The Lion King Activity Center will keep a child busy and happy for hours as he or she accompanies Simba and Nala to the Jungle, Rafiki's Tree, the Shadowlands, and the Magic Pool. Each of these areas features a separate character or characters from the film and a set of entertaining and skill-building activities. All activities have easy, medium, and hard levels to allow a better fit with a child's developing skills.
In the Jungle, play Timon's Bug Matching Game and win a certificate, suitable for printing out and framing. Timon and Pumbaa also host a spelling game which shifts from picking out letters at the easy level to spelling spoken words at medium level to a hangman game at the highest level. In Pumbaa's Hidden Animal Friends, the player must pick out animals concealed in a jungle scene. This is an excellent game for children who enjoy finding hidden things.
Rafiki's Tree includes an Art Center with pictures to color, dot-to-dot puzzles, and a selection of stamps. Drawing tools include chalk, paint-filled gourds, and a magic brush that automatically applies the correct colors as it is used. Rafiki's Picture Puzzles are computer-based picture puzzles featuring scenes from The Lion King movie. Achi is a traditional African game similar to tic-tac-toe. Play with a friend or against Rafiki.
The Shadowlands are a less scary version of the elephant graveyard from The Lion King. Activities here include Ed's Xylobones, where the challenge is to repeat musical notes played by Ed; Memory Challenge, the classic game of concentration; and Simba's A-Mazeing Escape, in which Simba must outrun the hyenas through a maze.
The Magic Pool is the only activity without a learning component. It consists of six film clips from The Lion King The scenes are well selected and sure to include any child's favorites.
The Lion King Activity Center is easy to navigate even for very young children. The interface is very simple, and each activity includes spoken instructions. The program does require a fairly powerful machine to run well. The manual recommends at least a 486sx25 with 4 megabytes of memory, a twelve megabyte Windows permanent swap file, and a double speed CD-ROM drive. Even when these requirements are met the program is sometimes slow to respond.
Rob Rittenhouse is Associate Professor of Computer Science at McMurry University in Abilene, TX.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.