Pet Pals Animal Doctor
© 2006 Legacy Games
There's no better way to build a child's interest in a profession like medicine than a well-designed sim. Just out from Legacy Interactive, Pet Pals Animal Doctor (www.legacyinteractive.com, for Mac or Windows) puts your child in the examination room in the scrubs inside a veterinary clinic and tries to figure out the cause of an iguana's swollen leg. Note that this title will be called Petz Vet (distributed by Ubisoft) starting this spring. You start in the waiting room, by clicking on of a variety of worried people and their sick pets. Like a real clinic, there's all sorts of problems, and you never know when an emergency might walk in the door. While I was suturing up my Iguana's leg, a sick Great Dane puppy was rushed in with a snake bite on his snout (fortunately, the Iguana was well sedated). There are 35 cases that range from a cat with asthma to tricky case of old dog vestibular disease. At the easy level, written prompts provide help, but at the hard level, you're left alone with a tray of real-looking vet tools and a pitiful critter who needs your help. During the exam, you consult actual x-rays and minimally gory photos of things like an ear canals, as you try to earn points with a fast, accurate diagnosis. The game costs $20, but the future medical school tuition is up to you. Note that this game will be sold in different formats — online (CD-ROM and downloadable) and through Scholastic. See the review for the Wii version.
$20, Mac OSX*, Windows XP,*
Teaches: deductive reasoning, reading, health care, animals, science, veterinary medicine
CTR Rating: 94%