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Console Edutainment
Product: Konami Kid's Playground
Company: Konami
Date: 07/16/2007
Avaliable On:

Konami Kid's Playground is a new line of games from Konami that work with a new game mat. This mat is similar in function to the ones Konami makes for their Dance Dance Revolution line, except instead of having four arrows placed around the perimeter of the mat, this device has four shapes (square, circle, triangle and star).

In the games, the child will be asked to select answers or activate objects based on which shape needs to be tapped. There are currently four titles that will be compatible with this new game mat: Frogger Hop, Skip & Jumpin’ Fun, Alphabet Circus, Dinosaur Shapes and Colors and Toy Pals Fun with Numbers.

In the demo I was able to play, Frogger was attempting to eat flies that landed on three different fly traps, a blue rectangle, a yellow triangle and a red circle. By tapping the appropriate shape on the mat, Frogger will snatch up the fly, but if you wait too long, the fly trap will get it first.

These games and the mat are scheduled to come out this Fall. This looks like an exciting new development and should really help make the edutainment genre more accessible.

J.R. Nip aka Chris Meyer

GameVortex PSIllustrated