Hoyle Board Games
Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon
Didi & Ditto

June 30, 2004

Hoyle Board Games (**** out of four) includes a total of 18 board games. There are the more familiar and popular ones such as Checkers, Chess, Dominoes, Pachisi and Backgammon and also other less well known but surprisingly challenging games, including Yacht, Mancala, Mahjong Tiles and Wordox. If you don’t know the rules, they’re just a click away. You can play alone against the computer, with up to three other real people on the same computer (depending on the game) or on the Internet with known or unknown opponents from around the world.

You can choose the on-screen persona of yourself and of your opponent(s) from the 50 provided or create a new persona from hundreds of combinations included with the Facemaker tool. Each persona can have his, hers or its own personality and patter. Each board game lets you choose skill level, game variations and background music. The chatter and music can be set at various levels of "attitude" or can be turned off if you prefer to play in silence. The game board graphics are first rate and true to their original board counterpart.

Included is a 150-page printed Hoyle Rule Book, which contains rules and strategies for all the games, a bibliography, a listing of some board game Web sites, an interesting history of board games (non-computer versions) and the computer version of Webster’s New World College Dictionary. A bonus booklet is the abridged version of Hoyle’s 8 Favorite Games. If you like to play board games, this program is a great option to having stacks of game boxes on the closet shelves.

Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon (****) takes players on a quest through beautifully depicted, wonderfully organic alien environments. You play the part of the man Sen, awakened after a 200-year sleep. Sen is told that the spaceship in which he is riding will fall to the planet it orbits in 16 days and kill him. This is punishment for causing the near destruction of the world into which he will soon crash. Sen has no memory of how he came to this place or why he was the cause. You, directing Sen, must escape the spaceship, land on the planet and piece together all the events. Not a small chore considering there are numerous challenges and many puzzles to solve before this goal can be accomplished.

Help comes from "Companions," intelligent robot-like machines designed to give limited assistance and information. Along the way to solving the mystery, you’ll learn that there were two surviving factions on the planet: the science-oriented and the spiritual-oriented peoples. They are at odds, and part of your chore will be to resolve this feud. Hence the Chameleon title. In addition to solving math, challenging logic puzzles, and others, you’ll be meeting and speaking with numerous people trying to gather information and clues. You’ll also encounter various items you’ll need to acquire for use later--all the while traveling through wonderful and sometimes weird environments, in panoramic 3D. Movement is easy, from keyboard, mouse and simple menus. The cut scenes are simple and well voiced, and the original musical score and sound effects are just right for the mood of the game.

For lovers of puzzle-filled mystery adventures with a hint of sci-fi, Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon is sure to please.

Kindergarten Learning Fun (ages 4 - 6)

The newly-introduced Didi & Ditto, (****) from the creators of the award-winning Mia series, is even better than its predecessors. The graphics are outstanding, and the learning activities are colorful, engaging, lively and fun.

This program features two beavers who help children through many learning activities related to mathematics, literacy, music, logic, creativity and memory. The program is designed to support and reinforce what children are learning at school. The story has children helping the beavers, Didi (a girl) and Ditto (a boy), find food for Zolt, the wolf, to get him to free a trapped beaver. To find the food, children can choose to visit any one of several locations, such as a farm, forest, meadow, pond, swamp, mountain top, waterfall and a beaver lodge.

Each of these locations offers different learning activities. For example, while on the farm, children learn pattern matching and numbers while putting eggs in a basket; in another they learn letters by clicking on letters that spell a word shown on a leaf; in another they learn colors by choosing colors for a picture. Once children successfully complete an activity, they earn a fruit or vegetable to put in Ditto’s or Didi’s knapsack. Did we mention that the wolf is a vegetarian? Activities are automatically saved, so children can return to finish any part at a later time.

There are three levels of difficulty, and children can choose to play as the girl or boy beaver. Up to four players can save up to 10 activities.

A parent’s manual is included on disk. There are plenty of activities to keep children happy, busy and learning with this delightful, beautifully illustrated and easy to use program. Recommended.

From Kutoka, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP with Pentium II and Mac System 9, OS X, $19.95 from http://store.kutoka.com.

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