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Type of Product
Humongous Entertainment educational game for children in which children explore and learn about the jungles of
Asia, Africa, and the Amazon.
User Level
Game for children ages 3-8 years old.
Review
No installation is required with Windows 95. Just load the CD into the CD-ROM drive and click the Play button to
start the game. You need to install the program for Windows 3.1 but it is not difficult. There is no User Guide
but there are some notes in the Readme file on the CD and some on the CD cover booklet.
 Let's
Explore the Jungle is armchair traveling at its best. In this program,
Buzzy the Knowledge Bug is your kid's guide to fun while they explore
over 30 places. Click points take them from the depths of a river to
the jungle canopy above. There are 215 detailed descriptions of plants
and animals to point to. Kids can get answers to such questions as where
does chocolate come from; why does the giant anteater walk on its knuckles;
or how does the flying snake fly. No reading is required so it is excellent
for pre-readers.
As a new player, a child types in his/her name. The next time they sign in, they just click on their name in Player
box. There are six main control buttons for navigation:
- Go Back
- Each click on this button takes you one step closer to the jungle overview screen.
- Time to Play
- Click on this button to get the game area of The Jungle.
- What Is This?
- Clicking on this turns the cursor into a question mark. Simply move it over an object to display the object's
name. For pre-readers, Buzzy will read out the name. Click on the object to display its Information Page, or click
on the What is It? Button again to switch back to the normal cursor.
- Index
- Index contains an alphabetical list of all the objects described in the in the Information Pages. To get to
a specific Information Page, click on the highlighted word on the Index. You can move through the Index by using
the purple arrows at the bottom of the screen, or by typing the first letter of the object you are interested in.
- Buzzy
- This button calls up Buzzy the Knowledge Bug, who shares tips, helps pre-readers by reading aloud, points out
interesting facts, and generally shares in the fun!
- Quit
- Clicking on this button ends the game. You can also exit the game by pressing the spacebar.
There are five entertaining and fun games to choose from:
- Coloring
 Book–provides
kids with15 different pictures to paint and print. There are Color
Tools to use. Kids can use the paint brush to select colors in the
paint palette. The Eye Dropper lets them mix colors. The sponge is
to remove color from the picture. And there is even an undo last step,
the Oops Face button.
- Trivia–for kids with a good mind for detail, they can play Jungle Trivia
and try to answer 100 questions about The Jungle, plants, and animals. A play level (easy, medium, hard) can be
selected. To help pre-readers Buzzy can read the trivia question aloud as it is displayed on the screen. Buzzy
also provides helpful hints. Get it right and they are rewarded.
- Jungle Jumble–future scrabble players can unscramble letter blocks to spell
out the name of the object on the screen. The picture is scrambled too! There is a fun payoff when the picture
is correct.
- Find It–kids can locate within The Jungle each of the 10 items that flash
up on the screen. There are 120 items to find among the three skill levels.
 Anteater Feeder–ever wanted to take
a walk through The Jungle with an anteater as it searches for its
diet of ants, termites, flies and grasshoppers. Even adults get hooked
on this one. There is a tongue meter that shows the number of shots
left each time you capture food. Kids will love the running ants,
flying insects, and hopping grasshoppers. The anteater's face changes
expression as he eats different foods. For instance, fire comes out
of his ears when he eats hot peppers. There are many clickables in
this game. I kept having to repeat a level because I spent so much
time clicking on all the objects.
Personal Comments
Wonderful and fun way for kids to learn about the jungle and its inhabitants. Humongous Entertainment has again
put effort into the animation, graphics, and audio of a program to provide an enriching environment in which kids
can learn and laugh.
System Requirements
Operating System: Windows 3.1 or higher
Processor: 33 MHz 386
Memory:4MB
Hardware: SVGA (640 x 480) 256 colors
Sound Card
Double-speed CD ROM drive
Other Goodies
The CD has demo versions of the following:
Let's Explore The Farm
Lets Explore The Airport
Putt Putt Saves the Zoo
Freddie Fish and The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds
Technical Support
Their Web site: http://www.humongous.com is an excellent source for information,
games, reviews and whatever.
Price
$29.95
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