Customer Reviews

Jumpstart Pet Rescue

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

My nearly 4 year old picked up the controller and began exploring the world of Pet Rescue the minute the game loaded. It's so intuitive that he hardly needed my help. In addition to the parent friendly educational games found throughout the magical world of Pet Rescue there are also fun things that kids will love. My son really enjoyed finding the waterslides and zip lines and is still talking about the pet he adopted at the adoption center. In the few times he's played we've barely scratched the surface of all the content in this game.

My three year old loves this game. Finally, get has a game of his own that he can work on the wii, and he's very excited about it.

Need more games rated eC for consoles... would make the living room more fun for those of us with toddlers. ;)

I'm a grandfather with a 3 year old grandson. I wanted a game that he could enjoy and get involved with. It was also important that he be able to do it by himself, so that he would get the satisfaction of accomplishment.
Unfortunately, at many times this game is frustrating. It is very hard for him to move the character around. Perhaps this would be easy if this were a PC game and he could use a mouse. Instead, the WII controllers are very sensitive and I have often seen him patiently trying to get the WII hand over an action icon and hold it there while trying to press the A button. In fact, I have to concentrate very hard myself to navigate this game. If you try to use the cross pad keys to move your character, it moves so quickly that it zooms past the target position and once again causes great frustration. We tried the nunchuck instead, but it is even harder to control. He gets stuck in places and can't move. He can jump, but can't jump OVER anything (the game doesn't allow it.) Sometimes the game locks up and the console has to be restarted. Sometimes objects in the game simply go white. If you move around it, the color of the object is back. Most of things in the game are too small to be clicked. If you approach a character to talk to it, the game leaves you positioned in front of the character where you can't see the character as he speaks. Children don't like this. They want to see the characters talk. So now, instead of feeling that I'd given him a nice gift, I feel that I am torturing him. He DOES like the game, but watching him struggle to use the over sensitive controls is nerve-wracking for me. It would be great if the control sensitivity could be turned down, but I don't see a way to do it. So my rating is that it's just OK.

My five-year-old granddaughter loves this game. It has two modes - explorer mode and story mode. In explorer mode, she can go to any world and play with any pet. In story mode, she has to complete tasks in order to find and play with the pets. In either mode, she can name, feed, and bathe the pets. Taking care of the pets is her favorite part. Both modes are easy for her to play. She needed a little help the first time, but now she can play it by herself with very little assistance. That is important to her - she likes being independent. There is a "movie theater" in one of the play areas. The movie theater has a few fun little sing-a-long movies that get the kids up and moving. There are a number of other fun activities that she enjoys, including painting billboards, going to the library, delivering mail, and changing her character's appearance. There's a lot of variety in the game, so it keeps her engaged. She would play this game all day if we let her.

I bought this game for my 4-year-old daughter thinking it would be a cute Wii game for her. She has the Jumpstart computer games and it is the first game I have seen with the Early Childhood rating on it. I agree with most of the other reviewers in that it has educational aspects and is fairly easy to navigate. She already has the Dora Snow Princess game (which she loves) and I was looking forward to more active and interactive gaming; however, this game plays exactly like a computer game. You use the wii remote like a mouse and basically just point and click on different things. In the Dora game you have to do different activities within the game, ex. tilt remote to walk, move in circular motion to raise flags, tilt back and forth to climb, etc. This is not the case in the Jumpstart game.
That being said, this game is definately not terrible, it just does not take advantage of all of the unique ways that the Wii can be used. It may be a good option for someone who does not have the Jumpstart computer games.

I got this for my 3.5 year old. She was so excited to play but the load times seemed to be very long. Considering every move you make causes a new load screen this can get old quick. While moving around the game I didn't find many "games" for my daughter. I have recently tried a nickelodeon wii game that was one game after another. Would not recommend this game for anyone. If you HAVE to try it out for you self make sure you get it in the bargain bin. It will be there soon!

I had had great success with the PC-based Jumpstart games, so we bought this for my two littler children who are loving their new Wii.
Unfortunately, as many other reviewers have related, this game is poorly programmed and executed. None of the intuitiveness of good Wii games is present in this one - controls are jumpy, erratic and difficult to execute, even for adults.
Also, lots of gaps in the action where the game is loading - more than there should be for this game which, quite frankly, isn't that complex or interesting.

Very disappointing overall.

I would like to start off by saying, no I don't usually review things. I just don't have the time. I felt so strongly about warning other people, that I was prompted to write this.

My 4 year old son was upset when 70% of the game time was spent "LOADING". No, he doesn't have ADD. Most 4 year olds would forget this game was loading and walk away. He had such a bad experience playing this, he hasn't asked to play it beyond the first time. I explored it myself so I could show him what was fun. It was a huge disappointment.
Just because letters are used in a game doesn't make it educational. Here is an example of Jump Start's idea of educational. For the letter A, you can use 4 things that start with the letter A in a virtual sticker book. Kids can mindlessly place 4 stickers that have nothing to do with anything. I have actually purchased computer games for my older daughter from Jump Start in the past. The games were good. This was not. If you waste your money on this, you will be upset with yourself and sad for your child. Also, I seriously question the legitimacy of the positive reviews. A better use of your money may be to purchase an actual sticker book.

If you are looking for a good Wii game for a toddler, my son and I do have fun when we play Wii Resort and Wii Fit together.

Got this for my 5 and 4 year olds, they are very good about playing games without adult assistance, but this one they can't leave me alone.

Pros:
1. kids like the way the game looks.

Cons:
1. kids can't actually play it themselves. the controls are not intuitive, and my kids have mastered several games geared towards adults. I have a hard time making any meaningful progress in this game, so understand child frustration.
2. game controls occasionally locks up, won't have full range of movement. this only happens occasionally, but it's the only game I have this occurs on.

I would pass on this for younger children.

Pros:
- My 5 year old does enjoy this game
- It is built on a decent concept (a virtual 3D space with various 2D games inside it)
- Does contain a good set of educational content

Cons:
- Mouse-style controls, rather than real wiimote control. This is basically no more than a poorly ported PC game.
- Frequent long pauses while content loads. And during loading, the screen turns mostly black with tiny random characters meaninglessly flashing in the center. Lack of prefetch to hide these delays, AND lack of anything interesting on the screen during loading, are common amongst many low budget wii games.
- Poor user interface design. Many of the on-screen buttons are simply too tiny for kids to push, due to the awkwardness of the wiimote as a pointing device. My 5 year old can do it (albeit awkwardly), but my 3 year old immediately got too frustrated and has never been able to play this game. Some of the on-screen buttons should have been wiimote button presses, to be less awkward.

In summary, I'd say this game is about on par with other wii games I've bought for $[...]. So having paid ~$[...] for it leaves me feeling disappointed.

My experience with this game is consistent with my other experiences owning several JumpStart PC games. JumpStart's quality varies widely, with only the minority of their games being truly decent. It is too hard to tell which of their games are good before buying, and it doesn't help that they continue to sell some games that are several years old and based on outdated technology. There are other educational game brands out there with much more consistent, dependable quality...