System Requirements

PC / Mac Price Survey

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Cloud Nine is being bombarded by a storm of wacky raingear. Reader Rabbit and his pals have to solve the mystery and stop the storm before it's too late.

The program is intended for children ages 5-7 or 1st grade. It covers content in the curricular areas of phonics, spelling, math, science, patterns and music. Players guide Reader Rabbit and his friends through a series of activities where the characters have to solve problems correctly to progress to the next activity and ultimately achieve their goal of solving the mystery and saving Cloud Nine.

In addition to the main adventure game, the program provides three fairly engaging Learning Creations or learning centers involving art and music. Students can learn about calendars, create music and express themselves through painting and drawing. These additional isolated activities appear on the main menu of the program.

Capers on Cloud Nine reviews and drills beginning phonics, spelling, math, and science. Although engaging through its cartoon format, the program is confusing to navigate. It is slow paced and the dialogue of the characters is repetitive. The problems are presented from easy to difficult, but the increase in difficulty happens quickly with little guidance or clues given when players make mistakes. The activities presented in the program are appropriate for middle to end of first grade students who have experience navigating through educational software games.

The cartoon and story/adventure format is appealing initially, but the frustration with navigation throughout the game leads to some disappointment. There is limited fun within each activity but the repetition of the character's dialogue and the game format limits the program's appeal. Kids loved the cartoon animation, but the motivation to play was short lived because of the lack of positive reinforcement and lengthiness of the game.

Capers on Cloud Nine installed easily on our Windows test machine. Some difficulty was encountered with installation on an IMac. This program requires adult installation and supervision.

Capers on Cloud Nine is best for reviewing basic end of 1st and early 2nd grade skills. Players need some prior knowledge of basic phonics and computational skills in order to navigate through the game.

This program would be recommended for self-guided and motivated learners, but not for students with special needs or those requiring academic support.

See SuperKids' comparisons with other 1st grade software titles, and the Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions.

PC: PC Windows 95/98, Pentiuum 166 or faster, 100MB hard drive space, 32 MB RAM, 16-bit graphics card, 16-bit soundblaster compatible sound card.

Mac: Mac-160 MHz or faster, System 8.6-9.1 and OSX

Reviewed on:
-     Pentium III-500 with 384 MB RAM and 24XCD

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