• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 0, age appropriate for kids over 3; suggested age 4.

• Is it any good?

  5.0

• Common Sense says

  Online learning game set in a big open world is a cut above.

Why We Rated This for Ages 4 and Up

The good stuff

• Ease of play:

  This game is played using either a mouse to point-and-click where you’d like to move in the virtual world, or the arrow keys to move and space bar to jump. The method used depends on your preference or your age (some activities targeted at younger kids force them to use the mouse control scheme). The controls aren’t always precise, and sometimes feel way too floaty, but they are easy to learn.
• Educational value:

  While some of the games are meant purely for amusement, many more help teach kids everything from the alphabet to equations to grammatical concepts. Games (sometimes called “lessons”) are separated by age and often offer varying levels of difficulty so that the experience can be tailored to a player’s educational level. Players also encounter stories and videos that can teach them general information about the world.
• Online interaction:

  Players will occasionally run into other player-controlled characters in the hub world and in some mini-games, but they cannot communicate or interact with one another, which means there is no chance for children to experience inappropriate content generated by others.
• Messages:

  This game promotes exploration and learning in a safe online environment.
• Role models:

  The characters players interact with are almost universally chipper, helpful, and kind. They set goals and provide instructions and guidance. The player's avatar doesn't really have a personality, but he or she works to solve problems and achieve objectives that often involve helping others or making the environment look better.

What to watch out for

• Violence & scariness:

  There are aggressive creatures called punk-punks that bump into players and can cause them to lose coins. To defend themselves, players can jump on the punk-punks to flatten them and get their coins back.
• Language:

  Not an issue.
• Consumerism:

  There are several in-game plugs for other JumpStart products, and instances in which characters tell the player to ask his or her parents to download more JumpStart games.

What Parents Need to Know

This review of JumpStart 3D Virtual World was written by Chad Sapieha

Families Can Talk About

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