Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys

by Disney

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000063727
• Item Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 1, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,769 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From Children's Software Revue® -- "Subscribe Now!"

Six playful skill-building activities are hidden in a richly illustrated, slapstick-style haunted house. In order to earn hidden keys and free the Mickey Mouse gang, kids sort twisted pipes, put books back in ABC order, arrange word gears to fix a clock, match tunes using musical notes on an organ, and sort out pictures by solving letter and word puzzles. Unique features include a ghost tutorial section that explains concepts and activities when a child is struggling. The main weakness? The characters talk too much, but their narrative can be bypassed by pressing the ESCAPE key. One tester played the entire time with his hand on the escape key to move the game along. Progress can be saved (using a sign-in) and children can select their own levels on the fly. All in all, this is an entertaining game with a nice range of activities.
Teaches:
Age Range: Copyright © 2001 Children's Software Revue

Product Description

When Mickey Mouse and a cast of beloved Disney characters find themselves locked in a mysterious mansion filled with fun and friendly ghosts, kids must put on their thinking caps and help find six secret keys that will help the gang escape from the haunted house. Help Mickey and his friends on their mission to find a way out of the old creepy house!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Game That Helps with the Basics, April 3, 2003

By 

DavisGrad (Triangle Area, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys (CD-ROM)

This is one of the few games we own that challenges my four-year-old without boring him. Some of the other software we've purchased is too complicated for him to navigate on his own or the lessons are too basic. When he gets stuck in this game, a cartoon character pops up and gives a brief lesson. The lessons are short and catchy enough that they are actually interesting. Of course, my son often ignores the directions and moves through the game by trial and error. It helps to have an adult sit with him, so that he gets some educational value out of playing. On the other hand, sometimes we just let him do the trial and error thing, and he still has a great time. I think this is a wonderful game for a four-year-old to grow into. It helps, of course, that my son is a big Mickey Mouse fan.

The software basically allows the child to go to different "rooms" and complete tasks (games) that teach basic skills. In one room, the game is to alphabetize books that are labeled with just one letter of the alphabet. In another game, the child assembles suits of armor. Each piece of the armor is labeled with a number, and the child has to put the numbered armor together in different ways. The games get progressively more difficult as the child masters each step. I'm especially impressed with the fun way this game introduces addition and subtraction.

I'm now looking for a new game, and I'm trying to find one that's a cross between this software and Jumpstart's World Languages (the other game my son always wants to play.)

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun....And Learning, Too!, August 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys (CD-ROM)

This is a really great game. In it, Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Donald have to navigate through a spooky old house while being watched by those "3 spooky ghosts" from one of the old Disney movies. There are five or six areas to navigate, and it also includes a progress chart area like the Jumpstart series. This is a lot more fun, tho. If you have ever been to the Haunted Mansion at DisneyWorld it makes it even better. My daughter who is almost 5 has been doing very well with it and instead of being bored with the "educational" components, she is having fun with it and being excited about learning. Def buy it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, October 28, 2007

By 

M. W. Jameson (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Disney Learning Adventure: Search for the Secret Keys (CD-ROM)

My 5 yr old nephew just started playing computer games last week, after he visited me and I showed him some play-on-the-net stuff. At his home they have dial-up, so play-on-the-net is too slow and jerky. Thus, Uncle Mike (me) had to find something he'd enjoy, something his Mum would approve of, and which would work on a Mac running 10.3.2 with Classic, and find it quick. I found 'Search For The Secret Keys', which runs under Classic, and it was a good choice.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto go into a haunted house and the door shuts behind them, with six locks clicking locked. The five friends split up to wander the house in hope of finding the six necessary keys. The 'haunted' side of things is typically Disney: not too scary, mostly just silly. I didn't like one picture depicting a monster under a bed, which cost half a point from my score. It was a bit too creepy compared to the rest of the game.

The game layout is pretty simple: a main hallway and six rooms, with a secret passage and a trapdoor. The paths between rooms aren't completely intuitive (or physically possible), but with only seven locations all up that's not too much of a worry. Each of the six rooms has a game which will give the reward of a key when completed to whatever level of competence is set, easiest being the default. When you get all six keys the characters meet up again at the front door and off they go.

There are three mostly friendly ghosts, who chat and joke, and one of whom will interrupt game play to give a quick lesson on how to play the particular game. The lessons are not lectures, they're clear and not too long (I didn't time them, but I'd guess 30 secs - 1 min). The games are each significantly different from the others, involving some pattern recognition, alphabet, beginner maths, playing music, beginner words, a little hypothesis and planning, and a little dexterity.

The game play is mostly simple enough for my 5 yr old nephew ("5 and a half!") at the easy level, but as it gets harder an adult or older child will be needed. One of the six games requires reading simple words from the beginning to do it properly, but trial and error would eventually get the player through. Another requires understanding the idea of alphabetical order and recognising letters, but even there they've put the alphabet, both small and caps, along the bottom of the screen.

When I bought it, I played the game through at all difficulties to make sure I was happy with it before giving it to my nephew, and it took me about an hour and a half. Today he played it (intermittently, with dinner-break) for about three hours and had gained three keys, with only occasional help. He most likes the 'plumbing one', where you have to place variously shaped pieces of pipe in order so that the basement doesn't get flooded.

The other loss of a half star was because my sister rang after I left this evening to say that the game had frozen with an error message. This was after four hours of hassle-free play. She managed to unfreeze and eject the disk, but I haven't yet heard if she's been able to get it going again. Bottom line - very good, with a little uncertainty.