Maisy's a big hit on our PC! (TDK Maisy's Playhouse (PC))

Member Name: Cleggy

Product:	TDK Maisy's Playhouse (PC)
Date:	12/09/01 (554 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent Graphics and sound that match eactly the Maisy books/series, Wide range of activities, Different levels allow the software to keep up with your child's ability

Disadvantages: Multiple clicks restart animations - gets very annoying very quickly, Maisy's house could have more rooms (and variation) to discover, Uses standard mousepointers which can be small and difficult for youngsters to spot

Maisy's Playhouse brings Maisy and her friends to the PC in an entertaining multi-media package for young children. This opinion is as much my daughter's work as mine - Maisy is one of her favourite characters and she is always pestering us to put Maisy on the computer for her. At 2 years 2 months (at the time of writing) she is slightly younger than the 3+ age rating of this software, but recognises the characters and enjoys the games. She has difficulty moving the mouse but has mastered the art of clicking - so it is very much a collaborative effort when we play this together.

There are 2 main sections to this CD - 3 rooms in Maisy's house and 6 activities. The rooms section is quite basic, but fun - you can go into the bathroom, kitchen or bedroom - clicking the mouse on some of the objects will start short animations and play an appropriate fun sound effect - clicking a tap causes water to run and splish-splash sound effects, slippers walk across the bedroom floor, etc. On each screen there is a hidden Maisy icon and clicking this will cause Maisy to come on screen, do something (e.g. in her bedroom she may tuck Panda into bed, or change clothes from her wardrobe), and then leave. The graphics are pretty much identical to the brilliant Maisy books, and the animated Maisy is pretty much the same as the animated TV show.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot of variation in what happens - there are only so many items to click on (although different items do appear at different times), and there are a limited number of Maisy appearances. Having some of the other characters join in - or having more rooms to visit would have been better. Having said that this complaint comes from me - Laurie (my daughter) doesn't seem to mind and loves clicking at everything and watching all the animations.

Repeat clicks of the mouse button restart animations so if you have a young child with an itchy mouse finger as Laurie does th
en you have a lot of stop-starting of animations. It would have been much better if they had programmed it to ignore mouse-clicks when animations are playing so you get to see the full thing through straight away. Also it uses the standard windows mouse pointers which can be small and difficult to see for youngsters. I have seen other multi-media software that use its own larger, more colourful mouse pointers and it would have been good if that feature had been added here (particularly if they could have used some kind of Maisy shaped pointer or something).

The second section gives you the choice of 6 different activities - these get the user much more involved -it isn't a case of just clicking and watching - there is lots to do here. I won't go into all 6 but just pick Laurie's favourite 3 which are dressing up, gingerbread, and the "choo-choo". In the dressing up game you get a short scene outside Maisy's window - this may be Maisy's friends playing in the snow, or in the sand pit out in the sun - you then go into her wardrobe and have to pick the right clothes to wear - t-shirts and shorts in the sun, wellies and coat in the snow, etc. Maisy comes in and when your child picks the right clothes she wears them. The ginger-bread game has Maisy baking ginger-bread shapes (the shapes of her friends, just like in the book). Unfortunately Maisy drops the biscuit and it is then our job to put the shapes back together again. Once you get the pieces together you are taken to a screen where you can add decoration to the biscuit - sweets, etc You can then print your design out. It is probably worth mentioning here that the CD has 3 difficulty levels to allow the package to grow with your child's ability. On level 1 (which we use) the biscuit breaks into 3 large pieces and it is pretty straight forward to put them together (although not for Laurie who can't move the mouse, but you know what I mean...), on level 3 the b
iscuit breaks in to 6 smaller pieces and the jigsaw becomes less obvious - I think this definitely adds value to the CD as when they start to stroll through it easily you can just knock it up to the next level and start to add a bit more challenge (all the activities increase in complexity not just the ginger bread jigsaw). The train game sees Maisy driving a train - with empty carriages to hold animals - each carriage has a flag showing what animal should go in it and there are 3 animals to choose from. This really helps recognition - I like the fact that the picture on the flag is static and the animals below are animated and look different so it isn't just about spotting exactly the same picture. When you pick the right animal it gets in the carriage and the train moves on showing you the next empty carriage and choice of animals to pick from.

The other activities include colouring and putting together different scenes with Maisy and her friends (all the obvious favourites are here Eddie, Charlie, Tallulah so you won't have any problem recognising them). There is loads of stuff to print out as well to keep a permanent record of what you do.

The CD doesn't install fully to your hard drive (in fact you can run it from your CD without installing anything to your PC or Mac) so pulls all the animations off the CD - ours started to get very sluggish - with Maisy stuttering her way across the screen and interruptions to the sound. I think sticky finger prints were to blame and we have started cleaning the CD before each play - point to note if you get the same problems.

Overall this is an excellent CD-ROM that all Maisy fans will love - the variety of activities and the different levels of play will ensure it proves long-term value for money. The graphics are bright, colourful and fun just like the books/series, the sound effects are clear and add to the on-screen action (no Neil Morrissey voice over though but the replacem
ent is very good). The activities are interesting, challenging and fun. I suppose the last words should go to Laurie - last weekend I told her we could put Maisy on the computer when we'd finished cleaning up, she looked at me and said (and I kid you not) "I love playing Maisy, it's fun" - you can get no better recommendation than that I guess.

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