Mia's Science Adventure: Romaine's New Hat
Score By Feature
OveReview Final Score
Product Description
Selected User Reviews For Mia's Science Adventure: Romaine's New Hat
I love it.
It has been a lot of fun playing this game with my children! In the game, we learn quite a bit about the world we live in. Using these concepts on a daily basis is so easy for them to pick up! The kids love Mia so much that they don't realize they are learning while they have fun!.
It is likely that there are better educational programs available on the market than Mia if one is searching for a program to aid in a child's learning. Our team of 10 bought this as a package of Mia and we all suffer the same issues. First of all, it requires 2 CDs and there is no way to complete a game without switching to the second Furthermore, Mia cannot be loaded on the hard drive, so it is not possible to play the game unless the game CD is inserted into the computer. When programs require the loading of CDs, it is a pain in the neck, since children can't handle CDs properly, so an adult has to change them. This CD contains two files as opposed to most programs which have only one. In some ways, MIA programs are more like video games than educational programs. The games are like video games like Spiderman and Sponge Bob which are puzzle games to solve. It's this problem with Mia that leads to the error message. A child spends an inordinate amount of time moving from one educational activity to another so that most of the time is spent moving and little is spent being educated. For a child, even a child with a lot of experience playing them, this can be frustrating. Because Mia is more of a video game than an educational resource, children who love to play video games will be attracted to it. The science section of Mia's IEP is better than her math and reading sections, because a written scenario is provided which aids in Mia's understanding. It can also sometimes hang the program so that the child cannot complete the game as with all Mia programs. Additionally, the program is always active, so hibernation and suspend on the computer will not work. This means that when the child walks away from the computer, the program must be turned off. All Mia programs suffer from the same issue, which is that the video only occupies a small portion of the monitor screen, so the effects are diminished. Although Mia's educational software fills the entire screen when the user exits, it restores the screen to the original resolution when the user reenters the program, which is not the case with all educational software. Despite the fact that the Mia shows do have humor in them, they are entertaining to children. What few educational materials are available are also valuable. I did not finish the game because it was so long. The mission takes many hours to complete. There are some instances when oral instructions are not identical to the written ones, which are correct ones, and make children confused. In the game, there is an increase in lag time.
I had high hopes for this game, but it disappoints me greatly. I get incredibly frustrated watching my daughter point the mouse around over and over again trying to figure out what to do next after spending countless minutes pointing the mouse around to navigate the slow-moving Mia back and forth, over and over again, until she reaches a totally different scene. Despite clicking on Mia to get a hint, it did not have any effect. While there are some learning activities, the time spent in pointless navigation and some actual activities is both about 20% and 80% of the time spent navigating around the site. The game was presented to her in the computer screen as we sat there together going over the game. In the end, we both gave up, as it was not worth the hours spent in front of the computer, learning basically nothing other than how poorly designed games are. The Mia adventures behave the same way when I have purchased all of them. In spite of the fact that she wants to keep playing, my daughter wants to stop. If they have done any user studies before releasing this game, I wonder if they have done any study on the players. I put it in a shredder, so that's it. Nevertheless, the one star is for the fancy rendering, as this is a production that's all style and no substance.
The game started without a hitch until I got to the start screen. My computer lost all connection after I clicked "Start" and I received a picture of a house. After that, everything went black, and I was unable to use the computer anymore. Since loading many other programs onto this computer a few days ago (and yes, there is plenty of remaining memory), I have used quite a bit of disk space. In the absurdity of it all, I contacted the company for assistance and was told to check the PC permissions. It could have been that I did not have the permission to install Are you serious? Due to the fact that I opened the package, I can't return it.
She's 7 years old and she enjoyed it thoroughly. This was on a Macintosh and worked It took a few minutes to read from and load the disk, but she enjoyed discovering all the elements and jewels as she went. It is divided into levels of difficulty based on age. It is not something I would buy for someone any younger than that, except for a very precocious child.
The extensive video sequences, however, do not appeal to either of us. They annoy her to no end! As it stands, I can only imagine that this game would be excellent for any kid that would normally be playing video games, but it might not be so good for one that has never played one before. It's really disappointing for me. I paid a lot more for this and the math version of Mia than I usually do. It's much easier for my daughter to play the "standard" math games on the old cd that we picked up at a yard sale. Graphics are not as fancy, but it is a whole lot more fun to play (and is also a great fun learning tool).
It was so much fun to watch the 3D animation while we opened it together - A similar level of quality to We were all glued to the computer screen, playing this adventure land game at our party. However, its finest feature is not only that it is educational but because it is such a captivating piece of entertainment. This game hasn't stopped being played by my daughter. The money you spend was well spent! I am going to add the rest of the Mia series to my collection.
Related Products For Mia's Science Adventure: Romaine's New Hat
