Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
© 1998 Brøderbund (The Learning Company)
Note: the following review appeared in the July 1998 issue of CSR. This is not the latest version of this program. The premise of this outstanding geography game remains the same in this updated version. Kids have to track down notorious criminal Carmen Sandiego and thwart her evil plans. As they comb the fifty states in search of the villainess, children take state tours and tap into the Acme database to learn about cities, states and regions. They also talk to over 200 animated characters to gather clues. In the CD's multimedia library, children can watch video clips and access maps, essays and flags. The essays are keyword searchable and highlight each state's geography, economy, history and famous citizens, making this CD a valuable resource for school reports. Guided tours of US landmarks and historic sites help kids better understand our nation's past. Each new version of Carmen just gets better and better. This version includes a wacky trivia game and a link to the Internet that lets kids update facts about each state. Our testers liked this Carmen better than the original because of its enhanced graphics and the addition of more cases to solve. Younger testers aged eight and nine required some adult assistance at times to solve some of the puzzles, but enjoyed the game nonetheless.
$37, Win 95, Win 3.1, Mac OS (CD-ROM)
Teaches: US geography, flags, facts, maps, logic