Didi & Ditto -- Kindergarten
Ages: 4-6

Such an unremarkable name for such a remarkable fun game. The learning happens under the skin -- the best way. Color matching, arithmetic functions, literacy skills sets -- vocabulary, identifying letters, rhyming and recognizing shapes and pattern are all part of the learning that happens as you play the games.

The frame for the story is that we must find food for a vegetarian fox in order for him to free our beaver friend. For those children who have played any of the other Kutoka games, the characters will be pleasingly familiar but I admit that I don't remember Venus chicken. Kutoka has managed to make the usual games of aiming, choosing, jumping and remembering interesting and gentle.

There is a minor confusing point. The direction given in the game is that you have to find the fruits/vegetables -- actually you win them by playing games. Kids may look for the items before happening upon the game. Instructions, sadly, are no longer packaged with the CD -- they are on the disk. Parents might want to take the extra step and print them out. Anyway, kids will enjoy playing the games and the learning part will slowly osmose into them. The game comes on a hybrid disk so it can be played on both Mac and PC

Reviewed by: Editor - 08/04

Dad: This "game" is simply amazing. It boasts some of the best graphics that I have ever seen in an educational game. The characters, colors and activities are all really well presented in an entertaining package that has kept the girls busy playing all three difficulty levels. Didi & Ditto are beavers and you can play as either one of them. When the game starts, no matter what difficulty level you play on, one of them gets captured by a purple fox who is out looking for food. The character you play as has to go out the find an assortment of food to bring back in trade for the other character. You get to visit many different locations throughout the game in order to complete the activities and return with the food. The game is totally non-linear. You can go to any activity at any time, even if you completed it earlier in the course of the game. You are only awarded the food prize the first time you complete the activity, but it's nice to be able to go back and play the favorite ones at any time. As you progress through the game, you will meet many different characters, all fully rendered in 3d and very well animated. Activities include pattern recognition, beginning math and spelling, shapes and sequencing. There are also a number of hidden "surprises" included at each location that you can find by clicking around with the mouse. My youngest found it very entertaining and she has made it through all 3 levels. She is in kindergarten now and all 3 difficulty levels (each level is simply a repeat of the first level activities, but with the difficulty level ramped) are able to be done by a kindergartener. My second grader actually enjoys playing the game on the hardest level, even tho it is a little rudimentary for a second grader. Just a testament to the power of presentation done by the games creators. The math might require a little parental help, but it can be done by counting on fingers (which is what I have taught my daughters to begin with) and they catch on really fast. All in all, a wonderful title. The only drawback that I found with the game was that you really cannot play the game at it's "minimal" settings system wise. For a PC, a 300 MHz is recommended but I strongly suggest at least 800 MHz, 128 meg of RAM and an AGP accelerated video card, which can be found for $30-$40 these days. Lindsey: I really liked doing the eggs. (Sequence and pattern recognition). The mushrooms were fun as well. (Patterns) I liked playing as Didi. The math was kinda hard but my daddy showed me how to count on my fingers to help. The dropping leaves got kind of hard when they dropped fast, but I could still pick them out. I thought the turtle who blew the water bubbles was funny (Patterns). Caelyn: I also really liked getting the eggs in the right basket. I liked where you have to help them get off the mountain on the wagon by jumping and ducking. It was hard and I had to do it about 3 times to get all the way to the bottom, but it was fun. Some of it was kind of easy for me, but I just skipped those parts. Mike: A really good game and I have been to the website on the CD to see what else they have. (http://www.kutoka.com) We highly recommend this title

Reviewed by Dad and Caelyn 7 & Lindsey 6