Tales to Enjoy! Little Red Riding Hood is a collection of activities and games designed to be accessible to young children, ages 3-6 year old. With eight modes in all – which consist of puzzles, games of memory, a digital colouring book, and of course a re-telling of the classic fairy tale – there’s quite a healthy amount of content packed into this budget purchase. It’s just too bad niggling performance issues and questionable design choices complicate the experience.
Upon booting the game, you’re thrown into a menu with no text to denote what activity each icon represents. If you wait patiently the names will slowly be announced one by one, but it’s confusing as to why text wouldn’t be provided in addition to the spoken word. Even if a child is too young to read, the combination of hearing the words out-loud and associating them with the text on screen is an important part of learning. Minor oversights such as this accumulate and challenge the content's worth.
For the storybook mode, text is presented on the top screen with still-frame images on the bottom, accompanied by a voice-over that reads the story out loud to the user. This is performed by a female reader who gives a serviceable, if passé, performance. What is a bit puzzling, though, is that not every word presented in text is read, again making it confusing for any children trying to learn which words are which. Top that off with awkward load times between pages, artwork that’s a bit rough, and limited animations that offer little more than twitching characters and objects, and it’s questionable as to whether or not this would be more exciting than a traditional storybook.
Lack of direction can cause a barrier when jumping into the other activities, too. For example, when entering Find the Intruder, the only instruction is a single voice-command that announces the name of the game; there is no text, nor is there a further vocal explanation. The goal is to select the picture of a character on the bottom screen that isn’t present in the image above. Sure, it’s all very simple stuff, but a young child who’s completely unfamiliar with software of this nature may find themselves confused and just tapping away aimlessly without a thorough walkthrough from their parents.
Some other modes work decently – we found the colouring book and Find The Pair to be pretty inviting – but it’s never better than average even when it’s at its best.
Conclusion
We hate to complain too much about a game with such an affordable price, which has the intention of wholesomely entertaining and educating young children, but there are so many other far better options on the market at comparable prices. Tales to Enjoy! Little Red Riding Hood is innocent software, and it’s not exactly broken, but it ultimately isn't of a high enough quality to merit a purchase.
Comments 16
I was given a free code for this game. I really wish I hadn't. D: D: D:
No waaaay I'm adding this to my Backloggery.
Same as bezerker.
I thought it would be a 1 for sure, it's pretty glitchy and slow.
I'm with the two of you!
Man this game is bad!
The banner picture looks really unfitting for this game.
The eshop banner and software icon have nothing to do with the game either, so I guess it's ok.
My goodness from that eShop video the amount of content and price (for a young child's game) was great! If only the rest held up.... This must mean that the rest of the "Tales of" must have the same build as this one....
As someone who has a 3 year old child looking for games to play, the quality this review (and to be clear I am talking about the review, not the score) was very disappointing.
The negatives described weren't very specific and didn't sound relevant to a three year old (ie: the target market). The positives were equally nebulous: for example, it's nice to know there is a good amount of content provided, but without some clarification about what content is included that comment doesn't help me understand what the game consists of.
Even the closing the statement: that there are "so many better options available" wasn't helpful. That doesn't point me in the right direction to find other DSiWare games that my children will enjoy. We've downloaded Did It Myself ABC123 (https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/2010/08/did_it_myself_abc123_dsiware) and that's a hit... but my other attempts to find DSiWare software appropriate for young children haven't been very successful.
I know it's a $2 piece of software. I know that the reviewer clearly doesn't belong to the target demographic. But I still had hoped to come away with a better understanding of whether this would be a good choice for my child. As it stands now, I didn't. Maybe the game is worth buying, maybe not.
Anyone who was given a code and doesn't want to use it, let me know. With two young kids in the house (ages 1 and 3) who both are eager to play games on their own, we'd be happy to give this series of games a shot despite the 4/10 assessment.
@ejamer If you have an email address you don't mind sharing, I'd be happy to send you a code for this, and the Puss in Boots title.
@TG1 if you dont mind me asking how did you get the codes are they review codes or something
@1337man1233 Yes
@ejamer
One might recommend Cut The Rope. Or perhaps even Abyss. Neither games are violent and have very good learning curves.
Heres my basic understanding of what this game offers:
There once was a developed tale.
And the developers all drank ale.
The game sucked.
And the reviewers had bad luck.
Not even enough.
was @DRL's pluck.
@TG1
Sure, my email account is [email protected]. Thanks!
If getting the codes for you, and since the codes were provided for review purposes, can we offer you a review or at least some kind of feedback from the perspective of a parent with young children who will be playing the game? There would be a slight delay (my kids are currently visiting family in a different country) but I would be happy to provide feedback this way if it's helpful.
Also, I want to apologize from coming across so negatively about the review content. It's just really tough to find reviews for software that targets the early childhood market - their level of experience and attention span is so different from kids who are even 5 years old that a "normal" review often isn't useful.
@WingedFish
Was just thinking that :/
@ejamer
I know this wasn't directed at me and I don't mean to butt in, but since I reviewed them I can point you toward the Lola games on DSiWare. I thought Lola's Alphabet Train was the best one, but take a look at them (and the reviews of them here) and you can decide for yourself what you think your children would best enjoy. I felt that they were very well made, and they can even double, eventually, as tools to help learn a second language.
@WinterWarm
Not bad suggestions, but still clearly above her skill level for now. That will (probably) change quickly over the next year.
We've had big success with the Learning with the Pooyoos games on WiiWare, and she really enjoys Nintendogs as well (although often needs help with the interface). Drawing, coloring, or simple musical tools are also popular activities - part of the reason that the Did It Myself game mentioned earlier was such a hit.
@Philip_J_Reed
Not butting in at all, and I appreciate the recommendations. The Lola games are something that look very appealing actually. I'm a bit concerned that it's still above her level (we're just starting to work on letters; she's a bit further ahead with numbers) but it still might be a good download for her DSi even if she doesn't get full value from it right now.
@ejamer My apologies for the delayed reply, I wasn't notified.
That's pretty much all I had for suggestions LoL, sorry they weren't a bit more accurate. Good luck in your search!
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