Kid Awesome Kindergarten English Premium - Master the First Year of Language Learning!

The frenetic pace, an exaggerated video game feel, and repetitive game play all distract from a carefully designed early literacy journey that includes 17 different early reading topics, each with multiple mastery levels. The premise is great: Assess where kids are in learning to read with a set of initial placement games. Then, take them on a comprehensive journey through the nitty gritty details of becoming literate and adapt as kids learn and grow. And, there's enough material to accompany kids through a long-term learning path. Unfortunately, the package that delivers this content is totally unrelated to the literacy theme and is complicated and difficult to navigate. In game play, tapping and swiping do very different things, and kids must move quickly, which makes the game potentially difficult for young kids to maneuver. There's a fast-paced soundtrack, lots of "power-ups," and an emphasis on collecting coins and buying/earning items for the avatar. Yet, the literacy games have little to no variation and end up feeling like an afterthought or a boring chore to get to the really exciting stuff. The learning material is great, but with such a poor delivery it doesn't seem worth the high price tag.