is a bright child, found the other games rather too easy.
Control keys: moves from arrow keys to L, R, U, D.
ENTER and DELETE are also used.
Keyboard play: very good
Use of colour: very bright and clear
Graphics: very good. The Mr Men characters translate well into into computer graphics.