Let’s focus on the target audience first. Because you are reading this, you are too old to play this game. It is made for 2 to 5 year old children. And that was my problem: where do I find those kids? So one day, one of my grandchildren had to baby-sit. Target to control: a boy of 4, and his 2.5 year old (young) sister. That was my chance, so up I went to them, with the game in my pocket.

The installation is no problem, this thing works even on older machines. (No you can not have a cookie, I’m busy.) The intro movie is in available in several languages, the game is localised for the Dutch market also. So reading is not necessary… (No you can not have a drink yet, watch that screen or you won’t understand what you have to do!)

The problem starts with Spot, the Dog. Spot runs away, getting dirty and making a mess through the entire house. So, Spot has to be put in the bath. But first, he has to be found… (I’ll get you a drink, but first try this.) There are four rooms in the house, but the last room, the bathroom, can only be accessed after the three others are clean. There is no necessary order, every other room can be visited, according to what the child wants to play.

Before the game of the room becomes available, the room must be put in order again. That is no big deal, one of the things is on the floor. And even if the child does not see immediately that the normal direction of a refrigerator is vertical instead of horizontal, just clicking on everything will solve the first puzzle. (Ok, and a cookie.) From then on, it is possible to play a little game. Although clicking on everything in the room remains funny, everything that can move will move, some things jump out of places, there are a lot of possibilities to get frightened.

There are 4 games, a puzzle, a music game, a colour game and the final game is some kind of platform game. (Yes, little sister gets a drink also. Nice of you to think about here.) The puzzle consists of things in the house that have to be combined. The child has to pick something of the available list, and has to combine thing to make a large rocket, or a boat, and so on. Like in all the other games, there are 3 difficulties to choose from. (Yes, she gets a cookie too. Nice chap.) This puzzle is made to augment the spatial insight of the child. (Don’t steal her glass.)

The kitchen contains a music lab. Well, sort of. (It is her cookie, you ate yours already.) Clicking on tins of different sizes gives different notes. It is also possible to click on other things in the kitchen, resulting in all kind of noises. It is possible to record the tunes, but after the game is closed, the tunes are lost. A pity in my opinion, but the children did not want to hear there compositions more then once… (No, it is not the mouse that nicked her cookie.)

Next comes a colour game. (You already had a drink.) Fairly straightforward on the easiest level, only green, red and yellow circles to colour, but it becomes more difficult when the child has to combine colours to get purple for instance. Not only is this game intended to learn the colours, some eye-hand co-ordination is required to get the thing done in a reasonable time.

When the 3the room is clean, Spot will be kept, and taken to the final room, the bathroom. (Ok, ok, I’m getting you a new drink!) Granddad is there also, he lost his teeth in the bath. The game there is to catch everything that falls in the water. Things can become more difficult when air bubbles take the diving Rolie back up, or it can even become a little dangerous when fish drive him to the other side of the batch.

This game is rather amusing and sometimes challenging for the little audience. It won’t take days before they’ve completed it, but they will ask to paly it again from time to time. The educational extra is a little exaggerated in my opinion, but I’m no professional teacher… (What do you mean, the chair is wet???)