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| By Ellen Beeman Explore the Old West, ride a Thomas train, search the Lost City, and play games with your favorite dog Blue — all of these magical adventures, and more, will be available soon, and we bet your kids can’t wait to try them out. |
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 Blue’s Clues: Your kids’ favorite pals are here to entertain and educate. |
Infogrames (now under the name Atari) is the publisher of many wonderful titles for young gamers.
They’re bringing a variety of children’s games to the market, including several new Mac OS X games as well as re-releases of some of their classic Mac OS 9 children’s titles. These games are intended for three- to six-year-olds, and while many of them have an educational focus, the primary goal is a fun game experience that will help young children learn to explore and try new things, as well as be more comfortable in their Mac computer skills.
Dora: Great activities to explore.
Two of the new children’s games are Blue’s Clues Preschool and Blue’s Clues Kindergarten, featuring the fun-loving dog Blue and her friends, including the Nickelodeon show’s new host, Joe. These titles offer fun games with age-appropriate preschool and kindergarten skill enhancement.
Infogrames will also release two games based on Nick Jr.’s popular Dora the Explorer TV series; Dora the Explorer: Backpack Adventure, which is available now, and Dora the Explorer: The Lost City Adventure, which will be in stores this October. These games focus on fun educational and exploration activities, with math and problem-solving skills, and even a little Spanish!
Gano Haine of Stunt Puppy Entertainment, the designer of the Dora games, explains about the Lost City Adventure: “Dora’s journey is exotic, like Indiana Jones for little girls.”
Thomas & Friends: Ride the trains on your desktop.
And rounding out the new titles is a new Thomas the Tank Engine game: Thomas & Friends: Building the New Line. In that title, your child builds a new railroad line on the Island of Sodor, then gets to drive the train around their own track design. “Thomas is a construction game, a kids’ The Sims [with] trains,” explains Haine, who also designed this title for Infogrames.
(Want to learn more about the new Thomas and Dora games? Check out “Adventures with Dora and Thomas” on page two.)
Humongous, one of Infogrames’ internal studios, is well-known for their numerous terrific children’s titles. For this holiday season, they’re re-releasing four classic Humongous children’s games with new activities added. These titles are Freddi Fish: The Case of the Haunted Schoolhouse, Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It’s Dark Outside, Putt-Putt Travels Through Time, and Spy Fox: Dry Cereal. These titles are four of the company’s best-selling character games. This month, they’re back for a new generation of kids to enjoy.
These terrific classics are here to stay.
Putt-Putt, the star of Humongous’ first character adventure, is a little car with a young boy’s irrepressible personality, lots of good humor and an endless willingness to help others. His adventures include helping Cartown host a parade, rescuing baby animals at a zoo, and in this adventure, he travels through time to the Old West, the future, and other exciting times.
Humongous shows equal creativity with their other character adventures. Pajama Sam is a boy superhero, always ready to save the day and take on childhood fears like thunder and lightning or the dark. Freddi Fish is a young fish with a real sense of adventure who solves mysteries in his watery world. And Spy Fox is a young children’s James Bond, using amazing and inventive gadgets on his wild adventures.
Spy Fox: Bad guys don’t stand a chance
againt this clever fox.
againt this clever fox.
Infogrames has created an amazing variety of Mac games for children. With Blue, Dora, and Thomas, as well as their classic character adventures, you’re sure to find something to please your young game player.
If you liked these games, check out:
Hulabee Entertainment Knowledge Adventure Games Tivola Games More Kids Games
The Dora and Thomas games were designed with kids in mind. Here’s a peek at what kind of thought went into them. 
 
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