Let’s face it... if you’re a parent of a 2 to 6 year old child, the best you can do is play second fiddle to a little blue dog named Blue and a geeky looking guy with a VERY limited wardrobe named Steve. The way that young children are attracted to Nickelodeon’s "Blue’s Clues" TV show, you’d think that there’s some sonic frequency that only your children can hear and that this frequency has characters such as Tickety Tock or Baby Paprika constantly chanting "Just one more clue... must find clue... one more clue...." The odd thing is that even if parents KNEW that Nick was transmitting subliminal messages into their children’s heads, THEY WOULDN’T CARE! This is because Nickelodeon and Blue’s Clues have been the most prolific enablers of parental free–time in the history of television. Parents figure, "This Steve guy looks harmless enough (except for those bizarre serial killer hair cuts he keeps getting), I’ll just plop my impressionable toddler in front of the TV while I phone my friends, make hair appointments, and drink vodka." For all we... err... I mean THEY know, Steve and Blue could be instructing little cutie pies nationwide on the finer points of manufacturing pipe bombs out of sidewalk chalk and water colors.
Nick knows that any franchise powerful enough to have parents totally ignoring their children for hours on end is money in the bank, and they have spread their evil empire to now encompass children’s computer software. The latest of these attempts at stealing our children from us is Humongous Entertainment’s "Blue’s Art Time Activities", a pseudo–adventure style game that’ll have your li’l bundle o’ joy staring at the CRT as if his or her eyes were permanently attached by super–strength, quantum–mechanical gravitons. And you as the parent will love it, because your child will be happy and you’ll be free to send out those Tupperware party invitations.
Kids will be immediately immersed in the game right from the get go, where Steve and Blue make an appearance and explain the premise behind the "game". It seems that there’s a "Big Art Show" coming up, and some of Blue’s friends need your help in order to finish their art projects in time. For instance, Blue’s bizarrely named friend Al Luminum needs help with his diorama (look it up yourself, I had to...) in order for it to be ready for the big art show. A couple of other cute friends need your help with their art projects as well: Marky Marker (sans Calvins) needs help drawing an invitation to the art show, Periwinkle the Cat needs help with her drawings, and the waifish Chalky Girl needs your assistance in scratching out her "chalkarrific" art show entries.
In addition to helping out Blue’s friends, your kids will also have the opportunity to create their own artistic works and store them in a virtual portfolio that the lovable Blue carries around with her ears. By allowing them to save their work in this manner, you assure yourself endless hours of printing out your little one’s masterpieces until your ink jet printer begins smoking like the Marlboro Man after an all–you–can–eat buffet.
One other activity contained within "Blue’s Art Time Activities" is a Chutes ’n’ Ladders style game where your child moves forward by mixing the three primary colors into secondary colors that corresponding with a square on the game board. Once your child wins this contest (which will coincide exactly with the moment they realize that red and blue make purple), they’ll receive a ribbon that will later be used to judge the finest piece of art in the art show!
One of the problems a lot of "art project" type software packages often have is a lack of focus — they’re simply nothing more than a modified version of Windows Paintbrush, and kids often don’t really learn anything from them.
Humongous has overcome this issue by trying to get children to follow a story (help friends with art projects) in order to arrive at a specific goal (the "Big Art Show"). This makes "
Blue’s Art Time Activities" a cut above most other competitors in that your child will actually learn shape manipulation and color coordination, rather than simply spending time aimlessly clicking and dragging a paintbrush across a blank screen.
Blue’s Clues Art Activities is not one of those children’s titles that force you to use up all of your printer ink producing paper airplane blueprints that require a Ph.D in Engineering to construct. No more spending all your hard earned cash on replacement ink cartridges because your little toddler wanted to print out an origami pattern that folds into The Hanging Gardens of Babylon and is more complex than the plot of a David Lynch movie. No, indeed — thankfully all the art in "Blue’s Art Time Activities" will be taking place on the actual computer, using virtual scissors, glue, string, etc., leaving your free time intact and side–stepping the need to run to the drug store buy library paste and pipe cleaners.
In the end, "Blue’s Art Time Activities" combines a highly desirable children’s franchise with focused and directed activities to create a title that is both educational and entertaining for your child... and it doesn’t hurt that it’ll allow you — the parent — some well–earned quiet time as well!
"Grand programs for our younger citizens may not only teach and instruct, but also leave parents with some o’ their own free time as well!"
