Wii Video Game – Jumpstart Escape from Adventure Island

In our home, we LOVE the Wii. The problem is, many games are not easy for all of us to play. With the Princess at 3 years old, wanting to act like a big kid, but not being as dextrous as everyone else, and a wide range of reading & math skills, it’s hard to find a game that is good for all of our children to play. And to have a game that they are able to play without supervision or assistance, that’s nearly impossible to find.

Over the past few years, we’ve found a few titles that work pretty well for us. We’ve enjoyed Go Diego Go: Safari Rescue and Pajama Sam in Don’t Fear the Dark. But both of these left us wanting. Pajama Sam had the educational value we liked and allowed for exploration within the game. Diego really used the unique motion qualities of the Wii platform, but was primarily just a 2D Mario-style video game. My newest, favorite child-friendly game is JumpStart: Escape from Adventure Island.

We’ve been testing this great new game for a few weeks now. It has the great JumpStart characters and 3D virtual world format that many of you may have tried in the online version. At JumpStart, they’ve done a great job at blending the educational game format that they’ve perfected with the abilities of the Wii remote, all while keeping it accessible to even a preschooler. My sons were thrilled to recognize many of the places and games they visit online, but I appreciated that you do not have to have internet access to play the Wii version, unlike the computer version. Sure, it may not be much of a difference in your home, but if you’ve ever given a young child a turn on the computer, you know how many “oops” and wrong clicks they find. By playing on the Wii, they can explore the world much better on their own than on the computer version. Which is especially handy if you are a one computer household. No one wants Jr. messing up the computer that adults need for work, finances, and social networking.

Unlike Pajama Sam, which took the traditional PC game format and moved it laterally to the Wii format, Jumpstart Escape from Adventure Island actually uses the tilt features in the Wii remote in the games. On Pajama Sam, we were limited to clicking. For children used to the active format of the Wii, this gets very boring very quickly. Another benefit of the JumpStart game over Pajama Sam is that the buttons and instructions are voiced over for those emerging readers. There was a particular section of Pajama Sam we were quite disappointed to find had a lot of reading and required supervision and adult assistance. No, I don’t use the Wii as a babysitter. In our house Wii is reserved for after school, weekends and on rainy days. However, I do expect that a game can be played with assistance initially and with limited supervision or help thereafter. Momma does have to do laundry and dishes after all, I can’t sit around playing video games all day!

Another great feature of the JumpStart game is that there are lots of levels within the game. It will take a long time for our kids to get bored with this game. Both Pajama Sam and Diego were rather limited, and after a few weeks and several times mastering them, the kids were bored and haven’t asked to return to them.

My sons love making their Jumpees and houses, the navigation of the customization pages is easy for the kids and they love earning, shopping and purchasing these accessories. I really like the reward system that encourages them along the way to the main goal, escaping the island. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the kids to master this game. Both Diego and Pajama Sam were games they completed on the first day they played them.

There are a few items in the “cons” list for the JumpStart game I should make you aware of. First, it is a single player game. That said, the games can be replayed and because of the map format, it’s easy to create your own house rules for taking turns. Second, there are only 3 spaces for saving games. So if you have more than 3 children, this could be an issue as each child would not have their own individual game. Third, the graphics are juvenile. Sure, it’s a kids’ game, but I don’t really care for the nature of the graphics. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of quality or a style choice, but I tend to expect a bit more out of a game and system designed to play on high definition televisions. All of these things are definitely outweighed by the great educational games and the way it encourages the children to move and think as they play.

Now for the good news: the JumpStart blog is having a contest! The theme of the contest is “Time to Escape!” JumpStart wants to hear how your family uses imagination to escape the everyday
and turn life into an adventure! Tell them your story for a chance to win a Family Escape pack worth over $1000 including this Wii game, a Wii console, a Flip camera, JumpStart.com memberships and a SpaFinder gift certificate and more. Don’t delay, the contest ends November 16th. Click over to share your story now.

I received a complimentary copy of this video game to play and review courtesy of JumpStart. These are my personal opinions, no other compensation was received for this post.