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SwitchZoo
Common Sense says
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The parents' guide to what's in this website.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that because this site is in the kids.us domain, there are no outbound links. While there is not any real advertising, the expanded CD version of SwitchZoo is advertised for sale. However, kids will have so much fun with the free online version they may never notice.
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What's it about?
The setting for this game is a very unusual zoo with nine different animal scenes, including a cheetah, a bear, a monkey, and six more. Click on the animal scene you want to visit: the elephant, for example. You'll see the base animal you've chosen, plus nine animal buttons on the bottom of the screen. Click "Head" and choose an animal button and you'll see the elephant's head transform into the animal you've selected. The realistic illustration smoothes out the transition between the new animal head and the elephant body so that it does look like a brand-new species. Don't miss the "Quick Switch" animals on the left. This lets you add in certain wildcard animals that are different at every location.
Is it any good?
At first you might think this is a simple "head of a bear, legs of a giraffe, tail of a crocodile" mix 'n' match game. It is, but there is more depth to it than that, as you'll see. Once you've gotten pretty good at the basics, you can step up the complexity by applying to be a zookeeper. You'll need to find 34 "hidden" animals around the site.
The site uses Flash, and there is an extensive "Help" section if you have problems displaying the animals. You can also title and print your pictures.
Talk to your kids about ...
Families can talk about animals and their habitats, make up funny names for the combined fantasy animals, and write captions for the pictures.
Do you have (or want) a pet? What kind of habitat would be best for your pet? Why don't wild animals make good pets?
Website details
- Subjects: Science: animals, biology, ecosystems
Language & Reading: vocabulary, writing - Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: applying information, collecting data
Creativity: making new creations, producing new content - Genre: Gaming
- Pricing structure: Free
For kids who love learning and exploring
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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.