The experts say this is ON for ages 8 and up. I am questioning if this is so. Nevertheless I must start out clearing out that my son is 7 and will be 8 this coming June (right now we are in November) ,and my son has quite a bit of problems for 2 reasons: 1. As a reviewer said in IGN: "This game is wordy. Really wordy", and so it is. 2. Wordiness might not have been a problem if the vocabulary, I think, might be too advanced for the child. I mean, I am even skeptical about the game EVEN if the parent is willing to sit with their child and read to them since, as I said before, the vocab can be pretty advanced. I have tested by letting my child play step by step and he gets pretty lost reguarding the HUGE amount of reading. However, I still have yet to analyze how he gets through the game without reading. I guess that maybe in these areas the parent can actually direct the child as whot to speak to in the game to get a clue as to what to do next. However, I am unsure how inaccurate my opinion can be. I think it would be VERY helpful if other parents that have this game with children between the ages 7 through 8 would give their opinion would be very helpful to other parents with children this age. Plus I would love to hear what other moms and dads think. Anyway, this is not to say that this game is in any way bad. It's really great, challenging, educational (because of the reading), and just plain fun. Nevertheless, parents that plan to get this game with children younger than 7 should really hold off this one and go for a more suitable one. I, however, will let my son play ALL by himself for the next few days and I will come back to let you guys know how its going. I also must admit that we just got this game so I find it necessary to come back later on. Maybe I will post it in a week's time. Cheers to all.