Carmen Sandiego Geography Reviewer's Comments

The notorious Carmen Sandiego has struck again! Carmen Sandiego Geography Learning System includes both Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego? and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and steals our “TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.”

In the games, kids enlist as “Acme Detective” agents and travel the world or the USA searching for clues to catch the elusive Carmen Sandiego. As they travel the planet, they acquire knowledge about local customs, ancient architecture and languages. In the USA version, kids learn about every state in the nation, from industry and resources to topography and landmarks.

This is the most entertaining yet informative product that we could find for children . In fact, the games are so much fun that kids will not even realize that they are also learning.

Carmen Sandiego Geography Screenshots. Click for more
       


Major Areas Covered:  

Between the two discs this product covers all major aspects of geography from physical geography to cultural, for the both the United States and the world.

Topics Covered:  

This product not only helps kids learn about location but it also includes historical and cultural information.

While playing the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego game, each place that kids travel to include areas to explore that relate interesting facts about local ancient civilizations, early explorers, architecture, local languages and customs.

The Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego disc contains information on every state including topography, area, famous sites and people, history, industry and includes music and video clips.

Teaching Tools:  

This system includes two discs and two interactive games where the child is a sleuth in pursuit of Carmen Sandiego and her band of thieves. Kids collect clues and travel to 30 countries on seven continents to try to find Carmen Sandiego.

Inside the game, there are varieties of special tools from the “Acme Detective Agency” that give kids access to information. Such as the “Worldwide Data Resource” that relates information for 50 countries and a translator that relates common phrases in 13 different languages. This tool also includes a comprehensive glossary that includes many geography related terms from abdicate through yurt.

The USA game has a “State–a–Base” that offers extensive state information in the form of maps, text and music and video clips.

The game also includes video and sound clips. The graphics of the game are similar to what you would see in a cartoon and are full screen.

Overall, the games are entertaining and kids enjoy playing them and using their newly acquired geography knowledge to capture Carmen Sandiego.

Ease of Use:  

Installing this product is quick and easy and navigating through the game is intuitive. The frustrating aspect of this game is that kids are required to listen repeatedly to clues or information and can’t skip over it. Which means that if kids click on an item and realize they have already heard or viewed that information they cannot stop the narration but have to listen to it all over again. The introduction of the game does the same thing, the cartoon introduction plays and you cannot stop it and it replays every time you start the game. This slows down the game and annoys kids with redundancy.

Summary:  

This is a fun and informative product for the targeted age group and includes a wide variety of geography facts as well as history and social study topics.

Since the Carmen Sandiego Geography Learning System includes updated versions of the two popular Carmen Sandiego games it is also an excellent bargain.