MTE reviews: Sesame Street Games for the Wii

***Congratulations to LaurenNiff for winning the Sesame Street Wii games!***

We've had a Wii in our household for a couple of years now, but it's been mostly used by JAM, the ten year old, who enjoys a variety of sports games in addition to commanding Lego figures from the Star Wars saga around the screen.  Hubby has a few games that he likes, and I've been known to bowl a mean game here and there.  Our two younger kids, Red (4) and Pudge (3), had yet to be introduced to the Wii beyond a spectator status.  That all changed when two "kid Wii" games, as they have come to lovingly call them, arrived in the mail, and now everyone has a little something they can enjoy on the Wii thanks to Sesame Street's Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure and Cookie's Counting Carnival.

Let me start with Cookie's Counting Carnival, since this one seems better geared for the youngest of the kids.  Both games that we received are aimed at preschool aged children, but the mathematical concepts in this game seem to be skills that are gained before the literacy skills addressed in the second game.  So, Pudge has claimed this one as his own, and from the first time we popped it in, he has been thrilled.  As a preschool teacher, I can clearly see which skills the game is presenting: identification of numerals, counting with a 1:1 correspondence, identification of shapes, developing a sense of patterning, and color recognition. 

The partner game we received is Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure, and this one was immediately snagged by Red, who is just so into the alphabet right now.  Through a variety of activities, Elmo and his pals work with kids on the concepts of letter identification, phonemic awareness, and word families.  At even the beginning level games, a player needs to have at least some letter recognition skills to be able to play, so this one has been more successful with my four year old than my three year old.  Although I must say that it's been nice to watch them playing together, one child leading the other.  (Any opportunity for "helping" vs. "bossing" would be welcome in this house!)

Over the last few weeks, the kids and I have played the two Sesame Street Games.  Well, at first, I had to do most of the directing, but now they're both able to navigate through most of the activities on their own.  I'm admittedly not a gamer, not even a very seasoned Wii-game player, so my opinions and review are based solely on our first-timer experiences.  Here's what I've thought:

COOL BITS:

• Kids only need to be able to tilt and shake the wii remote and press one button to navigate the games.
• Body movements like shaking and jumping are incorporated to encourage physical activity.
• Directions are spoken rather than through text on the screen for the players who will most likely be pre-readers.
• Directions are repeated throughout each game, which is good for when your little brother starts chattering away excitedly and drowns out what Elmo is saying.
• If needed, parents can play along using a second Wii remote, giving assistance when called for.
• Kids create their own accounts (connecting their name with one graphic- four different colored shapes to choose from), and a record is kept of the games played for each account.
• Although I haven't checked it out, there is a Parent's Area where parents can review what their kids have played and the connected curriculum for the games. 

AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT:

• The games come with these adorable Wii remote covers that transform the remotes into Elmo and Cookie Monster, which my kids wanted to put on immediately.  The problem that we found, though, was that the covers impeded on the signal sent to the receiver, and their actions weren't picked up.  Once we removed the covers, the remotes worked just fine. 
• The game instructs players to hold the Wii remote horizontally with one hand on each end, but again, this position also blocked the signal to the receiver.  I had the kids hold it with one or two hands cupped under the remote, and again the game went on as it should.
• Some of the activities go at a faster pace than works for my kids.  For example, when groups of objects float by and the player has to "scoop" out a group with a designated number, the time given to observe and count the objects is too short (especially for higher numbers), and the opportunity to "scoop" up the group is gone by the time the kids know which one is correct.

Overall, I'm happy with our new "kid Wii" games, which allow my preschool-aged kids to feel like they have something special just like their older brother.  I'm still pretty strict about time limits on their usage, but I'm happy to know that this type of screen time is providing some fun as well as more practice with the important math and literacy skills that they're already developing.

Red navigating a jungle full of letters.

Pudge putting characters on a shape ferris wheel. 

Two very happy Wii campers!

GIVEAWAY ALERT:
Holy cow, a giveaway!  I'm happy to say that I have a copy of both Sesame Street games for the Wii system- Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure and Cookie's Counting Carnival!  If you've got a Wii and a preschool child or two, you've just gotta enter!  To enter, please leave a comment here, U.S. addresses only.

Using random.org, I'll draw a winner one week from now- on the evening of 1/25- and I'll email the lucky person who gets to share the Wii fun with their little ones.

(This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to both folks who entered!)

Thanks to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for providing the two Wii games for review.

Happily sharing the Wii and Sesame Street love,