FUNSCHOOL 4 (Under 5’s)
Review By keefy
Europress Software £25.99
Up until recently i have been pretty much fed up with the quality of the educational software available for the ST. Sure, there’s plenty of it. But a lot of it is terrible, the Disney title’s immediately spring to mind as complete bilge.
That is, until i came across the Fun School series. I was pleasantly surprised to notice while nosing through the disk, that it is in fact written entirely in STOS. Although from what i could see neither the manual nor the program itself made any mention of the fact. ( correct me if i’m wrong ). Anyway onto the review i suppose.
Fun School 4 comprises of 6 separate modules. They are ADDITION,TEDDY PAINT, FUN TRAIN, TEDDY’S HOUSE, TEDDY’S KARAOKE AND TEDDY’S BOOKS.
Between them, the modules contain a count the objects game, a basic art package ( my kids enjoyed this one), a match the picture game, a colour recognition game, a singalong game with a funky ted (the kids loved this) and a number recognition game.
All in all, Fun School 4 is a very well presented package, with colourful graphics and tunes. With a bit of help from an adult, it will keep the kids occupied for a good while. The difficulty level appeared to be pitched perfectly with most of the games only requiring the use of the <space> and <return> keys, TEDDY PAINT (all the keys) and TEDDY BOOKS (number keys) being the exceptions. Within a short while 4-5 yr olds should be able to play the game quite well, with minimal interference. My only gripe is that there was no alphabet module. However Fun School 4 is a good example of what can be achieved using STOS. It’s just a shame, i think that more programmers don’t take the STOS language more seriously.
Unfortunately, as with almost all games now, it’s a little pricey at £26, but it can probably be obtained much cheaper if you shop around. However, in my opinion it’s probably worth the money for the hours of peace you get. If i was asked to give it marks out of ten i’d give 8.5.The kids would probably give it 20.
Keefy.
