Topologika WordMania KS2 Home Edition review

Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Mar 2004

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Janet Swift

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

WordMania lets children play maze games in single or multiplayer modes and has a maze designer to allow them to build their own.

But while the players may be striving to gain high scores using speed and strategy, the underlying objective is to revise literacy topics at Key Stage 2 (seven to 11 years).

The software renders graphics using DirectX, which conflicts with some older video drivers. The website has links for downloading newer drivers or the problem can be worked around by disabling hardware acceleration, but such problems should not happen.

To start a maze game players choose one of five categories - spelling, grammar, punctuation, comprehension or Lucky Dip - and a style of maze. It's also possible to change the difficulty and curriculum level of the questions. During play the character is navigated through the maze by answering multiple-choice questions. As with most maze games, it's the obstacles encountered during play that increase the fun. There are Question Bombs launched by other players, Question Monsters who ask questions and Question Munchers that provide immunity. To complete a game players also have to find a key.

Six puzzles are also included, which can be played as freestanding games or encountered between mazes. They include Sliding Blocks, Word Search and Hangman. The best is Nibbles, a wordy spin on Nokia Snake. All the puzzles have questions linked to the national curriculum.

The Home Edition has all the functionality of the classroom version, including worksheets and the facility to add questions. It offers enough fun to make it worth having at home for spelling and grammar practice.

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