Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy are trapped inside a spooky house! The only way out is locked with six different locks, and it's up to the Disney gang to find the six keys and unlock the door, with a little help from you, that is.
Search for the Secret Keys is an edutainment game targeted toward kids ages five-eight. There are a total of six learning activities scattered around the house that can be played in any order. Once an activity has been completed, it can be returned to for more play. The activities include Leaky Pipes, a water/pipe placement game where kids need to place differently shaped pipes to guide the water flow; Scattered Volumes, an alphabetizing game where books are sorted; Armor Disaster, a number matching activity; Haunted Gears, a rhyming and opposite word game; Haunted Pictures, a letter and word recognition game; and Piping Up, a keyboard exercise. Each activity except for Piping Up (the keyboard/piano game) begins at the easiest level, then advances to two more levels before a key can be earned. For instance, in Haunted Pictures, first beginning letters of words are used, then letters placed in the middle or end of words, then on to whole word recognition. In Armor Disaster, at first it's just simple numbers and number of dots/slashes to count. Then, it's on to addition equations in the second level, and lastly subtraction equations are thrown into the mix. Piping Up doesn't have levels, instead it unlocks a Jam Mode where kids can play their own music instead of playing the required notes on a musical sheet with notes.
While players are exploring the house, Mickey and the gang are busy tiptoeing around from room to room, talking amongst themselves in an amusing fashion. Each character behaves typically, as in when Donald Duck starts quacking furiously when he's frustrated at something. There are also three ghosts who just happen to reside in this house, but don't worry - they're here to help, not hurt! At each activity, a friendly ghost will explain the rules, and help with a short demonstration if a player makes several wrong choices. There are also lots of silly clickables for players to enjoy! The animation is superbly done, with bright, vivid colors and smooth movement, no jerkiness.
The interface is easy to maneuver, with movement accomplished by clicking on the cursor, which is shaped like a pointing hand, to move around the house. There is automatic leveling in each activity that adjusts to the player's success rate on answering questions; this difficulty level can also be adjusted manually by clicking on the arrow key in the top left corner of the activity's screen.
When I first reviewed this game, I somehow missed the manual leveling function, and was perplexed by the supposed lack of manual leveling. I felt the game was too hard for five year olds because of this. Since then, I've played it again and the leveling works great! Not only can the level be chosen, but it will adjust to a lower level if the child answers several questions wrongly. This makes it accessible to the younger kids, as well.
Our favorite activities were the Armor Disaster and Leaky Pipes, both of which were thoughtfully designed and used critical thinking skills. Our least favorite was the Haunted Pictures, which in the harder levels doesn't feature a "read along" option for the words and sentences, which it could have used.
Children will enjoy helping Mickey and his friends search for the keys, and once the adventure is over, they can play again! The three difficulty levels ensure that kids of varying abilities can be successful, and the gentle humor will keep them coming back. More activities would have been nice, but the six that are present are for the most part well-designed. A good choice for parents of kindergarten through second grade children.
Gameplay: 8
Several good activities that are fun and challenging.
Graphics: 9.5
Incredible animation that captures the essence of Disney.
Sound: 7
The sound is average, not striking, but not bothersome, either.
Difficulty: Medium
There is a big difference between difficulty levels, but they can be adjusted manually and will also adjust down automatically if the child answers several questions wrongly.
Concept: 7
There are lots of learning/critical thinking games out there, but there's always room for more!
Overall: 8.2
This is an enjoyable game with wonderful animation, humor and fun activities! A fun mix of learning and critical thinking activities that are well thought out, although the Haunted Pictures activity should have the option to have all the words sounded out in each level, not just the easiest.
