Saturday, November 07, 2009

Escape From Adventure Island

JumpStart is about to release their SECOND Wii game!    Escape from Adventure Island hits the store shelves on November 17th, right in time for the holidays. 
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Escape From Adventure Island is geared towards 5-9 year olds (ESRB has rated it "E" for everyone), so it's more advanced than the last JumpStart Wii game, Pet Rescue.  Which means.........my older children have to use their noggins a bit more with this game, even if they don't realize it.  It also means there are more advanced jumps and maneuvers available to them than in the other game.
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Creating one's own avatar is of UTMOST importance in this household so it's a VERY GOOD thing Escape From Adventure Island players can create their best PRINCE or PRINCESS.  My kids very quickly found out that they need to actually play the game and earn sand dollars in order to access ALL of the available accessories.  Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that a few of my kids would spend all of their time changing their princess' rather than actually playing.  Very smart, Jump Start!
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Same rules apply for their house within Adventure Island.....it's customizable, and earned sand dollars are redeemable for different elements of their house.

These sand dollars are important for more than just customizing elements within the game though.  Players need to collect sand dollars which then roll over into helium tanks which then inflate their blimp and allow them to Escape from Adventure Island.  

We haven't escaped yet.  We have changed our clothes a lot though.


There are two learning modes within the game: English skills and Mathematics skills.  The player tilts the Wii remote to steer around within each area, and instructions are given at the beginning of each section so the player knows how to find the correct answer to the questions.
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The first time my kids played, I heard comments like:

"MOM!  When I went down the slide I got to swim underwater!"
"Look at this cool jump!"


I particularly like that the game comes with a very short Instruction Manual.  See?  It's mom friendly!  Bonus.

My children are inexplicably drawn to the non-educational games within Escape From Adventure Island, which is sort of a bummer for me.   I'm not surprised, though really. What's that saying?  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree?

My kids like Escape From Adventure Island and would recommend it to their friends.  Here's what Emma has to say,  "It's fun to discover things, it's fun to decorate your house, and to play all the games, especially the fashion shows".

JumpStart is hosting a fabulous contest now through the 16th of November.  You don't want to miss this one!  For more details, be sure to go to the JumpStart blog.

JumpStart provided me with a pre-release copy of Escape From Adventure Island for this review.

4 comments:

Jenn@ The Crazies said...

We reviewed this in the Crazy House also and LOVED it!!

Evonne said...

My kids have the online membership and absolutely ,love the site. Thanks for sharing this contest!

And my kids seem to gravitate towards the non-educational games in Jumpstart, too.

Dumb Mom said...

My dudes LOVE playing the Wii. Maybe I wouldn't feel so guilty about letting them play for four straight hours if it were something educational. Kidding! I never feel guilty anyway. But, still, educational is nice:)

Justine said...

Hey, this looks like a game I'd actually like to play!

Justine :o )