Demo Review 22: PooYoos 1

First time I review a game targeted at preschoolers. Well, I can understand, after all I am an adult, so... Whatever. Like any game for preschoolers, this is a little innocent game with cute characters, with simple goals: Increase their vocabulary, and make them think. There are two difficulty levels: Small PooYoo and Big PooYoo.

It starts off as we meet the first PooYoo, a rabbit.

Something I've got to address now. The 3D models are okay, but there's a little something odd with the facial expressions. I don't know, maybe there's that feeling that the PooYoos are not quite animals. Their eyes hardly ever close.

Anyway, the first mini-game asks the child to select which PooYoo fits into the shape in the clouds. There's only two PooYoos each time, so it's easy. You press the control pad to select the left one and A to select the right one. Afterwards, a bunny PooYoo lands to the ground. You help him free a small windmill from rocks, and then he dances.

What if you select Big PooYoo? Well, it's the exact same thing. There's only one difference: Instead of selecting the PooYoos in the cloud mini-game with the buttons, instead the kid must select the PooYoo by pointing the cursor on it.

Look, I'm not gonna get into the whole debate over whether or not young children need smart entertainment so that they can, well, grow smart. It sounds kind of obvious. I won't discuss the controversy around products like Baby Einstein because I lack the educational background to do so. What I could see in this game was innocent enough, and the only actual mini-game was the one with the clouds, which already requires some intelligence from the child playing. The shape of the hole in the cloud will often be different from both animals' current positions, so the child has to guess depending on each animal's characteristics (pointy ears for cats, long ears for rabbits, large ears for elephants, and so on). The dance mini-game doesn't do anything, the kid could just shake the Wiimote and press buttons to have fun. For pretty obvious reasons, I won't buy the full version, unless I someday have kids. If you do have young children, download the demo, and if they have fun with it, maybe consider buying the game.

I have two more of those to review... *sigh* Better get that over with.