Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $8.00

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PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine	Pimpjuice Premium Energy Drink, Extra Strength Formula, 8-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24)

Customer Reviews:

Great Fun....And Learning, Too! [Posted on 2002-08-15]
This is a really great game. In it, Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Donald have to navigate through a spooky old house while being watched by those "3 spooky ghosts" from one of the old Disney movies. There are five or six areas to navigate, and it also includes a progress chart area like the Jumpstart series. This is a lot more fun, tho. If you have ever been to the Haunted Mansion at DisneyWorld it makes it even better. My daughter who is almost 5 has been doing very well with it and instead of being bored with the "educational" components, she is having fun with it and being excited about learning. Def buy it!

A Fun Game That Helps with the Basics [Posted on 2003-04-04]
This is one of the few games we own that challenges my four-year-old without boring him. Some of the other software we've purchased is too complicated for him to navigate on his own or the lessons are too basic. When he gets stuck in this game, a cartoon character pops up and gives a brief lesson. The lessons are short and catchy enough that they are actually interesting. Of course, my son often ignores the directions and moves through the game by trial and error. It helps to have an adult sit with him, so that he gets some educational value out of playing. On the other hand, sometimes we just let him do the trial and error thing, and he still has a great time. I think this is a wonderful game for a four-year-old to grow into. It helps, of course, that my son is a big Mickey Mouse fan.

The software basically allows the child to go to different "rooms" and complete tasks (games) that teach basic skills. In one room, the game is to alphabetize books that are labeled with just one letter of the alphabet. In another game, the child assembles suits of armor. Each piece of the armor is labeled with a number, and the child has to put the numbered armor together in different ways. The games get progressively more difficult as the child masters each step. I'm especially impressed with the fun way this game introduces addition and subtraction.

I'm now looking for a new game, and I'm trying to find one that's a cross between this software and Jumpstart's World Languages (the other game my son always wants to play.)

Highly recommended [Posted on 2007-10-28]
My 5 yr old nephew just started playing computer games last week, after he visited me and I showed him some play-on-the-net stuff. At his home they have dial-up, so play-on-the-net is too slow and jerky. Thus, Uncle Mike (me) had to find something he'd enjoy, something his Mum would approve of, and which would work on a Mac running 10.3.2 with Classic, and find it quick. I found 'Search For The Secret Keys', which runs under Classic, and it was a good choice.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto go into a haunted house and the door shuts behind them, with six locks clicking locked. The five friends split up to wander the house in hope of finding the six necessary keys. The 'haunted' side of things is typically Disney: not too scary, mostly just silly. I didn't like one picture depicting a monster under a bed, which cost half a point from my score. It was a bit too creepy compared to the rest of the game.

The game layout is pretty simple: a main hallway and six rooms, with a secret passage and a trapdoor. The paths between rooms aren't completely intuitive (or physically possible), but with only seven locations all up that's not too much of a worry. Each of the six rooms has a game which will give the reward of a key when completed to whatever level of competence is set, easiest being the default. When you get all six keys the characters meet up again at the front door and off they go.

There are three mostly friendly ghosts, who chat and joke, and one of whom will interrupt game play to give a quick lesson on how to play the particular game. The lessons are not lectures, they're clear and not too long (I didn't time them, but I'd guess 30 secs - 1 min). The games are each significantly different from the others, involving some pattern recognition, alphabet, beginner maths, playing music, beginner words, a little hypothesis and planning, and a little dexterity.

The game play is mostly simple enough for my 5 yr old nephew ("5 and a half!") at the easy level, but as it gets harder an adult or older child will be needed. One of the six games requires reading simple words from the beginning to do it properly, but trial and error would eventually get the player through. Another requires understanding the idea of alphabetical order and recognising letters, but even there they've put the alphabet, both small and caps, along the bottom of the screen.

When I bought it, I played the game through at all difficulties to make sure I was happy with it before giving it to my nephew, and it took me about an hour and a half. Today he played it (intermittently, with dinner-break) for about three hours and had gained three keys, with only occasional help. He most likes the 'plumbing one', where you have to place variously shaped pieces of pipe in order so that the basement doesn't get flooded.

The other loss of a half star was because my sister rang after I left this evening to say that the game had frozen with an error message. This was after four hours of hassle-free play. She managed to unfreeze and eject the disk, but I haven't yet heard if she's been able to get it going again. Bottom line - very good, with a little uncertainty.

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