Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus (Windows)

In BARBIE AND THE MAGIC OF PEGASUS CD-ROM, the beloved doll plays the part of Princess Annika, whose kingdom has been turned to stone by the evil wizard Wenlock. To break the spell, Princess Annika goes on a quest to forge a powerful Wand of Light. Joined by Brietta and her pet Shiver, Annika ventures into the Forbidden Forest, flies to mountaintop glaciers, and explores ice caverns to find the items needed to create the Wand of Light. Annika is periodically stymied by logic puzzles (including mazes, jigsaw puzzles, and matching tiles) the player must solve.

The most innovative puzzle appears when Annika needs to traverse the kitchen table of a sleeping giant. Players must think about the colossal food items as tools and recognize that Annika can scramble up giant carrots to cross planks and use stacked bread slices as stairs. Kids move Barbie by using the arrow keys; at times, they control her ice skating or flying on a Pegasus.

In this computer game, Barbie looks princess-like in her flowing gowns, but these fripperies don't get in the way of her running, ice skating, or riding and flying over obstacles while on the back of Brietta, a magical winged horse. She's a princess who takes action to save her kingdom -- instead of waiting for a prince to rescue her. This Barbie is an intrepid and resourceful heroine, a role model you can feel good about your daughters emulating.

Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus is an excellent way to introduce young kids to video gaming because the controls are easy to learn. The quest portion of the game has limited replay potential because it's linear, but kids will enjoy repeating the puzzles as well as the flying and skating sequences.