Tinkerbell and the lost Treasure review

My nephew bought this game for my daughter (5) for Christmas.

It was my first choice for her. She had started to learn basic addition and subtraction last year in Grade 0 and was showing a lot of interest in maths, added to which she loves TinkerBell.

This game, however, has proven difficult for me to review as I keep swinging from loving it to hating it and back again. 

What finally tipped the scale in favour of this game is that my daughter loves it and she has made amazing advances in her maths skills in a very short space of time. 



Admittedly most of my dislike, for this game,  actually has nothing to do with the game itself. Rather the frustration of trying to find a fix for the game glitch I had encountered .  As the game was purchased overseas, I had no option to return it. Thankfully it turned out to be extremely easy to fix; see Glitch fix  for more details.  Also, I personally find Tinkerbell to be mind numbingly dull but I'm not a 5 year old girl who loves fairies.

Where this game excelled: 

The maths content and your ability to add customized skill sets.

You can choose any one or any combination of skills listed below, and select how many times your child is required to get the correct answer in order to move to the next set.

Your options are 10, 20 or 30 correct answers per skill set before the LeapPad moves on to the next set. Leapfrog recommend 10.

 Ages 5-7

• Addition sums 2-5   (Add numbers to sum up to 5.  Eg. 2+3= ? )

• Addition sums 0-10  (Add numbers to sum up to 10.  Eg. 3+7= ? )

• Addition sums 10-19  (Add numbers to sum up to between 10 - 19 .  Eg. 11+8= ? )

• Subtraction : Differences 1-4  (Subtract numbers to differences up to 4.  Eg. 2-1= ? )

• Subtraction : Differences 2-9  (Subtract numbers to differences between 2-9.  Eg. 11-9= ? )

• Subtraction: Differences 0-10   (Subtract numbers to differences between 0-10.  Eg. 19-9= ? )

Age 7-8

• Addition: 1  digit + 2 digit numbers   (add a 1 digit number to a 2 digit number without regrouping. Eg. 22+7= ?

• Addition 2 diget + 2 diget numbers (add a 2 digit number to a 2 digit number without regrouping. Eg. 10+69= ?

• Addition 1 diget + 2 diget numbers (add a 1 digit number to a 2 digit number with regrouping. Eg. 12+9= ?

• Subtraction 2 diget - 2 diget numbers (subtract a 2 digit number from a 2 digit number with without regrouping. Eg. 99-11= ?

• Subtraction 2 diget - 1 diget numbers (subtract a 2 digit number from a 1 digit number with without regrouping. Eg. 15-4= ?

• Subtraction 2 diget - 1 diget numbers (subtract a 2 digit number from a 1 digit number with with regrouping. Eg. 89-9= ?

Ages 8-9

• Multiplication : 2,3,4,5 times tables (Multiply numbers by 2,3,4,5 Eg 4x5 =?)

• Multiplication : 6,7,8,9 times tables (Multiply numbers by 6,7,8,9 Eg 6x8 =?)

• Multiplication : 0,1,10 times tables (Multiply numbers by 0,1, 10 Eg 8x10 =?)

• Multiplication : 11,12 times tables (Multiply numbers by 11,12 Eg 5x11 =?)

As you can see the maths skill sets will keep your children challenged and learning for quite some time.


Regrouping?! 
For parents who were at school before "regrouping" ... Like me for example :-)

Apparently it keeps parents learning too. Always helpful  with years of  homework lying ahead.


The Game Play:


This game is very reminiscent of early platform games, you need to collect acorns,  lost objects and pixie dust along the way while solving maths problems as you advance through the stages.
The game follows the story of Tinkerbell getting prepared for the Autumn revelry. The story is simple and easy to follow, as are the instructions and built-in help for how to complete the maths tasks.
However there is one aspect of game play that  irritates me but seems not to bother my daughter at all;  throughout the game you are required to talk to other fairy's and strangely these conversations have no audio. They just appear as text bubbles on screen,  so unless you child is a competent reader they will need help - or do as my daughter does and just ignore these sections unless there is a adult on hand to read them to her.  


There are 2 mini games 

•  Tinker Time:  You need to select the correct answer to an equation by scrolling up and down 

•  Flitteriffic Pick-Up: You need to  select the correct answer to an equation by flying to it.

Once you have completed a chapter you can replay it as many times as you like, very helpful if you have missed picking up collection items you need to win the badges. 


There are also several Micromods  for this game:


Menu Art : 

• Water Talent
• Animal Talent
• Garden Talent

Music:

• Adventure
• Mirror of Incanta
• Boat Race
• Revelry
• Tinkering

Cinematic's :

• Boat Crash
• Tink Summoned to the Council
• The Scepter Breaks
• Fairy Mary and the Play
• Tink Meats Blaze
• Terence Appears
• Happy Ending

All micromods for this game cost 30 tokens each

In Conclusion: 

This game is outstanding with regards to its educational content and most definitely will keep you child challenged, while having fun.

Even with the fairy conversation issue, my daughter has proven that it does not spoil her game play and might even be a nice way for you to get involved and see, first hand, what a little maths wiz your kid is becoming. 

This game  is a lot more, noticeably educational than say Toy Story 3 - which feels a lot more like a game - even though you are learning while playing, than this one does. 

If  your kid loves Tink and shows interest in maths this game will be a winner.  

Due to its large range of mathematical skill sets, it fits the 5 to 9 years age recommendation nicely.

The best price I have found this game for in SA is R199 from Takealot.com