"Universe, stand back!", because here come the Star Flyers. A new series in edutainment software has launched. Starring a fiesty little girl named Katie, whose imagination is as boundless as the universe itself, Star Flyers: Royal Jewel Rescue pits Katie, in her Katie Cadet persona, against the mighty Vexar. As children help retrieve the royal jewels for Princess Popcorn's coronation, they play a series of educational activities that can only be mastered with logical thinking skills.
Children sign in and choose a level: tough, tougher, or toughest. There's no need to fret over these initial settings, as the program adjusts the levels (up or down) according to children's performance. These settings determine the level of challenge of the educational activities, but do not affect the adventure itself.
Players travel between home base, the diner, and the various planets. As children navigate through the game, they collect special items and store them in their dashboard. On their way to a planet destination, kids play an arcade game in the "Popcorn Nebula", where they dodge or shoot at flying popcorn balls and pats of butter, collect galaxy seeds and caramel cubes, and move their space ship into a black hole in order to morph to the planet of choice.
The logic games are the stars of the program. One involves leading the fearless (but not very bright) army of mini-mallows through the chocolate caverns in search of one of the missing jewels. Children must use tools (such as one that chomps away a line of chocolate, or another that allows the little marshmallows to bounce onto a platform) in order to get to their goal. This activity is enormously fun, and really gets kids working their brains.
Plenty of fun activities and humorous moments keep children engaged. For example, kids will need to activate a "tickle blast" in order to deactivate the Mallow Monster's thunderbolt. After reducing the monster to a giggling lump of marshmallow, players can retrieve his spoon-like device, and later use it to wedge open a malfunctioning door, behind which is an important jewel.
The currency in the StarFlyers' world is green galaxy seeds. These can be traded in for Astro-prizes. These rewards include some printable activities, as well as little games that can be played with at any time. Astro-prizes are clever rewards!
Though the recommended age group includes 5 year olds, we feel that children ages 5-6 will need a little help. However, the rewards will be rich for this age group. The program is probably just right for children ages 7-9.