Junkyard Adventures in Space

The Good
This is a neat, fun product for kids. Setting aside the dubious idea that playing in a scrapyard is fun the whole product is fun, colourful and has wit, humour and that bit of sparkle that sets it aside from many other worthy titles. I liked it a lot.

The screens are all colourful with clear icons for navigation, they also have odd hot spots that deliver an animation of a comment, nowhere near as many as in the Sesame Street games but it just takes a few here and there to make the screens interesting.

Gameplay was flawless, everything was well explained and there is a good range of activities

The voices are well done, yes this is a kids game so it uses 'kiddy' voices but they're not the usual 'Gee Whiz' American kid who's hyper enthusiastic about everything - they are undoubtedly upbeat but not over the top. The little songs were a surprise, they only seem to play the first time a player enters as location though there is a record player in the shed that will repeat at least one song. Sound effects are good and appropriate and there's music in places. Now the sound FX and music do not stand out as being a great works of art and they won't win (m)any awards but then that's not why they are there, they are there to create an atmosphere of fun and to support the game rather than compete for the child's attention and in that respect it does its job very well. Where the music does take centre stage, i.e. the little songs, they are cheerful, easy to sing along with and entertaining.

Overall a well thought out and carefully crafted product.

The Bad
I bought this game under it's UK title "Learn All About Space" and initially I didn't like it at all, sure it's a good edutainment title that will entertain young kids and slip in a bit of teaching on reading and science while doing so, but it's NOT doing what the UK title suggests - teaching "All About Space".
If I'd bought this for my kids, who did show an interest in astronomy when they were young, we'd all have been disappointed, even then they knew that you don't go skating in Saturn's rings, Venusians are not green and they don't fly, and most important of all if your space ship breaks up you don't just land with a bump.

The Bottom Line
Under it's original Australian title "Junkyard Adventures In Space" this is a fun activity for young kids that will sneak a bit of teaching in there along with the games.
Under its UK title "Learn All About Space" it promises more in the way of serious content than it delivers

When scoring this game for a moby rating I have marked this as the fun Australian game.