|
|
Scooby
and Shaggy have won a free trip to China in this second case
file mystery in the Scooby Doo software series. Scooby and
the gang make it for Chinese New Year and the opening of
Emperor Zhu’s Underground Palace, but a stone dragon
come-to-life has been scaring people away! Children are
invited to help the gang find clues and solve the mystery of
the stone dragon.
Children
familiar with the first Case File Mystery will find Scooby
Doo! Case File #2: The Scary Stone Dragon has a similar
format. Unlike the original Scooby Doo mysteries that were
rather challenging (such as Phantom of the Knight and
Jinx at the Sphinx), the Case File titles do a fair
amount of handholding. As a result, a child ages 6-9 will
find these titles doable.
Players
need to collect Scooby Snacks, necessary for coaxing Scooby
and Shaggy into scary-looking areas. They do so by
completing a mixed-up doors activity that requires thinking
and prediction skills. Once kids have collected snacks, they
can start earning clues and meeting suspects. At the Crafty
Lanterns shop, for example, they help shopkeeper Clara Li
clean up her lanterns after the Stone Dragon knocked
everything over. Kids need to arrange the colorful lanterns
in special ways, according to instructions like, “Green
lanterns should always hang in corners”.
Each
suspect players meet offers a clue. Children keep track of
both the suspects and clues in the program’s Case Book,
which takes the form of a grid. After finding all the clues
and meeting each suspect, children can begin the deduction
process. For example, which suspect might use a camera lens
cap?
All of
the activities are fun, problem-solving games that range
from rather straightforward to somewhat tricky, depending on
the selected level of difficulty. Throughout the game, kids
encounter riddles that lead to the uncovering of printable
activities. One game involves testing children’s
observation skills with multiple choice questions, some of
which touch upon Chinese culture.
Although
the game offers some information on Chinese culture at
various points in the game, most of these are not presented
in a particularly creative way. The educational meat of the
game is found in its problem-solving activities.
|
Buy
Buy