Tonka Construction

Rating:
Summary: Great distraction when kid is driving you insane
Review: Even when we have the most well behaved children in the world, sometimes they act up. That is when we stick him in from of the "Truck game". He is 2 1/2 and he does not get tired of it even after winning multiple times. And yes, it is a 256 color game; so, right click on the desktop and change the screen colors (no big deal). When you need peace of mind, it is totally worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Important Information Misleading
Review: Hasbro lists 640X480X256 colors as a minimum requirement for this product. Unfortunately, that is the ONLY resolution that will work. You don't know that by examining the box. In fact, you won't know it until the program fails to run.

Hasbro Technical Support is no help, as all they do is point out that the software will only run in 256 color mode - which I already knew!

My five year old son was VERY disappointed on Christmas day - and so was I.

If Hasbro had labeled the product as ONLY running in 256 color mode, I would have known not to buy the software. I expected MINIMUM system requirement to list only that - and not MAX requirements!

Rating:
Summary: Good game, lousy UI
Review: I bought the Tonka Construction Game for my 3 year old. First note to parents. This game ONLY runs under 256 color mode which means I have to keep changing the color depth down. Its annoying especially for someone like myself who programs software and knows it would have been trivial for them to allow the game to run under higher resolutions just not lower. Anyway, that aside the game is dearly loved by my 3 year old at least until he gets one of the trucks stuck in some corner of the map. It also has sub-par mouse movement making it not that hard to do and once it does you have no out other then killing the program using task manager (CTRL+ALT+DEL). HASBRO big tech note here, EVERY game should respond to the user hitting the escape key and perform some intelligent exit ideally from the current scene or at least the game itself. So despite all of this, I will probably look at Tonka 2 because the game premise is good and every kid loves trucks. Hopefully, they will fix these somewhat obvious UI issues in which case Tonka 2 could really be a good choice for children's software.

Rating:
Summary: He never gets sick of it!
Review: Is it possible to wear out a softwear program?! My 5 year old has been playing this game for over a year and between this and Search & Rescue he never wants to play anything else! He finds it incredibly rewarding - worthy of a good belly-laugh - when he can print out his works of art and certificates! We definately got our money's worth!

Rating:
Summary: Good game, lousy UI
Review: Is it possible to wear out a softwear program?! My 5 year old has been playing this game for over a year and between this and Search & Rescue he never wants to play anything else! He finds it incredibly rewarding - worthy of a good belly-laugh - when he can print out his works of art and certificates! We definately got our money's worth!

Rating:
Summary: He never gets sick of it!
Review: Is it possible to wear out a softwear program?! My 5 year old has been playing this game for over a year and between this and Search & Rescue he never wants to play anything else! He finds it incredibly rewarding - worthy of a good belly-laugh - when he can print out his works of art and certificates! We definately got our money's worth!

Rating:
Summary: great game, horrible implementation
Review: Most kids love trucks and construction, so this game should be a smash hit. There are lots of trucks to paint and use on a wide variety of fun construction tasks -- building a castle, clearing an avalanche, etc -- and the kids do love it. But they also get very frustrated. The game crashes often and you can't save, so all the work is lost, and about half the time the crash requires you to reboot the whole computer. The cursor disappears at important times and they game is fussy about getting a veicle to a precise spot before it will let ou move on. Also, it's not always clear what is expected next.

Great idea but badly developed, more's the pity.

Rating:
Summary: great game, horrible implementation
Review: Most kids love trucks and construction, so this game should be a smash hit. There are lots of trucks to paint and use on a wide variety of fun construction tasks -- building a castle, clearing an avalanche, etc -- and the kids do love it. But they also get very frustrated. The game crashes often and you can't save, so all the work is lost, and about half the time the crash requires you to reboot the whole computer. The cursor disappears at important times and they game is fussy about getting a veicle to a precise spot before it will let ou move on. Also, it's not always clear what is expected next.

Great idea but badly developed, more's the pity.

Rating:
Summary: He explains construction stuff to his brother
Review: My 4 year old received this for Christmas. This is the first product that he has used all by himself. I've noticed that his mouse control has greatly improved. I've even overheard him explaining to his 2 year old brother how each of the hotwheel construction vehicles are supposed to work. It really keeps a preschool boy's attention and lets them practice small motor skills as well as learn a little about those trucks that boys this age love so much.