What makes a playable NeoPets game for pre-schoolers and pre-readers? Well
obviously it has to be fun, but the other critical elements of playability are
no complex rules, no requirement for fast reaction speed and no need to combine
mouse and keyboard. This rules out most of the action games, and the more complex
puzzles. And, as a matter of principle I'm not keen on gambling games for young
children--they have all of their adult lives to pick up on such vices.
So what is left? If your child can use a mouse, more than you probably think.
I have rated my three year old's five favourite NeoPets games for playability,
fun factor and level of parental involvement required. Try them out with your
child.
Scale: 1 is great, 2 is OK, and 3 is something that be better.
Destruct-O-Match
Playability: 1
Fun Factor: 1
Parental Involvement: Moderate, lessens with time
Destruct-O-Match's biggest pluses are the sounds when the bricks explode,
the relative ease with which a child can progress to game level 2 or beyond
and the visible reward when they do well and go up to the next level - they
get to blow up an extra lot of bricks of a different colour. A pre-schooler
will learn the double click action quickly. They have little problem identifying
matching bricks of the same colour once you show them how. If you leave them
to it they may click indiscriminately. Who cares if they are having fun? You
may be surprised at how successful they are.
The main problems with this game are the word cliques for next level, send
score and try again. At the start I suggest sending your child's score for each
game, no matter how bad. This is so that they get used to the positioning of
the red score clique on the left and learn how to restart a new game. Then you
teach them to look for the black next level clique on the right. They may not
recognise the words but they learn what cliques do quickly, and remember them
by position, colour and shape.
Don't push it at first--they may only have the patience or attention span
for one game. But try again. I now start the game and leave my daughter to it.
I get called back to admire the red bricks when she makes it that far, to tell
her how big her score was and to switch games when she has had enough.
Colouring game
Playability: 2
Fun factor: 1
Parental Involvement: Moderate to High
You find the Colouring Game in Faerieland. It looks complex but doesn't need
to be. Mostly we don't print anything off or add backgrounds. We just repeatedly
colour different pets then start again. While the actual colouring part is similar
to lots of other computer colouring games, there are a couple of quirks with
the NeoPets version to be aware of.
It takes ages for the pet picture choices to load. Be patient. Not every pet
is available to colour but about 30 different species are. To start another
picture you need to back out to Faerieland and reload the game. This is fine
if you have a fast computer but a pain otherwise. The pictures don't contain
outlines of all the colouring areas, which is confusing at first but makes the
pictures more fun to colour. For example the Aisha is striped but you don't
know that till you start to paint it. And some of the colouring areas are very
small--your child may need help depending upon their age and abilities with
the mouse.
The Wheels
Playability: 2
Fun Factor: 2
Parental Involvement: High
OK, so theoretically this is gambling, but those colourful spinning wheels
are a real draw card. In a pre-schooler's world there is the pretty Wheel and
the yucky Wheel--they will probably like them both. They aren't worried about
the cheap prizes at the Wheel of Mediocrity. However the Wheels have several
drawbacks when you are playing with a young child. The whole experience is over
pretty quickly and you can't play again for a while. Plus the Wheels can do
some nasty things to their pet. If you play the Wheels with a toddler be prepared
to go to the Healing Springs straight afterward or, if necessary, to buy a cure.
Kacheek Seek
Playability: 2
Fun Factor: 2
Parental Involvement: High
This should be the best game for pre-schoolers on the site but it isn't. It
would be a lot more fun if the screen that told them they were successful wasn't
full of a lot of text, or even if there was a sound that indicated success or
failure.
However you can make this game fun for your child by talking them through
it. Eventually they will recognise that the screen with more text means that
they have found their pet. And it is the only game that actually allows them
to play with their pet. Even so, I don't really recommend this game for independent
play. A very young child needs the feedback from you, in a shared game, for
Kacheek Seek to hold its appeal.
Neowardrobe
Playability: 3
Fun Factor: 1
Parental Involvement: High
Neowardrobe can be a lot of fun to play with your child. It is a good idea
to play on your own first so that you know which combinations trigger the animations--they
aren't all obvious. Unfortunately the game requires drag and drop skills. A
young child may not have the finger strength or co-ordination for this. You
will need to play with them.
I hope you enjoy playing these games with your child. If you have other favourites
let me know. | 
