MushABelly (www.mushabelly.com)
© 2007 Jay at Play
Like Webkinz or BeanieBabies 2.0, MushABellies are basketball-sized plush animals that come with a code on a sealed tag that unlocks a crudely-designed town square. The toys come in two sizes (small for $10, and large for $17), each with the same level of access. Unlike Webkinz or Club Penguin, there is no instant messaging, chat or social games; but note that we reviewed this site January 2008, and these features can change. The MushABellies include 150 varieties of common animals, such as monkeys, pigs, and elephants. Each toy has an embedded sound effect (called a "grumble") that is activated when you squeeze it. They also come with a game card that tells their species, name, birthday, and the food they like to eat. The code is used to enroll in MushABelly University, containing a dorm room, store, a hall for classes and a registrar's office. The university is set up like a small town, with activities in each location. In Mushkin Hall, you take classes to earn credits to spend in the store. There's a well-designed, branching typing game called Crazy Keys where you must target letter keys in a "very cool" space theme, that kept our tester playing again and again. The math class consisted of nothing more than watching highlighted math problems. Glitches include needing to enter a parent's e-mail address, so the site could confirm the child had permission to register and play, but the site never asked for e-mail during the actual registration. We also noted that our plush toy was a monkey with an attached monkey tag; however, when we entered our room, our pet appeared as a dog. This upset our seven-year-old tester. The Mushabelly concept is certainly interesting. It is similar to Webkinz, but seems to have more of a learning focus, and the plush toys are fun to play on their own. The site, however, has quite a way to come before it can compete with other secret code collectibles.
$1017, Internet Site
Teaches: memory, some logic, keyboarding
CTR Rating: 42%