Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Math, reading, and action in one colorful package.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 7+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
JumpStart: Escape from Adventure Island
What's It About?
In JUMPSTART: ESCAPE FROM ADVENTURE ISLAND, your dirigible-type airship crash lands on a whimsical, fantasy island, and you must play mini-games to earn sand dollars and buy enough helium tanks to get your zeppelin back up in the air. A few of the mini-games are mere dexterity challenges (rolling an egg into a nest, hopping onto platforms, and avoiding meanie creatures), but most are outwardly educational, based on math and reading curricula for five- to nine-year-olds. Players may need to ride a manta ray through gates marked with the right answers to math problems or roll in a giant hamster ball through banners marked with correctly-spelled words. Another mini game involves choosing clothes for a fashion show, where scores are based on how well the chosen outfit matches the requested criteria (such as \"striped cold-weather outfit\").
Is It Any Good?
The educational value of JumpStart: Escape from Adventure Island is clear from the first few moments of the game. And the lessons are incorporated very nicely into action-based game formats. Beyond all the learning, though, the game is also fun. It has a colorful look and playful design that should be appealing to kids across the entire five-to-nine age spectrum. And smartly, there's a lot here that is not purely educational -- including the ability to build up a wardrobe and continually swap costumes, and a customizable treehouse -- which goes a long way toward making sure the game doesn't feel like a school assignment.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about which of the mini-games kids like best. Do they prefer the game levels that are more traditionally video-game-like? Or do they enjoy the ones that present them with learning-based challenges?
Do kids like to change the look of their avatar often? How important to them is it to unlock all the possible costume options? Do they want to make the avatar look like them?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo Wii
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Knowledge Adventure
- Release date : November 24, 2009
- Genre : Educational
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : November 11, 2020
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Suggest an Update
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
See how we rate