Ziggi's First ABCs

Ziggi the dolphin invites the player to explore the ABCs through games, music, puzzle activities, and creative play in this cartoon-style animated game. After choosing the English or French version, the player is taken to the main page, where he can select from:

• Activities - clicking on each of the seven characters on the screen takes the player to a different spelling activity, including connect-the-letters, spelling words by selecting syllables, and matching pictures and words by their first letters
• Song - listen to and read along with Ziggy as she sings an original song
• Nursery Rhymes - read two original nursery rhymes and click on interactive objects for animations
• Word games - play 5 alphabet-oriented mini games, including an arcade game where the player has to catch flying words with the mouse and put them in a box
• Your Stories - the player can create his own pictures to make a story, using a selection of backgrounds, objects, characters, and sounds that can be linked to the objects. All the items can be resized and rotated, and pictures can be saved and printed, as can most pages in this game

All the actions in Ziggi's First ABCs are accomplished with the mouse, clicking and dragging, aside from one activity that requires the player to hit the spacebar. Help is easily available, either from a life-preserver icon on the bottom of the screen, or audibly, by clicking on a character's speech bubble. The game is labeled for ages 4 - 6 (although many of the words are far beyond the kindergarten curriculum), and introduces the player to the concept of syllables, sounds and pronunciation of letters and words, connections between pictures and letters and between pictures and words.