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Wonder Rotunda
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Graphics & Sound:
Educational games can struggle in finding a balance between fun and learning. Wonder Rotunda skips over most of the old learning-game paradigms and opts for more of an interactive film concept, something that kids understand well from DVD special features and games. The animation, delivered entirely through a browser, is fluid as long as you have a decent connection and only suffers from occasional slowdown. The style of Wonder Rotunda is more hand-drawn than computer animated, making for a style that feels like classic TV animation or early-reader books. Kids can use basic tools to create customized avatars as they explore the game, and even create a parent or companion avatar. Stress on "basic," compared to the avatar creation tools present on platforms like the Wii or other similar services, but kids can at least choose hair and skin color along with clothing in their favorite color.
The idea of an interactive film carries through all the activities in Wonder Rotunda, with lots of spoken interludes and animations introducing each section of this virtual theme park. Your host, Mr. Wonder, will bring you along during each adventure, describing the new sights and introducing new games or activities along the way. Parents with younger children will find that much of Wonder Rotunda requires good reading skills, so it's likely to be a paired activity rather than something early readers do on their own. All the same, the game can be a good place to practice reading skills, and there is enough narration to give the reading partner or parent a break. There is also the option to turn on captions, for any of the spoken dialogue. The depth of information here is the biggest selling point, almost like Wikipedia had come alive and popped off the screen with interaction, animation, and illustration that will capture a young child's imagination. |
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Gameplay:
The concept of Wonder Rotunda will connect easily with a modern audience that loves theme parks and enjoys adventure on a grand scale. Why be content to watch kids on TV exploring the Serengeti when you can go yourself? Love space adventure, but don't yet have a seat booked on a trip to the moon? Wonder Rotunda provides unparalleled armchair adventure, but skirts the dangerous piece of exploring in favor of learning. Parents are likely to find the arguments around games as learning vehicles wearing a bit thin, especially when most of the settings for popular games are fictional and fantastic. Wonder Rotunda proves that everyday science, history, and geography is as fantastic a setting as anything kids are likely to find in a traditional make-believe game. Some adventures stretch the limits of practical science, such as the "Digestive System Adventure," where kids venture inside a giant working digestive system for a look at how food moves through the body. Disney may be concocting something along these lines, but we haven't seen it yet. It's reminiscent of Innerspace and lots of fun. Other interactive adventures take kids to remote places on Earth and provide a close-up look at various flora and fauna that keep the planet thriving.
Other topics covered in Wonder Rotunda may seem a bit more mundane, such as learning about government, money, or nutrition. The appeal will be there for older kids, but the younger set won't be likely to connect as much with the "fun" part of learning that doesn't feature interesting animals. There are more than a dozen activities in total, each featuring a quiz segment and the opportunity to earn a "guide badge" that kids can display in their resident home called a "Treepod." The Treepod is like a clubhouse you can visit to view accomplishments and progress, and where you can view objects collected throughout the game. Participating in activities earns you "Wonder Dollars" that can be redeemed for food around the park, or toys and gadgets in-game that you can collect. There's no multiplayer or interaction with other players, avoiding the idea of a social network and all the associated security worries that parents may have. Whether you subscribe to the notion of Wonder Rotunda more as an interactive Wikipedia, a game-film hybrid, or a languid learning game where everybody wins, it definitely has the potential to capture your child's imagination. |
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Difficulty:
There's no penalty system in Wonder Rotunda, but there are ways to earn greater rewards. After completing the "Healthy Eating Super Coaster," kids will learn about food groups and proper nutrition, which they can use in the real world ('natch!) and also in the park's various food stands. Choosing between a corn dog, cinnamon bun, or green salad with grilled chicken means the difference between refilling more or less of your avatar's food gauge; this is Resource Management 101, the notion of feeding your avatar good stuff during the game, and kids are given all the tools necessary to make smart choices through the "Healthy Eating" ride. The challenge level of the various quizzes in the game isn't customizable, which is a shame. Some option to modify the level of challenge to match younger players would be nice, but this could always be added since the game is served up online through a browser. Non-readers won't be entirely lost, but much of Wonder Rotunda is closed off to them because of the additional detail you'll uncover as you browse through the various rides and attractions. The writing is certainly more accessible and less technical than a science textbook or Wikipedia, but younger kids will definitely need a guide (real-world, not the avatar variety) to get the most out of Wonder Rotunda.
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Game Mechanics:
Everything in Wonder Rotunda can be experienced through a standard browser, through clicking on highlighted images or icons. The navigation could not be simpler or more intuitive, although some periodic slowdown is the byproduct of playing at the whim of your PC's processor load and Internet traffic. Each area loads in advance of your adventure, meaning that there are no load-screens during play in a specific area. You can pause play at any time through a side menu that otherwise is hidden apart from showing a small tab. Any other navigation is all done through the main screen, and moving around Wonder Rotunda is done through a map view that contains clickable images. Quizzes and other question-and-answer segments are straightforward, requiring only that you click the option of your choice to move forward. Playing in fullscreen mode is especially nice, since it hides all the distracting browser elements you don't need to see, but a bar remains at the top showing various places on the Wonder Rotunda main site you can visit.
The majority of the resources on the WonderRotunda.com site are for parents or teachers, to gain a better understanding of how the game works and what it provides for children. Creating an account requires a parent/guardian login and password in addition to the login and password your child will use. There are some very basic tools on the backend that parents can use to monitor what kids are doing in Wonder Rotunda, and to see the results of their opt-in quizzes, guide badge attempts, and post-adventure surveys. These surveys seem slanted toward identifying how interested kids may be in learning more about specific parts of the content, guiding the creators of Wonder Rotunda as well as parents in continuing the learning outside the computer. The closest we've seen before to something like this, in terms of balancing information and learning with fun, was the short-lived Pokemon-themed learning site. Wonder Rotunda offers a more consumer-neutral platform that parents will love, and that offers enough variety to capture imaginations across a wide age range. Especially considering that a one-year "park pass" costs less than most home board games ($45 for a one-year pass, or $35 to renew a pass), you'll get plenty of real-world bang for your Wonder Rotunda buck. Recommended. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
Minimum System Requirements:
Internet connection, Web browser |
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Test System:
Cable Internet, Firefox v3.5.2 (Windows and Mac OS tested) |
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Related Links:
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