Storybook Workshop
Upon entering the expansive tree house, a player can go through doors to different
rooms - Orange and Apple are the most fun.
Orange is the story library. Most are pretty familiar - Little Red Riding Hood, Ugly Duckling the Golden
Goose - a mix of Grimm, Anderson and Aesop, with some Japanese fairytales thrown in.
There are choices on how the stories are read.
Since the activity comes with a microphone, you can read, while the program changes your voice to sort of match the character;
you have the option of recording and playing back your reading, you can have a sweet voiced person read the story to you
or children can read it themselves, moving along at their own pace.
Since it's on the Wii, you can have your Mii be a character in a story - after you have read or recorded it three times.
It's amusing enough - parents seem to be more impressed with it than the kids.
Though the images on the box show an adult reading and children listening - more can be gotten
out of the activity if the child can read.
The words are simple and the remote controls the speed at which the text is changed.
The Apple room has activities like voice painting, voice changing, answering quizzes and singing.
Voice painting is the best. Streams of paint respond to short and long sounds.
It was an ambitious project by Konami that only disappoints in the quality of the voice transformation.
The giant voice only sounded deeper and the elves only sounded squeaky,
resulting in nothing you would really want to play back.
Miis can be inserted regardless of the age and gender of the character in the story, leading to much laughter.
If you would be willing to forget the voice changing and just use the game as a read along activity - it has some merit.
If you think of the game as a reading adventure - you won't be disappointed.
Reviewed by: Editor - 01/10
Ages: Everyone - kids
Fun Factor: OK if you stick with the reading and lay off the mic
Female Factor: Girl and boy characters in the stories
Player Friendly: Mic effects are confusing