ic-games Review - BBC Playtime - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - BBC Playtime - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

BBC Playtime

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: BBC Multimedia
Publisher: BBC Multimedia
Reviewed: PC
Genre: Educational
UK Release: 27th Feb 2004
Article Date: 24th Feb 2004
Difficulty: N/A
Retail Price:
Price Comparison:
0

Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 75%

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Pros

Learning through play

Characters your children will know

Varied choice on games

Great Art Package

Bright Colours!

Cons

Video's a Little short

Screenshots

34 of 51

From "Tweenies" to the newer "Fimbles” the BBC has created some fine shows for the nation's toddlers. I should know, if I am not up by at least 6am to turn on the television and tune into Cbeebies for my four year old, he’ll bounce on the bed until I am up.

Not surprisingly with kid’s obsession with not only the TV, but now with computers, BBC Multimedia has also ventured into other markets. The PC version of “Playtime” will no doubt feature not only characters that your children know religiously, but with the parents that are forced to watch the episodes with them. Not only will the “Playtime” CDROM keep your small child amused while hopefully learning at the same time. It’ll slowly teach your child how to use the keyboard, mouse and even the PC to some respect. You never know they may even learn the CDROM draw is for CDROMS and not toast!

For a one off price of £14.99 you really do get quite a bit of peace for your money. The Art box which features all the characters in the show has been cleverly put together. Featuring backgrounds, digital stickers and other basic drawing aids, this alone will keep your child busy for some time. With the print page feature your child can also save their best work. Black and white pictures can also be saved and printed out to be coloured in by hand later, all via easy and calm instructions which is important. With six Art boxes (one for each of the six shows featured) there really is some life in the Art box section after all the other games and video's have been played to death. Not to mention the understanding that even after a small play your child will soon get to understand how the PC's "mouse" operates via the non intrusive yet knowledgeable help system which gently rewards your child via play.

The Video section which again features the six shows (Balamory, Engie Benjy, Fimbles, Pingu, Tiny Planets and Tweenies) is perhaps the weakest part of the package. Now while these are all clips of the shows, and they are excellent quality, they were perhaps a little short for our liking. With the exception of the pingu clips, the shows only weighed in at around 30 seconds a clip and didn’t really hold the attention of the children that was watching. Requiring constant intervention to flip between videos we believed it would have been far easier just to sit the kids in front of the television rather than watch short pre-recorded television clips on the PC. The six shows did provide their own "main theme" which was a popular choice with the young ones, but again, not much was being learnt here. Sadly the BBC also omitted a full screen mode as the clips were only taking up half the screen. On a smaller monitor we fail to see how this could hold a Childs attention at all.

The "playtime" part of the CDROM is indeed the educational portion of the program. Instead of drilling sums and spelling at your child, the BBC has decided to gently ease your child into learning. Featuring six educational games from learning how to spell, guessing missing letters to slight memory games your child will probably not even be aware this is a title designed to teach. We were pleased to see that even wrong answers were still rewarded as a "try" and no bullying appeared during the whole play. With the age range the title is directed at we certainly agreed with this approach.

Being touted as an educational title for three to six year olds ICG would perhaps shave a year off the later age and say that really it’s best for three to five year olds as anyone older would probably find some of the title a little too easy. Any child that fits into the 3-5 categories however would probably find lots to do and see, and with the excellent Art Package alone (which will probably be where your child spends the most time) will rarely see bordem. Featuring characters that your children are already familiar with will no doubt help them all have a whale of a time. Of course the greatest feeling is watching your child learn through play and if you sit down with your children with Playtime on, you'll probably be guaranteed a few laughs yourself.

With the £14.99 budget price tag, its cheaper than a couple of McDonalds family meals and a dam sight healthier too.

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