Adventures with Kanga Roddy: The Journey to Snow Mountain

A friendly kangaroo named Kanga Roddy and his other buddies are featured in this unusual CD. The characters and storyline are based on a TV series (that our testers were not familiar with) focused on helping children deal with their emotions. The CD uses footage of the characters from the show, including child and adult actors. One of the kids feels like he has no talents, and goes to Uncle Pats' to find out what makes him unique. While exploring, children play several simple, crudely designed but fun games that are supposed to represent what each of the show's characters likes to do. There are several simple arcade-ish games. In one, kids try to hit a soccer ball past a goalie. (Testers found that by consistently sending the ball to the right that they couldn't lose.) In another activity, children help a character avoid obstacles while surfing. Some mad lib-like stories are entertaining but tough for younger kids to follow. Children will also find simple coloring book pages, open-ended music activities and puzzles, all of which are enjoyable but somewhat clunky. There's a sign-in that doesn't seem to have a save function- in fact, kids have to listen to the intro and instructions each time they play.
Teaches: logic, timing, social skills
Age Range: 4-8 Copyright © 2000 Children's Software Revue