I’m still going full speed with the educational games, which is good because I feel that one should never stop learning. I wanted to see what that mischevious monkey Curious George had to teach, and how he would go about it. Somehow, I always feel a little bit of relief when I’m able to solve these kindergarten puzzles, even if I make a few mistakes along the way (as I did today).

The game, as you might be able to guess by now since it’s a common pattern in educational games, is comprised of a series of activities and minigames. The action takes place in a circus and the player chooses from among the activities in the big tent. At least one of the activities takes place outside the big tent and pertains to custodial duty and business discipline. It’s also likely to be the most familiar to gamers since it somewhat resembles a traditional Pac-Man game. It’s called Peanut Pickup:

The setup for this minigame is that the peanut vendors are being sloppy with their merchandise. George and his elephant patrol the grounds and pick up the loose nuts. Further, there is a letter on the big tent. Each vendor is carrying a picture as they walk the circus. Capture the vendor that is carrying a picture whose word starts with the same letter as on the big tent. In the above example, that would be the one toting the box picture. This minigame is actually a marginal departure from the usual Pac-Man paradigm in that, of the moving objects that are also on the board (the metaphorical ghosts), two are the hunters and one is the hunted. At least, you’re dinged for catching up to a vendor whose picture does not match up right.

And so it goes with many of the other five activities. I learned from writing up the MobyGames description that these simple activities seem to take a lot of words to describe precisely. For example, another minigame called Animal Acrobats has 3 animals trot out carrying pictures. Then a banner with a picture slides overhead. You must click on the animal who is carrying the picture whose word rhymes with the word represented by the picture on the banner. Like nail and sail. Or, in another variation, you have to select the animal carrying the picture whose word begins with the same sound as the word whose pictures is represented on the overhead banner. If you get it right, the animal (bear, giraffe, elephant, etc.) jumps on a trampoline and somersaults forward; otherwise, they do a backflip. When you have completed several of these, you get to watch a sequence of the animals perfoming for the big crowd.

When it’s time to exit the game, you are awarded a certificate itemizing your academic performance:

I didn’t print this out, though I had the option. Perhaps I can do better if I tried a little harder.