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Computer Times
Editors' Choice Games Monkey Tales Review by Angie Kibiloski
Monkey Tales (Retail $14.95) is a series of 5 PC games from Larian Studios, focused on practicing the math skills that children are learning in school. Each of the 5 games is geared towards a different grade level: 2nd through 6th. The idea is not to teach kids math in the game, but to reinforce lessons they have already been taught. The game uses a special algorithm to gauge each child’s unique learning curve. The difficulty of each level will increase enough to be challenging while not becoming too frustrating. Each game features a fun storyline, suitable for the age of the child. As your child moves through each level, the plot will progress and keep your child engaged and motivated to go on to the next level. By learning and practicing math skills through gaming, the lessons become fun instead of a chore, and the material is more likely to be retained. Not only will these games challenge a child’s math skills, but navigating through each level will require some logical thinking and reasoning skills as well.
The 5 games in the series are The Princess of Sundara (2nd grade), The Museum of Anything (3rd grade), The Abbey of Aviath (4th grade), The Castle of Draconion (5th grade), and The Valley of the Jackal (6th grade). You can download each individual game at www.monkeytalesgames.com. Every game has 41 levels of game play, set over 5 different environments, and 35 of those levels are maze-like. You must guide your character around the maze, moving obstacles, activating various devices, revealing hidden areas, and collecting all of the bananas scattered around the level. The bananas are used to keep your pet monkeys fed and happy in their zoo enclosure. You collect pet monkeys by finding one in each level, and playing a mini game against him. Win the mini game and he’ll come live in your zoo. Winning these mini games will also open the door out of the level. In the mini games, you’ll be given a math problem, and you must perform various actions to answer each question. You will be asked to throw balls at correct answers, choose the appropriate flash cards, shoot lasers at answers, and more, all before the monkey can do the same. Five of the remaining levels, one at the end of each set of 7 mazes, are sort of like pop quizzes, testing all of the skills you’ve been practicing in the mini games. You must make your way across a bridge by stepping only on the safe stones. You’ll be given a new math question for each stone you step on. Give the correct answer and the bridge will highlight which is the next safe stone to step on. Get the answer wrong and you’ll have to guess. The final, and 41st level is a boss level, where you will have to go up against the major bad guy of the game and defeat him by playing several of each of the mini game types. Succeed and you’ll finish the game. Anytime while playing, you can take a break and visit your monkeys in their zoo enclosure. You’ll see them swinging, playing, and munching on all the yummy bananas you’ve found for them.
In The Princess of Sundara, you must use all of your addition, subtraction, division, and greater than/less than skills to rescue the princess who has been kidnapped by a dragon. The Museum of Anything will find you trying to get rid of a giant dinosaur that has taken over the museum, equipped with your fantastic multiplication skills and higher levels of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. An evil witch is living in the abbey in The Abbey of Aviath, and you must evict her with even tougher levels of these skills, with the added elements of fractions and decimals. In The Castle of Draconion, a horrible vampire is trying to steal all of mankind’s knowledge, and you must battle him with your ever-increasing math powers in all of these subjects. Finally, The Valley of the Jackal will pit you and your brain against an Egyptian god, with a heavy focus on multiplication and division of fractions and decimals. Some of the higher levels in each game can be quite challenging, but being able to practice each skill in a fun, non-stressful, and encouraging way makes mastering and completing these levels very rewarding.
Each of the 5 Monkey Tales games brings together logic and math in fun and educational ways. By asking a child to figure out a way to navigate through all of the obstacles in a maze level, he will need to employ some critical thinking and spatial reasoning. While each game focuses on a variety of different math skills, there are ample opportunities to use each of them during the course of the game, encouraging a true mastering of the subjects by the end. As the games’ algorithm tailors the difficulty level to each child’s own skill, the mini games will remain challenging but never frustrating. Playing Monkey Tales is a really fun way to stay on top of all of your math skills, from basic addition to complicated fraction multiplication, and everything in between. In the future, Larian Studios intends to add more games to this series, focusing on other subjects, like language and science, so stay tuned for new developments.
System Requirements:
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