Mia - The search for Grandma's Remedy
Ages 5 - 9

This game has won numerous awards for innovative technology and excellence in multimedia. It has a darling mouse character and a pathetic sick grandmother who sends her get the much needed medicine. Mia just begins her journey when the dastardly rat robs her of the sparklies grandma gave her to purchase the medicine The rest of the story involves getting Mia from the attic down through the house to the basement and out into the garden. Oh and yes - she has to earn more sparklies because you can bet the bad rat isn't going t give them back to her.

Earning sparklies means solving word type puzzles. This game is rated for children 5 - 9 but I found the vocabulary and sentence construction to be quite challanging. Hooray for our Canadian neighbors. I think there was some serious thought behind the word/language puzzles. They address some of the more complex language skills such as understanding the separate sounds of a spoken work, guessing words based upon context, understanding the precise meanings of words like before, after, and while and the logical words such as and, or and if. I do take exception to their awarding sparklies even if the puzzles are not completed. If they wanted to avoid frustrating their players - they should have thought of a better way.

The graphics are good and a lot of personality is imbued in the characters. The disappointment comes with the movement of Mia through her journey. First off - it is basically a side scroller and so you bump up to left and right ends of the house which destroys the sense being free to explore everywhere. And then there is Mia's tedious walking pace. It's not that the steps are slow, it's that they are so little that it takes her forever to get anywhere. The way to get around this is to use the arrow keys and get her on her skateboard. Of course you have to read the manual to find that out.

Response time is strange. There is a delay between mouse clicks and Mia's movement. Instead of going immediately in the indicated direction, she first does a somewhat circular dance before proceeding in the indicated direction. Kids today are accustom to immediate response to clicks and when it doesn't happen, they click again.. This results in confusing multiple clicks. There is almost no replay value once you have solved the puzzles and found the way down through the house to the garden. The game will please the very young who will be satisfied to play with the very cute Mia and parents who appreciate the reading exercises.

Reviewed by Maryanne 10/99