Scetlander
£9.99/£14.99

Oh dear. You're not going to like this. Hooray For Henrietta is an educational game. Oh dear. Sorry, but it features no aliens, no laser death cannon or anything like that. This is all about maths, sums, adding-up, taking away, y'know the stuff. If you're over 12 years old, it's okay, you're excused: but for 5-12 year olds - tough! You're going to learn a bit more about addition, subtracting, multiplication and division (the very words that strike terror into my heart).

But wait, what's this? It's not boring? No, not at all. What makes Hooray For Henrietta is the fun story behind the game and the consequences if you can't solve the sums. It's like the Sesame Street way of learning - give 'em something to laugh about and they'll forget it's homework (Fat chance - Ed)!

The story's this: Hopeless Henry is due to be married to Henrietta, but the mischievous bird John The Parrot is out to cause trouble. John has stolen Henry's coal, hat, trousers and boots and kidnapped Henry. To make matters worse, if you can't rescue Henry in time, John drops him into a vat of cold custard! Ugh.

Hooray For Henrietta comes with two standards of play - one for 5-8 year olds, and one for 9-12 year olds, both are essentially the same except for the level of difficulty in the questions. Both versions have eight different levels ranging from easy to hard. Each mathematical skill has its own mini-game. If you answer enough questions correctly within the time limit Henrietta gets to save Henry, if not John drops the custard. Get through all sections correctly and the marriage can go ahead. Doncha just lurve happy endings?

Succeeding on all levels, Hooray For Henrietta achieves a perfect balance of learning and having fun. With a little bit of adult help even the very young should have no difficulty handling the program: all the user does is type in the numeric answers and the program does the rest. The pack comes complete with a John The Parrot badge, a guide to the program for parents and basic instructions and story card. The graphics are basic, but are a welcome addition, brightening up a usually hated subject.

Label: Scetlander
Memory: 48K/128K
Price: £10.99
Reviewer: Ian Watson

Educational software tries to put the fun into learning for kids. Our kid, Ian Watson, improves his spelling, counting and shape and colour recognition and finds it's not all Child's Play.

The first in the closely linked series of three educational programs designed for the basic tutoring of the under fives and upwards. Hooray For Henrietta is a maths program that couples basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems with a storyline that involves a clueless fiancee, various items of clothing and a vat of custard. The four screens also feature a different activity (climbing, rowing, hurdling and demolition) and with 8 levels and separate questions for 5-8 yr olds and 9- 12 yr olds you can't really go wrong. A lot of thought seems to have gone into the staggering of the levels and the fabulous graphics and enjoyable sound all make for a fine program. Hooray for Henrtetta! Next up is Henrietta's Book Of Spells, in which Henrietta has to brave a wicked witch, find some magic letters, turn her hapless husband back into a human xxandxx tackle some word games. Blimey! There are five games in all (complete the word, unscramble the word, remember the word flashed on the screen, hangman and crack the code) and two skill levels (7-10 yr olds and 11-14). Other features include a variable word length, a range of libraries, and a high score table. My only grumble about this and HFH is that the keyboard seems to be fairly sluggish, something that's sure to upset an unconfident chid, and both programs' tendency to crash if left for even a short time - most annoying! Otherwise a fine effort. Lastly there's Mix And Match, a program for the under fives that helps to develop recognition, discrimination and memory skills with games such as Two Of A Kind, Odd Man Out and Forget Me Not, where using the space bar the child has to pick the relevant symbol. There are five different types of symbols to choose from (pictures, shapes, numbers, small case letter and large case letters) and despite the lack of any discernable storyline the program should prove to be more than enticing. The only down point is that the Spectrum version does not include progress recorder, switch facility, clock and calendar and results monitoring service. But it does come with a rather fine glossy badge, as do all the games. And if that doesn't entice you to buy the games nothing will. Kids eh?

Who'd have em!?!

ANDREA:
A great way to brush up on the old funny numbers, Hooray For Henrietta is both entertaining and educational. Who'd ever have thought maths would be enjoyable??.

Lander Software
Phone: (041) 357 1659
Tape: £12.99
Disk: £15.99

It's back to school time again and although most of you may not like the idea lets face it, things could be worse... You could be facing a firing squad or being horribly tortured with some matches and a pair of pliers, or, even more terrifying, forced to watch a Bob Monkhouse TV show with special guest stars Bruce Forsyth and Jeremy Beadle. See, going back to school isn't THAT bad.

Although Mr. Brown in 4C with the long nose, dandruff and bottle bottom spectacles might be a boring old fart there are in fact far more enjoyable ways of learning. One of which is right here on your Speccy - educational software. It's puzzling, informative and fun, and best of all, it gives you an excuse to play on your Speccy during time normally allotted for homework without incurring the wrath of your elders. (It also gives you a chance to slip in the odd arcade game for mental stimulation, though don't tell your mum I said this.) There are a wide variety of educational games available so here, to help you choose, is a selection of those currently readily available and a quick guide to their usefulness.

Hooray For Henrietta is the maths follow up to this month's Great 8 spelling game, Henrietta's Book Of Spells. The game is divided into two parts; 5 - 8 year olds and 8 - 12 year olds. It is designed to go from a basic grounding in adding, subtraction, multiplication and division to sums which are quite complicated. There are eight difficulty levels and overall this is a much more complicated and advanced game than Count and Add. Again graphics are relatively simple but the game is still lots of fun to play and you'll do a helluva lot better in class having learned in a more enjoyable way from Henrietta at home.