Seriously, you can’t have kids and not be familiar with Dora the Explorer and her very faithful companion Boots.  For those of you not in the know, Dora is a young Hispanic girl who goes on adventures with her best friend, Boots, who is a talking monkey who wears, well, red boots.  Dora and Boots have been a big part of the Nick Jr. television line-up for the past few years teaching young kids how to problem-solve and develop an appreciation for the Spanish language, which means that it is an ideal title for LeapFrog’s Leapster Learning Game System.

Outdoor Fun

Today my 4-year-old son, Caleb, and I are taking a look at Dora the Explorer Camping Adventure for the Leapster2, LeapFrog’s new Learning Game System, which we review here.  In Camping Adventure, Dora and Boots take kids on a hiking-exploring-rafting-singing adventure.  Game play consists of 4 different ‘games’, which helps children learn animal, color, number, shape, and fruit recognition in both English and Spanish.  The different games are:

Raft to the Rescue, in which all of Dora and Boots’ supplies have fallen into the river and it is up to the child to help Dora and Boots collect their lost items.  As crates float towards Dora and Boots in their raft, the game tells the child which crate she should be looking for.  Once spotted, the child helps Dora and Boots steer the raft towards the crate to pick it up.  The Leapster2 then congratulates the child and then gives the Spanish word for the item found, repeating it a couple of times so that the child can say it as well. This is important because later on the Leapster2 tells the child to search for the item based on the Spanish word for it alone.  Once the child has collected 4 of the same items, it is added to her Camping Journal.  In this game, the child is required to recognize numbers, colors and shapes.

A Yummy Hike has Dora and Boots hiking to the swimming hole.  Along the way, they decided to collect some yummy fruit.  Game play involves Dora moving from left to right across the screen collecting fruit as suggested by the Leapster2.  The game is very much like the old Atari 2600 game Pitfall, it even has logs to jump and mud pits to swing across. Once again the game teaches the child the Spanish word for the fruit found and after 4 of the same fruit are collected, it is added to the Camping Journal.

Animal Search has Dora and Boots looking for animals with a pair of binoculars.  The child moves the binoculars around searching for the animal suggested by the Leapster2. Again, the child learns the Spanish name for the animal and once 4 of the same animals are spotted, they are moved to the Camping Journal.

Campsite Sing-a-long has Dora and Boots singing camp songs with the child in both English, featuring Boots, and Spanish, featuring Dora.  The words of the songs appear at the bottom of the screen, encouraging the child to read as they sing along. Finally, the Fiesta Trio concludes each song with fanfare.

The Camping Adventure, like most Leapster games, is designed to advance in difficulty as the child advances in game play, so that the child is always being challenged.  The game also takes advantage of the Leapster2’s ability to connect with a PC or Mac through a USB connection to allow the child to collect Rewards for game advancements. In fact, children can print out its own version of the Camping Journal.  This game also uses LeapFrog’s Learning Path Program to keep the parents abreast of the child’s development through game play. Finally, you can play this game on any of the other Leapster Learning Game Systems, however you will need a Leapster2 to take full advantage of the extended features.

Dora the Explorer is known for reinforcing ideas and lessons learned by repeating them over, and over, and over again along with interacting with the child by talking directly to them and pausing to wait for the child’s response.  LeapFrog has seen fit to include these traits of Dora in this game. 

Overall Impression

Caleb is a big, big fan of Dora and Boots, along with her cousin Diego, so getting him to play this game wasn’t all that difficult.  Dora’s Camping Adventure is suggested for children ages 4 to 7, however I’m going to say 4 to 5 years old may be the right mind-set.  Simple play and repetitive aspects of the game may cause older children to get bored rather quickly, whereas young kids live to ‘peat and repeat.’  Therefore, Caleb has decided to give this game 10 out of 10 stars. As for me, I’m giving it 6 Dancing Elephants out of 8 for the 4 to 5 year old set, any child beyond that and you’re taking matters into your own hands. 

Parting Thoughts

I took two years of Spanish in high school and remember muy poco (very little).  Meanwhile Nik and Caleb watch a kids cartoon and que hablan Español (they speak Spanish) circles around me.