Description:
The ever-versatile Magic School Bus shines its high beams into the watery world of whales and dolphins with this lightly educational and moderately entertaining CD-ROM. The format should be familiar to anyone who owns any of the other Magic School Bus programs: players explore inside the bus with Ms. Frizzle's guidance, or go outside the bus, this time into the briny deep, to learn more about whales.This program dutifully provides a plethora of whale factoids, but some of the activities lack inspiration. "Cetacean Rotation" is a puzzle game with a fancy name. "Spot That Whale" is a simplistic point-and-click matching game where speed counts more than memory. Rescuing a baby beluga from a maze riddled with fishing nets and hungry orcas is quick work. A drawing station with minimal creative options merely takes up space. Despite three levels of play, older kids are likely to churn through parts of this program like a blue whale churns through krill. Games that engage the brain a bit more include "Whale Scales," where players can compare the weight and length of cetaceans to other objects and critters (one blue whale equals 30,000 house cats) and "Spout Off," a game show with questions that will stump some parents. Other bright spots include gorgeous still photos, and video and audio clips of sea mammal wonders like humpbacks echo-locating and Dahl's porpoises arcing along the bow of the boat--all narrated in Ms. Frizzle's know-it-all trill, of course. Graphically, Magic School Bus Whales and Dolphins looks better than some of the other Magic School Bus offerings, and the program ran quickly, with no glitches. But if your 10-year-old wants some cold hard facts about whales for a research paper (like how many pounds, not house cats, a blue whale actually weighs), they may need to dive a little deeper than the Magic School Bus does in this program. (Ages 6 to 10) --Anne Erickson
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