Meryl's Notes Blog

• Tweet
• email

• Tweet
• email

When my now nine-year-old son took an interest in Bob the Builder, I couldn’t help but find myself hearing the show’s theme song in my head every time I saw a Bob the Builder character or someone says, “We can do it!” Just these four lines repeat and torture my imaginary hearing:

Bob the Builder
Can we fix it?
Bob the Builder
Yes, we can

I apologize if this enters your head and repeats. It’s catchy, isn’t it?

My younger son, now five, likes Bob the Builder. Not quite as much as the older one since he also enjoys Diego, Bakugan (thank you, big brother), Backyardigans, and others.

Back to old Bob-o. My youngest and I sit together to play Bob the Builder: Can-Do Zoo as his opinion matters a lot here. We run into one problem. Ol’ Mom is deaf and the game contains all voice instructions, which makes sense since the game targets children three- to six-years-old, the pre- and early readers.

But then I can attest the speaking voice sounds clear as I recognize a word here and there. Or my son says, “We need the circles,” I’ll recall that’s what the voice said (hey, that’s hearing practice for me).

Besides, as a grown up way over the age of six, I figure out most of the games without instructions. I say “most,” because some games require hearing the voice to complete. For example, in the truck and sign game, the voice tells you which shape to pick up. Even my five-year-old kindergartener breezes through the games at the easy and medium level. The only time he makes a mistake is when he rushes through a game without paying attention.

The story in Bob the Builder: Can-Do Zoo is that the town doesn’t have a zoo, yet the delivery train delivers animals that run rampant as they have no zoo to call home. We discover the lion in the Mayor’s office, monkeys on the playground, and penguins in the ice cream shop. All of Bob’s friends make an appearance including Scrambler, Scoop, and Muck. In fact, kids pick one of the latter three to start the game. Five habitats need building through 30 activities. Can we build it? Yes, we can!

Bob uses players’ help to build the zoo including painting fences by following the color pattern, picking up signs based on their shape, put blueprints in order from beginning to complete, and load the correct supplies onto the delivery truck by following the pattern.

Kids also organize the tools that Spud scarecrow messed up by picking them up and putting them in their matching boxes by tool and color, find tools hidden in leaves by moving the mouse cursor to sweep away a small area, and loading a truck with shapes and delivering them to the corresponding house with the same shape.

Every game comes with verbal instructions even after playing it many times. However, a Skip button appears. Little ones don’t always remember what to do, so it’s justifiable. My youngest knows to click Skip. Maybe it needs to be an option so parents can turn it off when the kids figure out all the games. Besides, a question mark icon sits in the corner should the child need to hear the instructions again.

Going through the story and the games doesn’t take long, which works well for short attention spans. Considering the game comes with three levels of difficulty, it has a few changes to keep challenging the kids. Most toddlers ask parents to read a book repeatedly to the point that the parent wants to throw the book away or hide it somewhere out of sight. My son also asks to play the game a couple of times a week, so the game’s replay value is there.

Kids can also skip story mode and play with the bonus sticker game. Children earn stickers for completing all the games and the stickers wait for them in the bonus game. They move and place stickers on a selected scene — much like online coloring books except here you use stickers instead of crayons.

Personally, the game doesn’t captivate me, but Bob the Builder: Can-Do Zoo targets the very young. However, I’ve played toddler games that don’t bore as much. I think a two-year-old could play it with help while the game may be too easy for the five- and six-year-olds. Bob the Builder followers will enjoy this one. I wouldn’t call my son a big follower plus he on the upper age range, yet he likes to play the game. It’s good mouse practice for him and keeps his pattern recognition abilities sharp.

Can we do it? Yes, we can! Do we like it? Yes, we do!

Subscribe to this here blog: RSS or E-mail