Below are user reviews of Microsoft Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Microsoft Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the Solar System.
Column height indicates the number of reviews with a score within the range shown at the bottom of the column.
Higher scores (columns further towards the right) are better.
User Reviews (1 - 11 of 21)
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disappointing
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 4 / 9
Date: September 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User
My 4 year old son has been playing computer games for about 6 months and does really well at navigating the mouse and listening for instructions. I sit with him until I know he knows how to play. I can't leave him with this one. You have to search to find where you want to go and the information I think it gives on the dinosaurs is either below or above his level. He knows alot about dinosaurs and this doesn't expand on anything. I think maybe if it were a little more realistic...and the game gets stuck and acts slowly.
Spotty
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 28 / 29
Date: March 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User
This is not the jewel in the crown of the Magic School Bus CD series (Animals, for example is much better), but it does have some good features. In particular, the activity on ozone & the greenhouse effect is excellent- our 2nd grader really grasped the concept after playing with it for a while.
The plot, however, is to find Ms. Frizzle, which our kids found frustrating. You get clues by earning tokens from an arcade-type game- the only MSB title we've seen that requires you to play an arcade game in order to complete it. It may be that the Microsoft progammers figure that space=boys=arcade game, but our kids were annoyed about it. They were even more annoyed when they worked out from the 1st clue where she was and found out that you have to get all 3 clues anyway.
On the other hand, kids who like arcade games might be induced to learn a bit about the solar system.
MSB does the ocean... not as well as I'd hoped!
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User
I am a MSB fan and am trying to get my young children interested too. The Ocean was the first MSB software we got, and I'm afraid it will be the last. It's ok, but I'm disappointed that the software doesn't load correctly (on 3 different computers and 2 operating systems (win98, XP)! None worked right!). It will start, but it is very difficult to navigate the first few times until you "learn" where things are. Finding out where to go and what to click on is trial and error for the most part. Maybe I just haven't "found" the good stuff yet, but I was hoping for better!
A nice effort but confusing to find all the parts of the cd
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 13 / 13
Date: January 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User
My son, who is 4, is a budding marine biologist (this week). He got this for Christmas and can play it alone. He seems to like the software very much. It is packed full of info on marine life, and their habitats. I just found it a bit hard to navigate. It is not clear what you press to get to another level. Still I think it is an excellent cd for the price.
Great Fun, Difficult to find everything
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User
Three boys, 5, 6, and 8, love this software. They find something new each time -- which is good. However, they aren't sure how to collect all the cards available, and the navigation leaves something to be desired.
However, for hours of educational fun, including funny parts -- I highly recommend this product.
Love It!
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User
Kept my rambunctious 4 year old boy entertained for hours, which is difficult to do! Many areas to click on and explore.
makes learning fun
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 99 / 101
Date: November 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User
My five year old son plays this game endlessly and now knows an astounding amount about life in the ocean. I believe it is rated for kids eight and up, but he has been playing with varying levels of skill and very little frustration for over a year. Even our three year old loves to play, although he doesn't manage the games very well. As a plus to parents, there is very little about this game that is irritating, even when played over and over and over. You may find your child telling the corny jokes, though. All in all, a wonderful learning experience. We will be looking at other Magic School Bus CD-Rom games.
Rainforest
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 14 / 15
Date: April 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User
My 5 year old son loves this "game". He saved up his own money to purchase it after having rented it from the local library. He is constantly talking about the different things that can be found in the rainforest- and I love it. I would recommend it for the reading 5-6 year old as there is not as much narration as many of the other Magic School Bus software games.
our favorite
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 33 / 34
Date: August 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User
We own all of the Magic Schoolbus cd's available to mac users. This one has the most information and the most games of all and has been played more than the other four combined by children and even occasionally the obsessed adult after hours. What more to say!
Rainforest with Miss Frizzle
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 33 / 35
Date: October 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User
My 5 year old daughter loves! this CD. She's often telling me interesting tidbits about 'Costa Rica' and I'm wondering where she's getting all the info from. Then I realize that it all has to do with the rainforest and that it is from this game. She'll play it for hours, (if I let her). There are lots of games, places to explore and fun to be had.
The only thing that would improve this game is to have more narration. It is set for a higher age level, so that's understandable...
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