Learning is fun
If you feel there's a young one in the house who is in need of some geographical education then this neat little edutainment title is well worth digging out. It's an entertaining little romp which takes eager beavers on an epic journey across the U S of A, and teaches them all about the geography of this great land. The game is split into three main modes, plus the opportunity for some practice before you hit the road, and you can choose to brush up on the states and capitals or play a quiz style game. If you take the first two options, the gameplay is the same and sees players jumping into a car and then setting out on their journey by selecting the next state (or capital) along the route, and which follows the one proposed by the computer. You're playing against a time limit, so every mistake costs you time, while you also have to think about time zone changes and night stops. The quiz mode offers a wide range of topics, from nicknames, to cities, landmarks, lakes and presidents and tests your general knowledge of the chosen subject, with points awarded in traditional fashion for correct answers. This is quite a specialised bit of entertainment, but for the niche market to which it caters, it certainly does a great job. The main two modes are simple enough, but make learning about the US pretty entertaining, and it's certainly more fun than just memorising names from a book. The quiz mode too is a nice addition, and it's amazing how many fun facts you'll pick up by playing it so however you look at it, this is a worthy investment of your time and should be played alongside Spy's Adventure: Europe.
