Description:
There's a race going on in Critterville, and Little Critter wants to participate. To do that he's going to have to put together a racer, but what will he use to make it? Mercer Mayer's Little Critter and the Great Race is a nicely balanced combination--a first-person role-playing game sprinkled with educational activities, with the race at the end serving as the icing on the cake. Children begin play by choosing between three different go-cart designs; once they have decided, the race is on to find all the parts they need to build Little Critter's racer. Roaming Critterville, they must help the various town citizens with a variety of small troubles, earning goodwill and car components along the way. Whether you are giving a squeak-toy to a bored junkyard dog or playing tic-tac-toe against a ghost in the local haunted house, each completed challenge brings you closer to a completed vehicle. The six minigames tucked into Little Critter and the Great Race are all relatively simple, and children in the 4-years-and-older age range should have no trouble completing them to earn car components. Like most role-playing games, it also has a component that requires observation and close attention--a variety of useful items are lying around all of the game scenes--as well as the willingness to experiment with the items you have gathered already. An impatient player may be frustrated by the inability to just skip ahead to the race, but the earlier activities can be completed in a relatively short time, providing lots of fun. What's more, the fact that there are three racers, all with different parks, means that Little Critter's driving ambitions can be realized in a variety of ways. This ensures that players can enjoy a number of versions of the story, playing it out from the very beginning. No matter what route they take, they will still arrive on Race Hill at the end, revved up and ready to test their driving acumen. (Ages 4 and older) --Alyx Dellamonica
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