|
| By Brad Cook Jamie Berger, director of marketing at Disney Interactive, has seen their future of interactive media, and that future includes Mac OS X. “We’re excited about utilizing the power and ease of use of Mac OS X to make a richer experience for consumers,” he says. “We firmly believe that interactive technology is a two-way conversation.”
|
|
 New games based on the film Monsters Inc. are now available. |
Monsters, Inc. Scream Team Training:
Lessons are fun and educational.
Lessons are fun and educational.
“Our characters aren’t just entertainers,” Berger explains. “They’re teachers too.”
We Scare Because We Care
Leading the way into the future is a pair of Monsters, Inc. tie-ins: Scream Team Training and Wreck Room Arcade, both of which feature Mike, Sulley, Randall, Boo, and many of the other characters from the blockbuster film created by the animators at Pixar Animation Studios. Both games are ready for Mac OS X out of the box, and both put kids’ logic and sense of spatial relationships to the test.
In Scream Team Training, your kids get a shot at becoming Scarers with Monsters, Inc. Like most prospective employees, they start in the mail room, but they can work their way up the corporate ladder and aim for the title of Top Scarer. The game features ten activities — each with 30 levels — that are hosted by different monsters.
After work, the employees at Monsters, Inc. like to hang around the “Wreck” Room, where they relax and play games. Wreck Room Arcade is actually three separate titles — Eight Ball Chaos, Bowling for Screams, and Monster Tag — that unlock a fourth game, Monster Mania, when they’re loaded on your Mac.
(See the ‘Monstrous Fun’ page for more details about each game.)
“We love the fact that we’ve created an interactive world that kids are allowed to enter and participate in,” says Berger, “both as an employee and hanging out after hours with the guys in the Wreck Room.”
Rolie Polie Olie and Stanley:
Searching for Spot.
Perfect for the Mac
If your kids are too young for Scarer training or arcade games, then you might want to look at another pair of new Disney Interactive titles: Playhouse Disney’s Rolie Polie Olie: The Search for Spot and Playhouse Disney’s Stanley Tiger Tales. Aimed at preschoolers, both games are based on the characters in the Disney Channel TV shows Rolie Polie Olie and Stanley. While not built for Mac OS X, both of these titles will run in Mac OS X’s Classic environment.
“Both games are a great combination of gameplay and learning,” says Berger, “and they have a really unique look and feel that’s perfect for the Mac.”
The Search for Spot offers four games that feature open-ended play and goal-oriented activities meant to stimulate learning. In one game, children make music with kitchen canisters; in another, kids enhance their color sense by grabbing runaway crayons on Olie’s polka-dotted rug.
In Stanley Tiger Tales, children can wander through Stanley’s world, in which they learn animal facts as well as such skills as pattern recognition, hand-eye coordination, and early math. The game begins as Stanley gets ready for a day at the beach. He can’t leave until you help him find his hat, sunglasses, water bottle, and sunscreen. After you’ve completed that task, you can roam his house and play more games.
 |
|
Express Your Creativity
Kids love to draw too, and if your children are budding digital artists, then the Mac OS X title Disney’s Magic Artist Deluxe would be a great way for them to express their creativity. If you have any of the previous entries in the Magic Artist series on your Mac, you can import those art files into the new version.
In Magic Artist Deluxe, you can train creatures known as Doodlebots to draw patterns — such as coins, feathers, or flowers — and other designs on your digital canvas. Or use the tile tool to design tiled patterns that you can place on your Mac’s desktop or even on a Web page. And with the glitter pen, you can make text sparkle on your display.
Magic Artist Deluxe:
Your digital canvas.
“Magic Artist Deluxe is a classic example of how doing the right things on the Mac can lead to something exciting,” Berger explains.
More Where That Came From
Looking for more from the House of Mouse? Disney Interactive has plenty of other titles to choose from, such as Disney Girlfriends, in which Ariel, Belle and Jasmine host a variety of activities that allow girls to connect to a kid-safe online environment and chat, exchange virtual trading cards, create personalized Web pages, and more. If your girls want to play the game in Mac OS X, they can do that too.
Girlfriends:
Online fun.
And if you’re looking for games that will supplement your kids’ education, Disney Interactive has plenty of those too. For example, Kindergarten Deluxe allows children to sharpen their math, reading, and other skills. There’s even a component that exposes them to French and Spanish vocabulary words.
Winnie the Pooh:
All his friends are here.
Older kids will enjoy Disney’s Phonics Quest, in which Mickey Mouse (in the role of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, from the film Fantasia) guides them through a variety of phonics-based activities that enhance reading skills. And kids ages 9 to 12 will get a kick out of the quiz games Zoog Genius: Math, Science and Technology and Zoog Genius: Language Arts, History and Geography. Based on the Zoog Disney programming block on the Disney Channel, each game lets kids earn “Z.Q.” points in their quest to become a Zoog Genius.
So many great Monsters, Inc. games, you’ll scream! Check out what’s in store. 
  |