World Famous Comics: Mia's Math Adventure: Just In Time
Mia's Math Adventure: Just In Time
From: Kutoka Average Rating: Binding: CD-ROM ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+ Format: CD-ROM Label: Kutoka Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product. Number of Items: 1 Release Date: September 30, 2004
Features:
Guide Mia in her quest to find the parts for the time machine, and collect sparklies to use as fuel
Explore a rich and captivating new world, with film-quality animation -- but watch out for Romaine Rat, he's always up to no good
Teaches addition, subtraction, multiplication & division; geometry; logic; angles and lines, mental computation & other skills
Age-appropriate difficulty levels that match national education curriculum
successful mix of entertainment and quality education????? I'm not happy with the manner in which they executed the story-based gameplay. Your child's progress to the next segment is dependant on your child laboriously clicking to figure out what to do next. Even when you're certain where you need to go, it is a chore to walk Mia to the next location. Would be great it they had some software patches to make the "click boxes" for certain targets larger so Mia does not walk aimlessly into a circle when we're trying to make her perform an action on a item or simply walk a certain direction.
The educational content we experienced includes but was not limited to simple arithmetic, filling in missing numbers from sequence, knowing how to adjust the clock, distinguishing between shapes, matching symmetry, sorting and identifying numbers. My son simply found the games OK. He did not have the same excitement he had when playing other games like Dora the Explorer series. While the educational content is welcome, it always seemed like there was something missing - seemed poorly executed. In a couple of games the correct answer is not always available for clicking (e.g. the numbers are on a conveyor belt or floating inside a crystal ball so one has to wait until the right answer comes along).
The cut scenes were somewhat entertaining and the graphics and sound are decent but at times my son (and I) wish we had a button we could click to skip to the next adventure. After taking part in the laborious walking (i.e. clicking) to get to our next destination, we were sort of anxious to get moving along.
I'm having a hard time recommending this one to other parents. I'm tempted to e-mail Kutoka with some suggestions and hope they might consider changing a few things to make the gameplay more smooth by removing some of the guesswork and grind that goes inbetween segments as well as making the math games more user-friendly. While other reviewers were excited about this, I'm quite dissapointed right now but hopeful. I'm hoping to get some more gameplay out of this one; I hope when my son gets older there is replay value in trying the game at a harder level. I happened to purchase another Kutoka game at the same time which my son and I haven't tried yet. I only hope it's much better than this one.
Frustrating We have had this game for a while, and bought it because of the many reviews. However, my daughter and I find it extremely frustrating. Even when we know what the task is to be done, we often cannot figure out how to do it. The math puzzles, when we come across them, are fine, but most of the time is spent figuring out where to click for something. This game is very linear, so if you can't figure one thing out, there's no way to move to another task where you might eventually better understand the gestalt of the game. You just sit there, with Mia tapping her foot, repeating the same clue again and again and again and again and again. The help at kutoka.com was good to find, but it wasn't sufficient to solve the problem.
Even with the parts we have played, I don't find it terribly compelling.
Good Education Software for Mac OS X Leopard I was led to the Mia's Math Adventure, because all indications were it would work well with the Mac OS X Leopard operating system and it was highly rated for educational content. Both assertions have proven true in our use. My eight-year old daughter love's the game and the math and logic activities are a challenge, but the story line and the "adventure" aspects of the game also keep her engaged. As far as performance with the Mac operating system, this is the second Kutoko product we have owned and both work very well on our 2-year old iBook and on our new iMac (both with Leopard installed). The only "problem" I've had is so far I have not been able to figure out how to get Mia Math to play full screen on our 20-inch iMac (a minor inconvenience). I highly recommend this product.
Mia's Math is DIFFERENT! Mia's math is an adventure game with an occasional math-based activity thrown in. The math skills are quirky, not your usual drill-and-kill practice. It really requires some higher-level thinking. I'm using it with third-grade students, and they are frequently challenged. My only complaint is that the user-interface is too simple. You can save games, but there's no way (that I've found so far) to jump to certain areas, other than restoring a saved game. Mia gets irritated if you linger too long somewhere. She likes to keep it moving! My nine-year-olds are enthralled!
Count me in with those who are unimpressed Yes, this is a fun game and the kids love to play. But, if you are actually looking to use this program to reinforce math skills, you should keep looking. In my opinion, and I actually played the entire game myself, this program is a long entertaining interactive adventure with a little math sprinkled in here and there. I, personally, was a little disappointed because the reviews and endorsements were so uniformly positive. For me, this is the bottom line: I try to limit my kids computer time. And, when they DO play the computer, I prefer to allow them to play games that have some kind of redeeming educational value. This makes Mia better for me, than, perhaps, some mindless shoot-em-up game. But, I still think that this game lacks enough educational content to feel good about letting them play for hours. And, I don't think the game is particularly useful for teaching or even reinforcing math skills. So, in my opinion, buy this as a GAME that you will let your kids play as a reward. As a game, it is a pretty good one. The story is entertaining for elementary age children, and the content is appropriate with absolutely nothing objectionable even for younger kids. But, don't expect any real math learning, and don't expect this to be a particularly useful tool if you are homeschooling math. So, in my opinion, buy this if you are looking for a fun game for your kids that also as a small amount of educational reinforcement. But, DON'T buy this if you child is a struggling math student who needs tutoring, or if you are a homeschool family looking for a way to teach your children math.
Anything Goes Trivia
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