The Incredibles (Leapster)

In Leapster's THE INCREDIBLES, kids play four educational games -- one with each superhero of the Incredibles family from the Pixar movie. Kids help direct Mr. Incredible on how to use his super strength to move boulders so he can complete equations, and Mrs. Incredible needs the player to spell words to open a series of doors at bad-guy Syndrome's hideout so she can escape. Violet must find words to complete sentences in a jungle maze. And Dash needs help sealing the entrance to the cave where he's hiding by placing rocks in correct order by place value.

The games can be played on two levels of difficulty. While playing the four superhero games, players earn access cards and keys needed to play a fifth game, "The Incredibles Save the Day." The player controls all four members of the Incredibles as they make their way back to the city to save it from harm. This game of logic involves figuring out when to switch to a different member of the superhero family to use their unique superpowers.

All five games are both fun to play and educationally sound. The different levels roughly correspond to the curricula found in second and third grades. A tutorial kicks in after the child incorrectly answers two questions in a row. The gaming controls will adjust to a player's ability.

The only part of the game that was a little confusing was the interconnection between the four individual superhero games and the final "The Incredibles Save the Day" game. Testers had to listen carefully to hints in the "The Incredibles Save the Day" game to discover that they needed to return to the individual superhero games to earn access cards needed to proceed. Ultimately, this interconnection turned out to be great motivation to keep playing the four individual games.