Game Description

Based on the popular I Spy books for children, I Spy Junior: Puppet Playhouse teaches kids ages 3 to 5 the fundamentals of math, reading, thinking skills, creativity and visual acuity. Players can choose any of seven activities, four of which are linked puppet plays. The other three include making your own I Spy game and printing it out to share with friends, sorting and classifying objects and, lastly, building your own puppets using a wide variety of accessories.

The four puppet plays feature five or six scenes in which players must find objects from a given list. In The Bouncing Ball, a boy loses his ball in the park and it makes a trip across town before he gets it back, while in The Brave Princess, a young lass must retrieve her stolen crown from a dragon, all by herself. The Little Whale strays from his mother and must find her again and The Changing Tree depicts seasonal changes and all the activities that occur around, in and under its spreading branches. When correct objects are found, feedback is given in the form of a brief action scene -- the object vibrates or moves to the sound of a short musical cue and a brief action sequence plays between scenes in the puppet play.

In Puppetmaker, you are given a basic object to use as a puppet such as a sock, paper bag, flat wooden stick, paper plate and so forth. A selection of various objects is then offered from which the puppet is completed, for example, two big button eyes. Prop Box, a sorting game, comes in two versions, each containing larger numbers of boxes with progressively more compartments (2, 4 and 6) and can be played repeatedly using different objects. The final game, Make Your Own I Spy, allows children to click-and-drag any props and puppets contained within the game to make their own I Spy game.

I Spy Junior: Puppet Playhouse is more simplistic than the original I Spy books and games and allows younger children to keep up with and enjoy the same games as their older siblings. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Enjoyment

Players are rewarded with sound and visual cues as well as verbal recognition and the games, though simple, are fun to play. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Overall

I Spy Junior: Puppet Playhouse builds on the already popular series of books and games from Scholastic. The game is targeted at younger players and, while it introduces kids to the I Spy games, the activities within can also help them get ready for school by teaching the importance of following directions. Activities include word-object association, number and letter recognition, problem solving and more.

Because of the target group, activities are easier than those found in regular I Spy games. While objects are easier to find, the search is still challenging with scenes just as colorful and interesting as in any I Spy game and filled with fun objects, including cloth dolls, toys and kid-created drawings. Though the games are easy to learn, kids may need parental assistance the first time they play, ranging from guidance through a few activities to a couple of minutes of orientation, depending on the child. Once players are familiar with the game's execution, there are hundreds of hours of gameplay and, while items being searched for in the puppet plays never change, the Make Your Own I Spy and Prop Box modes can be played endlessly with no loss of fun.

This is an excellent game filled with lots of fun and kids are sure to enjoy searching for and finding the objects in each scene, not to mention making their own pages to share with family members or friends. While they may outgrow the game before they run out of things to do, other I Spy games are available for older children that build on the games available in I Spy Junior: Puppet Playhouse.

If your child enjoys the I Spy books but is a little too young to benefit fully from them, they'll love I Spy Junior: Puppet Playhouse. Not only will it get them interested in looking for hidden objects but will also help develop skills needed for school, teaching painlessly through play. With some objects tricky to find, parents can even join their children for quality entertainment together. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Graphics

All objects and pictures are clean, clear and brightly colored. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Sound

The voices are clear and easy to understand and the sound cues, while occasionally annoying, are also distinct. The opening music is excellent and provides a nice introduction to the game. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Replay Value

While the puppet plays never change, the other games provide for endless hours of replay. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide

Review: Documentation

The section on games shows a picture of a typical game screen and the various buttons and areas of each are clearly and distinctly explained. In addition to game explanations, a troubleshooting section is also available. ~ Lisa Karen Savignano, All Game Guide