Didi & Ditto Preschool: Mother Nature's Visit
© 2009 Kutoka Interactive
This third title in the Didi & Ditto series features the same film-quality animation that has become a trademark of the Canadian developer Kutoka Interactive, mixed with 16 shallow games that playfully introduce school readiness skills. In the story, Didi & Ditto (young brother and sister beavers) are preparing for a visit from Mother Nature, but a sneaky wolf has been hiding the musical instruments and the food. A child can choose to play as either the male or female beaver, a feature we'd like to see in more early childhood software titles. After they sign in (to save games), children can choose to play in the adventure mode, or jump directly to one of the 16 games, where they can sort letters, construct short words or match numerals with quantities. The games are beautiful but shallow, and they could be more immersive. In other words, rather than click on correct matches, it would be better if children could drag them into place. In between the levels, children are treated to clear, beautiful cut scenes. The hybrid game comes on one disk that can be installed on either Macintosh or Windows computers.
$20, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: reading, math, science, music and art
CTR Rating: 86%