Customer Reviews

Scholastic I Spy Spooky Mansion Deluxe v2.0 w/I SPY Book & Bonus Mini CD-Rom [Old Version]

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Okay, so I'm not a kid, I'm 47, but I love puzzle games and could not resist trying this game. A skeleton is your "guide" through the game and points you in the right direction. You must find the named items in each room of the mansion. When you complete the puzzles in each room you have to solve a final puzzle and go back to a particular room to find the answer to a riddle. There are three games on the cd and lots of fun for the player.

The I Spy Spooky Mansion was our first experience with the I SPY computer games. My family and I LOVED it. My daughter is 8 and my son is 4 and we found ourselves playing the game for several hours straight. The game can be just a plain seek and find for my 4 yr old, but can bring out the logical thinking for my 8 yr old. I highly recommend this game, and I am eager to try all the I SPY games!

When I ran a before and after school daycare in my home not long ago, I Spy Spooky Mansion Deluxe was one of the children's absolute favorite game choices. I owned quite a collection of games, from Barbie to Zoo Tycoon, but the mystery and puzzles of I Spy held their attention the most. The children ranged in age from 6 to 11, and I Spy was largely a favorite of the 6-9 year olds.

My five year old got this for Christmas and it immediately proved its value when we were snowed in for most of the week. The game held his interest for hours and allowed us to play together in a way that was fun for both of us.

The basic premise is the standard I-SPY, in that you look at pictures and try to find specific items. The fun is that each puzzle is part of a greater adventure inside a beautifully rendered Haunted Mansion. The player searches a dozen areas in 5 different rooms. The goal is to find all the clues that then lead to another puzzle that allows you to escape the Haunted House.

Each round is interesting and there are a number of verbal and visual puns that require some thought and occasional adult assistance. The drawings are well done and just spooky enough to keep it interesting. My son found the attic search to be scary enough that he wanted me to help him, so be aware of some minor scare factor.

Even more interesting is that there are three different mysteries that get progressively more challenging, so the game can be played for some time. In total play time it took my son ( with some adult help, especially from Grandma) about 20-25 hours to play all three and then he wanted to start again. The game is somewhat complex and I would think that 5 is the low end of the age range for the game.

Overall this is a very interesting and involving game and will give your kids hours of fun.

My son is 4 years old and loves Spooky Mansion and Treasure Hunt. While they are challenging he's not frustrated and it's really a great way to introduce new words and things he's never seen before. Great memory game and helps him learn to follow directions. I highly recommend it even though it says 6-10 years old.

I bought this for my 6 year old grandson. He played with it for 2 hours straight. He completed the game and has played it again and again.

Now we are buying the rest of the I Spy games!

I got this for my 7 yr old boy and he really loves it. The only complaint I have is that he made it through the whole game pretty quickly and now has now way else to play it differently. But good game over all.

We bought this son for our five year-old, who was able to quickly grasp the concept. The riddles are great and the puzzles are great (I give that aspect 5 stars). The graphics are not great, but that's okay, the point is the games.

HOWEVER, this game is not fully compatible with Windows XP (I give what follows 1 star). The original programming for this game must have been for Windows 95 (if anyone even remembers that platform). It's nice to have reverse compatibility, however, nobody uses Windows 95 or Windows 98 (if they do, well, that's they're problem). Windows XP had enough changes that the software should have been rewritten for full compatibility. For example: 1) The program does not come up completely in full screen mode, which leaves the Windows launch bar up, thus blocking the view of some of the puzzle instructions. 2) You cannot run this program without the CD; that's just cruel. Anyone who has kids knows that life is much easier if you can either completely install the program, or copy the entire disc to your hard drive and launch setup from there; this program has some type of copyright feature making the CD absolutely mandatory. 3) This program somehow utilizes the Windows registry, and apparently writes to it often. This wouldn't be a problem for me, however, again, I have children, and only an idiot would give little kids full administrator account privileges (viruses, accidental deletion, etc). This program cannot be ACCESSED by any account with less than admin privileges. I can understand the need to have admin rights to INSTALL...but to play the game? That's just dumb. Now I either have to log my 5 year-old in as an ADMIN, or give his account ADMIN privileges just to play his game.

Again, this is a fun game, but the programming for compatibility sucks. Scholastic would be smart to rewrite this for the Windows XP/Vista platforms; it would allow for better graphics, speed, and ease of us.

Both of my kids love to play with I Spy games. Spooky Mansion is probably the most fun and creative one. It is also the longest one. I highly recommend them. I hope Scholastic comes out with more I Spy games!

My daughter has been playing all of the I Spy games since she was about 5 and she thinks they're terrific. She is now 7 and still enjoys them. We parents find them plenty clever and interesting, too. As a bonus, they work seamlessly on our Mac.