Didi and Ditto is an educational game for preschool and kindergarten children designed to help reinforce the skills they are learning in school. Created by the same company that makes the Mia series of games, Kutowa Kids, the game comes from people who understand what children of this age group are learning and how to capture their interest. I've played the game with my 4-year old son and my daughter, who has just completed first grade, to see how level appropriate it is. Overall the educational aspects of the game seem to be right on target, but the user-interface is a bit too difficult for this to be a game that my son can play by himself.
A new game starts with a rather long mini-cartoon that introduces the story which you will be playing through. I say that it is rather long because my son walked away twice while it was playing due to lack of interest. The second time we started a new game, we skipped over this part, but doing so means that you miss out on why Didi is going around trying to collect 6 fruits and 6 vegetables. And that's the point of doing each of the mini games. There are 14 mini-games in all, with two of them being "just for fun" type games that don't earn a reward when you're done. You can set the game to one of three difficulty levels. Because my son is just a pre-schooler, we played all the games on level one. You also choose whether you want to play as Didi or Ditto, though gameplay itself didn't seem to be any different based on this choice.
The games focus on basic math and reading skills taught in the early school years. The counting game asks you to count up to 10, for example. Sequencing focuses on comparing three items for which is tallest, which has the most, or which is the smallest. There are also areas that require pattern recognition, sound sequencing, simple addition and counting, shape recognition and matching, and a simple memory game. Reading related skills focus on rhyming words, basic letter recognition, and being able to pick out the beginning sound of a word and matching it to the correct letter. The game is very forgiving of mistakes, as it should be. A child doesn't have to worry about running out of chances to pass a particular game, and the prompt when an error is made is very gentle in indicating that they need to try again. This part of the game wasn't frustrating at all for my son, though we hadn't worked on most of the reading skills themselves before trying the game. A kindergartener who was learning to read and knew their letters, and the basic sounds they make, would do much better while playing the game.
The interface for the game also seems suited to an older child rather than a younger one. There were times while we were playing the game that even I was frustrated with trying to figure out what to do next. When you've entered one map area and finished all the games in it, it isn't obvious how to easily make your way back to the large map and go somewhere else. And even on one of the areas there are so many "click spots" that lead to short cut scenes rather than taking you into a game itself that my son became frustrated trying to find something to do. It isn't at all obvious where you have to click in order to actually get into a game, to the point where even with everyone in the family looking we have been unable to find one of the areas. There are also too many times where you have to click and hold down the mouse while moving. This isn't something that my daughter mastered until she was in first grade, though she'd played on a computer often.
The game would be much easier for a kindergartener if you automatically held an item once you click on it until you click again, as most games for this age group seem to be. And the arcade game that they have to play in order to earn a piece of fruit is very difficult to get passed even for an adult. You have to time your jump or duck just right in order to pass the obstacles. I also wish that the reading related parts of the game would accept keyboard input as well as mouse input, or that this could be an option for a parent to turn on. In the spelling game the letters are in a script-type font similar to Times New Roman, and so not all of the letters themselves are immediately recognizable or formed the same as what a kindergartener in the United States would be learning. Minor things like this start to add up as you are comparing Didi and Ditto to other similar games available. As a parent I realize that I expect a lot from a preschool/kindergarten software title, but I also want the time that my son spends on the computer to be fun and rewarding.
I'm impressed with how on target the games themselves are education wise. I've seen many games that expect children of this age to have some basic reading ability or who require a thinking skills that are too complex for young children. Didi and Ditto does none of that. The games are just the right length to keep my son interested and playing, and with a little help from me in those areas that he hasn't learned yet - such as beginning phonics - he enjoys playing the game as well. I tried out some of the higher difficulty levels on my own just to see how they compared, and they do increase the challenge level at a good rate to stay on target with what most kindergarteners would learn during their first year in school. And a child can learn the parts of the interface that gave us some problems here, of that I'm sure. The cute characters and comical bits that children can bring up from the various click spots in the world do make the game fun for kids to play. Didi and Ditto game that would be best used to reinforce concepts, but not one that could teach. If you're a parent like me who always seems to be looking for a good solid safe game that my children can play when they are first becoming independent on the computer, then Didi and Ditto should be on your "must have" list. With a little help from you, your son or daughter will soon be having fun and learning all at the same time.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
