Dora's Big Birthday Adventure (Wii)
Another fun Dora The Explore title just in time for Christmas.
I like the fact that game-makers are increasingly aware of their younger audience, children are very capable of gaming from the age of 2 upwards and simple, engaging games are good for their development.
Obviously keep them away from House of The Dead or Grand Theft Auto...
This Dora game is a nice little collection of platform style action and puzzle solving with simple jumping, climbing, and sliding etc.
My daughter Lily played the Crystal Kingdom game not long ago and this was very much the same kind of thing.
She loved the game and it kept her quiet for a few hourse but more importantly it kept her thinking and I watched carefully as she pondered puzzles and obstacles and overcame them in time.
There is the option of adults taking on the second controller as a helper and all in all it is a great little title with authentic voices, good gameplay and some great graphics.
Authors
Steve Wollaston - Sunday Mercury games reviewer Steve has been writing about video games for donkey's years. In fact he is probably far too old for it now which is why you will see a lot of reviews been done by kids... He has been nominated three times for Regional Games Journalist Of The Year at the Games Media Awards, but never wins. His major love is sports games and rates Sensible World of Soccer circa 90's as the greatest game ever made - closely followed by Championship Manager 2. Skyrim has currently taken over his life.
