Smart Boy's Toys Club
© 2008 UFO Interactive Games
This collection of 18 mini-games is a mixed bag. Some are fair -- many are poorly designed-- but there are a few gems in the mix. We noticed that half of the games are identical to Smart Girl's Party Games. The best part about this series is that it is easy for a young child to get in or out of a game at any point. The game starts with a view of 18 games, each represented by a puzzle piece. To get started, you simply touch an icon. There's a nice variety, but unfortunately some games have a rigid feel to them that includes a harsh buzzing sound for wrong answers. Other weaknesses noted by our testers included a poorly designed crane game ("Why not let you use the DS direction keys?), and a Scratch-and-Reveal game that requires reading ability to enter the correct answer, yet some menus are grammatically incorrect ("110 point"). Also, the background music -- classical piano music -- can't be controlled. Better activities include Coloring (just touch an area of the screen to fill in the colors), and a no-fail balloon popping game that reinforces counting to 10. While not as well designed as last year's UFO children's titles (see Smart Boy's Gameroom), for $20 this game is at least worth a borrow. Bag it or borrow it. Created by Star*Fish, published by UFO Interactive.
$20, Nintendo DS
Teaches: memory, matching, creativity, music, spatial relations, counting to 10
CTR Rating: 80%