Arthur video games

The Arthur video games franchise expanded into the interactive software space from the 1990s.

Creative Wonders games

Arthur is a 1990s video game series developed by Creative Wonders and published by The Learning Company. The games were created as part of the LearningBuddies line.

Titles

• Arthur's Kindergarten sees the player learn Kindergarten skills while attempting to fix Arthur's treehouse, which has been damaged in a storm. The game covers basic reading, arithmetic memory skills, and social skills.^[1]
• Arthur's Preschool
• Arthur's 1st Grade sees the player participate in Bionic Bunny's "Good Deeds Contest" by doing good deeds around the neighbourhood. The game covers reading and math skills.^[2]
• Arthur's 2nd Grade sees the player participate in "Take Your Kids to Work Day" by completing tasks and chores. The game covers reading, math, grammar, and geography.^[3] A new edition was released in 2002.^[4]
• Arthur's Reading is a 2-CD program that contains more than 50 activities featuring Arthur characters. Disc 1 covers letter recognition, phonics, and word families, while also containing an Art Room for players to print out. Disc 2 covers reading comprehension, grammar, and spelling.^[5]
• Arthur's Math Games contains five maths-related activities.^[6]
• Arthur's Reading Games (1997) contains four reading games, and the interactive story Arthur's Reading Race written by Marc Brown^[7]
• Arthur's Thinking Games (1999) contains 6 activities related to building critical thinking and logic skills.^[8] Released in 2001 by The Learning Company, this game has six fun activities that encourage critical thinking and logic.

Production

A Bangor Daily News article hinted that a new series of Arthur video games would be released in the Fall of 1999.^[9] In February 1999, it was revealed that The Learning Company had "signed an exclusive, multi-year contract with Marc Brown to develop and publish interactive software worldwide". The aim was to utilise Arthur's equity by "broadening his visibility in the interactive software category", specifically within the core curriculum areas.^[10] The Learning Company revealed Arthur's Reading, the first game in the series, in a news release on July 13, 1999. The subject was chosen because "reading is a natural subject for this lovable character whose nationally televised adventures have become so popular with young children", according to senior vice president of marketing at The Learning Company Andy Young.^[11]

The series was "developed with the help of educators".^[12] Most games have an auto-levelling feature to cater to each player's own skill.

A kid-friendly website was also available for players to seek further activities that supplemented the content on the game CDs.^[13]

The Congressional Record, V. 146, Pt. 15 wrote that a spyware expert found that educational software such as Reader Rabbit and Arthur's Thinking Games may contain spyware.^[14] U.S. News & World Report noted that a cause could be the free Arthur screen saver that players of Arthur's Thinking Games have the option to download.^[15] The New York Times reported that the Broadcast program, which ran in the background as an application called DSS Agent, used to be unlcuded on the installation discs of many software titles made by The Learning Company, including the Arthur video games; while Arthur's Reading Race "was billed as a product updater and communications tool", online privacy groups put it in the category of spyware for this reason.^[16]

Commercial performance

Accoridng to PC Data, Arthur's Thinking Games was the ninth top selling software of September 1999,^[17] and the top-selling home education software for that month.^[18]

Critical reception

PC Mag gave Arthur's Preschool, Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade a joint rating of 5 out of 5, writing that the "charming" games covered the same content as the Reader Rabbit series, though explained that players could easily own both.^[13]

SuperKids deemed an underwhelming entry in the Kindergarten edutainment space, due to having "tedious and overly repetitious" activities.^[19] Math and Science for Young Children and Experiences in Math for Young Children suggested the game could be used within schools.^[20][21] Discovery Education said the game was "packed with "smart" features and excellent educational content".^[22] Discovery Education said Arthur's Preschool was filled with "smart features and a good range of educational content".^[23] MacWorld said the game was easy for young players to pick up.^[24] Teaching Reading in Today's Elementary Schools said Arthur's 1st Grade and Yoda's Challenge were both games that were not limited their target market, but that could also be adapted for children in higher grades who had special needs.^[25] MacWorld said the game could initially be overwhelming, but that it was uptimately rewarding.^[26] Discovery Education deemed Arthur's 2nd Grade software "edutainment at its best".^[27] Eugene Register-Guard gave Arthur's Reading four out of four, deeming all the activities "well designed, educational, and fun".^[5] Bangor Daily News said the game would challenge and engage players of all ages.^[9] SuperKids thought the game would leave veteran video gamers "unimpressed" and "disappointed".^[28] MacWorld deemed Arthur's Reading Games and Dr. Seuss Reading Games "amusing, interactive products".^[29]

In 1999, Forbes wrote a piece questioning if wrapping up educational content under the guise of video games featuring favourite children's characters such as Arthur and Dr. Seuss was enough to "entice parents with the promise of easy learning for their kids".^[30]

Living Books games

There were several interactive storybooks in the Living Books series based on Arthur, such as "Arthur's Birthday" and Arthur's Teacher Trouble. The games were developed by Living Books and published by Brøderbund Software and Random House.

Titles

• Arthur's Birthday (1994)
• Marc Brown's Arthur's Teacher Trouble (1994)
• Arthur's Reading Race (1996)
• Arthur's Computer Adventure (1998)

Critical reception

ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) praised two entries in the series, and concluded the review by begging for a German version of the games.^[31] World Village thought Arthur's Reading race was "very well written",^[32] while All Game gave it 4.5 stars out of 5.^[33] Just Adventure gave Arthur's Computer Adventure an A,^[34] All Game gave it 4/5 stars,^[35] while SuperKids wrote it wasn't the strongest entry in the Living Books product line.^[36] The Daily Gazette warned that Arthur's Computer Adventure wouldn't hold kids' attentions for long.^[37]

Other games

• Arthur! Ready to Race (2000): A racing game developed by Runecraft and published by The Learning Company. By Mattel Interactive/The Learning Company (PlayStation): Released between 1999 and 2000, This game has Arthur scouring around for parts to build a cardboard box racer. It consists of mostly minigames which the player partakes to gain parts, although the player is only confined to exploring a small area in Elwood City. The graphics are 3D CGI style with three pre-rendered CGI cutscenes. The voice acting in the game is not done by the original voice actors.
• Arthur's Wilderness Rescue (2000): A platform game developed by ImaginEngine Corp and published by The Learning Company.
• Arthur's Sand Castle Contest (2003): An arcade game developed by ImaginEngine Corp and published by Riverdeep Interactive Learning Limited
• Arthur's Pet Chase (2003): A platform game developed by ImaginEngine Corp and published by The Learning Company. Arthur's first side-scrolling adventure, similar to Super Mario Bros.
• Arthur's Camping Adventure: Superkids deemed it "interesting and fun".^[38]
• Arthur's Absolutely Fun Day: Mattel Interactive/The Learning Company/Ed Magnin and Associates (GBC): Released between 1998 and 1999, this game has you piloting the head of Arthur throughout a map of part of Elwood City and partaking in minigames so he could go visit the amusement park.

External links

• Main page
• At The Complete Sourcebook on Children's Software
• At Children's Software and New Media Revue
• At Media Review Digest
• At Software and CD-ROM Reviews on File
• At CSR

References